C.O.C.A. Times

Besides being a rare game from turn of the cen-
infant
industry.
As I was trolling tury England , this specific machine was unusual for
through Ebay-US ,
I ran across an
auction entitled:
"Antique English
'Business
Stim-
ulator'
Tavern
Game. "
Excuse
me? Looking at
Photo C
the picture, Photo
A , it was clearly a three distinctive items. First, it retained the way-cool
barrels coin-flip Egyptian cast iron sphinx on top, Photo D. Second ,
game missing the it had the original interior instruction card , Photo E,
front door. There enumerating the areas of British patent application
were copious pie- to include "the Australian colonies , Etc. " Finally, it
Photo A
tures within the
offering, including a close-up of one of the cards
that came with the machine, Photo B. Armed with
0 ~TE ST YOUR SKI.LL.. JJ.
these two pieces of information - the photos and the
PLACE PENNY IN SLOT, PULL DOWN T RIGGER
SUFFICIENT TO SHOOT IT INTO DESIRED BARREL.
knowledge that this was
PENNIES SHOT INTO NOS. 10, 20 and 30 FALL
INTO POSITION TO BE AGAIN FIRED.
Haydon &.. Urry - I turned
WHEN PENNY IS FIRED INTO BARREL NO. 150,
PULL OUT DRAWER, AND PRESENT CHEQUE AT
to Mr. Costa and his
c~~::.~~: .. ....,..._,-"
""'"u,•inv••••
Ii
Auto-Pleasures for more
Photo D
information. To my pleas-
ant surprise, on page 43, had 45 original aforementioned cards that could be
he had reproduced an exchanged "at the counter for a 2D cigar. " (For my
advertisement from a American colleagues , 2D means 2 pennies.) To find
->+ AT COUNTER.,._
commercial flyer in 1900 paper ephemera a century later, and in such good
FOR
CIG AR.
that had a picture of this condition and quantity, is truly rare .
Once again, KFC had smiled upon me. The rest was
very machine, titled 'The
HAY DO N & URRY, L T o.,
Barrel Machine," Photo up to me; I had to win the auction. It should come as
no surprise that I did just that!
C togeth-
My success was assisted by the
er with a
PhotoB
poor word description of the
word de-
game. My competition ended
scription . This piece of information
up consisting of other Yanks ,
was critical in two respects: 1) it dat-
none
of whom knew what this
ed the machine as being no later than
piece really was. I have no idea
1900, and 2) it had a fairly detailed
where my British brethren were
picture of the front door to the game.
that day but I'm thankful they
I then cross-referenced Haydon &..
weren 't on Ebay.
Urry in "Arcades and Slot Machines"
After taking custody of the
by Paul Braithwaite. I learned Haydon
game, I had a new door con-
&.. Urry moved from their location on
structed using the picture from
Gray's Road to Islington in 1896. If
Nic's book as the example. You
you look closely at the card in Pho-
may judge for yourself, Photo F,
to B, you will see the address is "34,
Gray's Inn Road , W.C. " This informa-
as to the success of my efforts.
tion helped confirm the date of manu-
Personally, I am very pleased
Photo
E
with the results. I also created
facture as sometime prior to 1896.
~'t')
2°·
.:U, Gn~y•i 1-
Road, W.C,
13
HAVOON & w:'111~.~
:.".'." 0 " • •"•
1