The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-21
THE EVOLUTION OF
 THE SLOT MACHINE
Man Can Get Almost Anything
 With Coin
FIRST MACHINE IN 1889
Not One Out of Ten of Thousands of Inventions Have Proved Suc- cessful from Financial
 Standpoint.
BY FREDERIC J. HAskIN.

The decision of the postoffiee depart
 ment to make use of the slot-machine
 for the vending of stamps, is the first official recognition of the coin-in-the-slo
 machine by the government Yet so nu-
 merous are the patents that have been
 issued on such devices that the patent
 office has separate division for them.
 There have been 2100 patents taken out on
 vending machines controlled by coins or checks. One may now drop a coin in the slot and get in return a cigar, a cigarette, piece or even box of candy. He may have his boots blacked, see il panoramic exhibition, q game of baseball
 or horse race. He may get a glass of soda or quick lunch, have q spray of perfume put on his handkerchief, send
 telephone message, get an electric shock, get weighed or have his fortune told with a piece of music thrown in for good measure. He may have his picture taken, or may get an "original package" or if he is in Europe he may drop his coin in the slot and get as much Illuminating gas as he wishes for an hour, day, or a week. If he has not the proper change he can have it, By dropping a nickel in the slot he can get five pennies. By putting in a quarter he may get five nickels, and so on.
 In the field of invention there is con- stant proof of the truth in the wise Jlan"s saying that there is nothing new under the sun. More than 2OO0 years ago the priests of Alexandria were using t}e coin-in-the-slot machine to sell 'Iustral water" to their people. It was a simple machine it is true, but except for the fact that it did not very well safeguard itself against the follow who would beat 1t, 1t served its purpose in every par tieular It consisted of vessel contain- ing the water and a little slide valve balanced on 2 lever. Dropping the coin on one end of the lever would raise the valve on the other end, see-saw fashion and this would allow the water to run. When the lever was depressed as far as it should be by the coins they would slip off, and the valve slide shut again.
 The first slot-machine ever made in America was patented in 1889. But the ways that the ingenious small boys found to beat it made it an unprofitable sales- man. From that day to this there has been perpetual warfare betweeen the fellow who would beat the slot-machine and the fellow who would prevent it. There were 3S separate and distinct ways to beat the first one that came out But gradually the inventor has overcome these until machines of today have been so perfected that even the penius of the small boy cannot outwit them It used to be that a vigorous shaking would take the place of the coin. But that was eliminated by balance that noth- ing but a coin would operate Then again in the olden times wire could throw the trigger that would release the candy or whatever prize the machine held. A zigzag channel and star wheel cut that trick out Then they got dummy coins and buttons to throw the springs. The inventor went them one better again and put In the magnet, which would draw out any metallic dummy before it could throw the trigger releasing the article. Then the beater got things the magnet would not attract, and the inventor put a size and weight testing laboratory in the machine. Now the man who finds some tDluS that WILL go down the Zlgzag way, run the gauntlet of the magnet, and pass muster with the size and weight tester, is entitled to a reward.
 But the most remarkable of all inven- tions for the prevention of fraud is the vending machine with the rogues gal 1ery apparatus, used in Paris and other Eureopan cities. It Is so arranged that if man drops in the proper coin he gets the article he desires. If he drops in the wrong coin 1t comes out to him again. But if he drops in a dummy piece 1t stays and picture of him is taken, developed, and placed on view, there to remain until someone else tries to get in crooked work with the machine.
 The coln-in- the-slot gas meter has proved popular innovation in Europe It Is stated in the technical journals that 1t has resulted in the wider use of gas and that the elimination of the deposit system of securing a gas meter has brought 1t into the reach of hundreds of poor families who might otherwise have to use oil. It has been introduced into America but not to any large extent
 Some few restaurants in this country are equipped with clothes hooks that pre- vent the articles hung on them from be-
 ing stolen. A man get a check for a given hook from the person in charge. He hangs his overcoat and his hat on the hook and they cannot be removed from it until the check is placed in the slot. In order to prevent the great crush
 n zIks