Mechanical Memories Magazine

The year was 1896 and the company, Haydon & Urry, was an early stand-out in British
coin-op history. Their signature machine, Tivoli, is still heralded as one of the earliest
commercial successes of the infant industry. As I was trolling through Ebay-US, I ran
across an auction entitled: "Antique English 'Business Stimulator' Tavern Game."
Excuse me? Looking at the picture, it was clearly a barrels coin-flip game missing the
front door. There were copious pictures within the offering, including a close-up of one
of the cards that came with the machine.
Armed with these two pieces of information - the photos and the knowledge that
this was Haydon & Urry, I turned to Mr. Costa and his Auto-Pleasures for more
information. To my pleasant surprise, on page 43 he had reproduced an advertisement
from a commercial flyer in 1900 that had a picture of this very machine, titled The
Barrel Machine. This piece of information was critical in two respects: 1) it dated the
machine as being no later than 1900, and 2) it had a fairly detailed picture of the front
door to the game. I then cross-referenced Haydon & Urry in Arcades and Slot Machines
by Paul Braithwaite. I learned Haydon & Urry moved from their location on Grays Inn
Road to Islington in 1896. If you look closely at the card pictured below, you will see
the address is 34 Grays Inn Road, W.C. This information helped confirm the date of
manufacture as sometime prior to 1896.
Exebange
~ -&
--><·AT COUNTER~
POR
2°·
CIGAR.
HAYDON & URRY, LTD.,
J4, GrAy's 1- R,-1, W.C.
~ ~ ~ . . . = - -............. -..- ..... ~ ....... ~
'
One of the original redemption cards which came with the machine.
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