I recently read an interesting article from COCA Times I thought you all may find interesting. COCA stands for Coin Operated Collector Association BTW.
The article by Jim and Merlyn Collings is about penny scales. It seems the first *talking* penny scales originated out of England. George Moore submitted patents in 1902 for a talking scale. The Moore Talking Machine Company was founded in Boston and morphed into The American Talking Scale Company. These scales are very rare. Seems they broke down often due to the sensitive nature of the mechanisms. They employed a disc record that was mounted vertically and you could see it work through the glass in the scale. These were nickel machines so it was big step over the penny machine profit wise. One of the options was a slug rejector that would announce "NO GOOD." The sound was provided either through a brass horn or sounds slots, [sic]. It may be of interest to correlate the sound slots used on scales to Victrola's. This may be published and known knowledge and well documented by Allen K or Tim Fabrizio and George Paul. Sorry about the spotty nature of this email just some highlights. For ref: Lister Co. The United Vending Machine Co, 146 Caxton Building, Cleveland Ohio The American Talking Scale Co, 452 Fifth Ave, New York City Standard Scale Works 1904 Bankers Magazine A Wonderful Machine! Other contributors to the article, Bill Berning, Mike Gorski, Greg Lemore and Jeff Storch The last line of the article, We feel even Thomas Edison would been impressed by this wonderful talking scale. Those that may be interested in joining COCA email, bedvibr...@aol.com. Love the email address. Mike One last thing, they only weigh up to 250 lbs. I have a penny scale at the shop that goes to 295 lbs. Seems to not weigh "high" enough for many. _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org
