, 1890-09-04
NICKEL IN THE SLOT.
Nearly 700 Queer Auto
matio Machines In Use.
The LARGE RETURNS YIELDED
Ingenious Inventions of Various
Descriptions to Entico the
Seductive Coin.
drop O nickel in the slot and geI

ono can get, ana oil by merely drop
ping 5.cent piece In slot. There
are between 900 and 700 patents for
these automatic money-makers In
the patent office archives, says the
Washington Post, many of them
being English inventions also pat
ented In this country, and three or
four years ago such an affair was all
but unknown. The first invention
of the sort that was patented was
called u ''rebate machine" and tho
patent was taken out in England I'm
1880.
1t was q charitable machine, and
was designed to make tramps or the
English equivalent Of that gentry
work. The machine was filled with
loaves of bread, and there was n
stout crank at one end Of 1t. When
q beggar asked for something to eat
he was given brass token. This
he put into the slot In the machine,
and after he had turned the crank u
certain number of revolutions, last
Ing about twenty minutes, d door
opened and loaf Of bread fell out.
1t was the inventors design that
these machines should be placed at
convenient points in the streets, and
by their aid charity was systema-
tized and begging robbed of tits at
fractions rs u business.
The other extreme Is repres ented
hxy ltn In -,
graphs one sees In the drugstores
all about the city. The first patent
for the application of the drop-a
nickel-in-the-slOt idea tothis tuneful
use was taken out in May of this
year. Now there are dozens of the
machines all over this city, and
probably they are just as common
In other places. Perhaps the
cleverest of these machines was
suppressed because 1t was gambler.
1t was a figure in a glass case that
shook dice, throwing them out on
board, and then gathered them up
and shaking and throwing them
over and over again, as often as u
lO-cent piece was dropped into the
SLOT
The side of each dice opposite the
six was of metal, and when double
six" was thrown tho metals made
an electrical connection, and q quar-.
ter's worth of cigars was dropped
out to whoever had put in the dime
that made the lucky throw. The
machine was the invention of two
Wushingtonians, aud was put in
operation In a billiard-room here
until the police stopped II.
The horse race machines, q few of
which have peen put In operation,
now have about ali been Withdrawn
on account OF suit growing out of
up before an Illinois or Indiana
judge, and he held that the patent
was for gambling device, and
80 would not decide it. Such
Of this kind of machines as
sell something, and most of them
are of that sort, como in Examiner
Aughenbaugh's division of the
patent Office. He says that the era
OF invention in this direction has
just begun, and he thinks that In
no class of inventions is greater in
genuity shown.
The leading inventor in this direc-
tion IL j. A. Williams, u New
Yorker, whose inventions are man
ufactured by a concern Incorporated
under the laws of West Virginia.
Another prolific parentee of this
sort of devices Is named ]. w.
Vaughn, many of whose de-
Vices contain lot of balls, which,
1t Is claimed, makes them
less easily cheated. A man named
c. o. White has invented an appa-
ratus for selling cupfull of liquid
automatically. A great many of
these machines have been put up on
the street corners In Chicago and
Minneapolis, and sell mineral water
to passers-by. The police of Chicago
have been given orders to protect
these machines, the authorities
thinking that they In some measure
lessen drunkenness.
The range of the machines Ii Won
derful. One locks the door of little
box in which public telephone is
placed and keeps 1t fastened
until IA 10 cent piece is put
in. Another holds n book shut
Another exhibits pictures. Several
inventions for selling newspapers
have been invented, one that of q
noted London inventor of printing
presses, which exposes for sale all
the London dailies, and drops one
out when penny Is placed into the
proper slot.
Another machine Is filled with
stereoscopic views In box that
Is entirely dark until scent piece
Is dropped in, and then the pictures
are brilliantly illuminated by elec-
tric lights. An Englishman
has patented In this coun-
try an automatic gas-seller.
1t is attached to the gas-pipes AS
an ordinary meter Is, and prevents
the flow of gas till penny is
dropped into the slot. Then 1t al.
lows the gas to flow through till
u penny's worth has been used,
when 1t shuts 1t off until another
penny has been dropped In. BY
this invention one would be en-
aeled to keep the track Of the pace
OF his gas bin.
In one of the machines that have
been invented, tho coin dropped In
completes an electric circuit and
starts machinery to do all sorts of
Things. One hopeful inventor has
mad u fortune that he regarded
within his grasp snatohed away
from him by congress. He invented
machine that automatically sold
drinks In their original pack
ages-by the bottle. And now con.
gress has destroyed his prospects.