Three of the best slot machine books I've ever seen
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coppinpr
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Three of the best slot machine books I've ever seen
While passing through the USA two weeks ago I managed to get these three slot machine books, all in perfect unopened condition, all for $15.
They are probably well known to the site gurus but Ive never seen them mentioned on the forum so I thought Id detail them now.
They are described as a collection of known trade flyers, parts lists, repair sheets,set up sheets and trade information sheets originally produced by the Mills family (or Thomas Wartling in the case of the wartling book) and contain no new content,only factory produced items.
They make fascinating reading, a real chance to see what the makers thought about slot use and what they thought the operators needed to know. There are even examples Mills installation contracts to show buyers/leasers what they were getting into.
As far as I know ALL the basic Mills machines are listed in the book ,many Ive never seen before including some early electro mechanical and coin flip machines.
One of the most interesting things in the book are the trade news letters from their "Spinning Reels" operators mag. These bring to life the problems the operators had which affected the makers to a point where they tried to help. These include "buying your own machines" "dealing with the opposition" and a fascinating 1934 article called "What about the hijacker". This article describes how an entire Mills board meeting was taken up with this problem which is described as "reaching such proportions that it threatens to become the major problem to the operating business". It goes on to say that three types of hijacker existed, organised gangs, petty thief and the operator himself!! There is so much in this article that leads you to look between the lines to see what its really getting at. The article ends with the sentence " we will not be in the market for hijacked equipment for anyone NO MATTER WHO HE IS" and yes the capital letters are part of the original article.
Mills go on to announce a new stand for their slot machines to be made of steel and include a tray to hold 300lbs of concrete!! try putting a hi-top,the stand and the concrete under your arm and running out of an arcade !
The last photo shows the fantastic "one-two-three" slot machine pin table from 1938, a remarkable table with many features that became standard on pin balls (5 balls, free plays, etc) The flyer tries hard to over come what must have been an earlier failure by saying this machine is nothing like the earlier 1-2-3 which" may have had some operating problems " this new version has full AC hook up to avoid any problems so I assume the earlier model had at least a partial battery power unit.
Any way ,three great books that are a real insight into the early business side of the industry.
They are probably well known to the site gurus but Ive never seen them mentioned on the forum so I thought Id detail them now.
They are described as a collection of known trade flyers, parts lists, repair sheets,set up sheets and trade information sheets originally produced by the Mills family (or Thomas Wartling in the case of the wartling book) and contain no new content,only factory produced items.
They make fascinating reading, a real chance to see what the makers thought about slot use and what they thought the operators needed to know. There are even examples Mills installation contracts to show buyers/leasers what they were getting into.
As far as I know ALL the basic Mills machines are listed in the book ,many Ive never seen before including some early electro mechanical and coin flip machines.
One of the most interesting things in the book are the trade news letters from their "Spinning Reels" operators mag. These bring to life the problems the operators had which affected the makers to a point where they tried to help. These include "buying your own machines" "dealing with the opposition" and a fascinating 1934 article called "What about the hijacker". This article describes how an entire Mills board meeting was taken up with this problem which is described as "reaching such proportions that it threatens to become the major problem to the operating business". It goes on to say that three types of hijacker existed, organised gangs, petty thief and the operator himself!! There is so much in this article that leads you to look between the lines to see what its really getting at. The article ends with the sentence " we will not be in the market for hijacked equipment for anyone NO MATTER WHO HE IS" and yes the capital letters are part of the original article.
Mills go on to announce a new stand for their slot machines to be made of steel and include a tray to hold 300lbs of concrete!! try putting a hi-top,the stand and the concrete under your arm and running out of an arcade !
The last photo shows the fantastic "one-two-three" slot machine pin table from 1938, a remarkable table with many features that became standard on pin balls (5 balls, free plays, etc) The flyer tries hard to over come what must have been an earlier failure by saying this machine is nothing like the earlier 1-2-3 which" may have had some operating problems " this new version has full AC hook up to avoid any problems so I assume the earlier model had at least a partial battery power unit.
Any way ,three great books that are a real insight into the early business side of the industry.
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