In a message dated 4/20/2010 9:41:37 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, smst...@gmail.com writes: (more info below)
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 (x) 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." ---------------- There is a good (brief) history of the talking scale in PHP. The real reason they failed in the market place (post-1901) is this part of the description: [From the original sales brochure]: "The voice [of the record] is so loud and distinct that when it calls out the weight, it attracts others to use it." Hmmm... how many people, then or now, would want their weight loudly announced to a random group of people? The weight-announcements went up by two-pound increments, with the heaviest amount (250 lbs) at the rim. The only known such (10") record was a "Zonophone" pressing. Allen _www.phonobooks.com_ (http://www.phonobooks.com) _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org
