Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-08-16

being and prosperity Of manufacturing metal
disks OF the size and weight of q scent piece
for fraudulent deposit in slot contrIvances.
The disks are made of brass aud they operate
the mechanical affairs just as we'll as do real
nickels. About twenty Of them per day are
found in the boxes Of the Phonograph-
Graphophone Company, which has its ma
chimes in various places about town.
Now. ii might appear as if the production of
these brass disks would surely ruin the nickel
in-the-slot business. The disks are being
widely circulated at few cents per hundred,
though the price varies somewhat and the adj
vantage Of using them in place of the real
scent piece for obtaining chewing gum,
chocolate sticks or record of ones weight.
with incidental music, il palpable. Fortunately
for the proprietors Of the machines, however.
there seem to be comparatively few people who
care to save cents by cheating a helpless
piece OF mechanism.
Curiously enough. the nickle-in -the-slot pro-
prietors take pains to keep the brass disks that
they find in their machines and employ them
for very useful purpose. You see. il is no,
an uncommon thing for one of these contriv-
ances TO fail temporarily to work. The Gus
toner, In the beer saloon or elsewhere. having
dropped in his five cents without result imme.
diately becomes enraged and promptly
goes for" the proprietor as il he was
responsible. OF course the proprietor does
not like to offend his customer, and hi.
impulse is to make things right by sup.
plying other nickles to start up the ma.
chine. But may be the machine refuses to b.
started up and this means expense to the pro-
prietor. One saloon keeper put in one day
recently claim for 1920 in nckles agains
the company having a slot machine in his es
tablishment, the amount having been duly anG
conscientiously expended in trying to make
the thing operate.
So now the company supplies the proprietors
who exhibit its machines with a small stock oil
the piratical brass disks wherewith to stir VI
the apparatus when il needs it. Furthermore
the company employs the brass disks itself Il
test the working of the machines in order Il
see If they go all right.
No one seems to understand where these
fraudulent brass disks come from, but il is be
lievsd that they are stamped out Of bras:
sheets in New York city and circulated from
that quarter. OF course they cost hardly any
thing, the value intrinsic and of the labor in
volved being very little.
Great factories in Connecticut are given con
tracts by the Treasury to turn out nickel anC
copper blanks" for scent pieces and pennies
which are subsequently stamped with UncI,
Sans designs and circulated. These nickel
and coppers are merely tokens only worth In
trinsically small fraction of their face value
and the blanks are delivered like any othel
merchandise at so much per 1000 to the gov
eminent. Laborers in the Connecticut fac
tories find these BLANKS" as available fo
slot machines as If they bore the minted i'm
print. and through them, it is alleged yer!
many are distributed
Lead disks cut out Of ordinary sheet lead ar,
commonly used to cheat the slot machines
Their success depends wholly upon the care
funess with which they are carved. Pasteboar,
scent pieces are aften tried, but they have no
the weight necessary to set the contrivance
going and merely clog the machines. so that
mechanics skill is apt to be required to remed
the trouble.
IT reuuires a certoiu amouut of I,chaak', Il
deliberately beat the slot machine. Form tn
case Of the photograph apparatus-one mus
drop ones bogus nickel where it remains j,
sight behind glass until another customer La
introduced his coin, whereupon the imitation
is forced out of sight. Thus any customer cal
see the coin deposited by his predecessor an,
the predecessor would usually feel embarrasse,
to run away