Bryans Bumper

[wembleylion]

Bryans Bumper

Does anyone know if / where there are any patent drawings or other reliable info available on the Bryans Bumper.

The only info I can find is on Melvin Wright’s, ‘Bryans Penny Arcade’ website, which says:

"The Bumper was a coin-operated version of the popular fairground Striker. Play consisted of hitting the lever at the bottom of the machine, to drive a projectile upwards and along a vertical scale. The machine would pay out according to the position in which the indicator came to rest. Whereas the fairground Striker relied on brute force (and ignorance?) to drive the projectile as far as possible up the scale, with a 100lb lump hammer, the Bumper was designed so that skill was rewarded, rather than strength.
The scale was 18 inches long, and had 28 winning positions: Eight 1s, twelve 2s, four 4s, three 8s, and a single 12 as a maximum prize. These numbers were distributed along the scale so that the player had to use skill to try and reach the required position”.

Two poor quality pictures of the machine are shown here but it is difficult to see what, if anything, the player needed to do other than drop in the penny and hit the bumper. http://www.melright.com/bryans/bryother.htm#bumper

Please accept my apologies if this topic has already been discussed and I have missed the posts.

John

[badpenny]

I seem to recall our esteemed leader flashing a colour photo and a leading light from the Brighton area coughing the word "Photoshop"

How many years ago was that?

[cheeky]

I seem to recall our esteemed leader flashing a colour photo...

Are we allowed to talk about that photo....?

I thought we were talking about a Bryans Bumper

[treefrog]

I would have thought if the drawings exist, there would have been a few copies, like other rarer Bryans knocking about, Mind you if they don't exist, who would know and you could be imaginative and create your own version

[bandito]

If there is a Bryan's bumper out there, the owner will have a very big smile on their face.......

[bryans fan]

Bumper Flyer

[badpenny]

Strewth ... I didn't realise they were that cheap, I can afford a couple easily.

[wembleylion]

Thanks for the flyer info, Bryans fan.

It must have been one hell of a machine weighing in at 85 lbs, 3/4 of a hundredweight??? Hopefully a drawing of the mech may yet surface; I have tried to find the patent number in the Online Archives but no luck yet.

John

[bryans fan]

The Patent number quoted on the Flyer is for the Clock. I think MR B was saving cash by not filing it, but using another to ward off copying.
Good luck with your searching , I have been looking for 20 years.

[wembleylion]

Good luck with your searching , I have been looking for 20 years

20 years!!! ---- I don’t think I stand much chance then ; although some years back a Bryan's catalogue showing pictures and drawings was up for auction and the Bumper was mentioned in the auctioneers blurb.

The Bumper flyer is a bit confusing; it states that the “Scale is FULL of winning positions” and then goes on to say “There are only three lost positions between each win”??? Counting the positions on the scale there appear to be only twenty eight.

As there do not appear to be any other knobs than the bumper lever I wondered how the automatic pay-out worked. As there is no mention of electricity I wondered if the bumper lever had a dual purpose; a further depression/s of the bumper after a win made the pay-out.

John

[gameswat]

The Bumper flyer is a bit confusing; it states that the “Scale is FULL of winning positions” and then goes on to say “There are only three lost positions between each win”??? Counting the positions on the scale there appear to be only twenty eight.

Think like a Bryans clock face. The 28 winning numbers are what you can see in the flyer, and there would be three small line spacers between each one you can't.

[badpenny]

As there do not appear to be any other knobs than the bumper lever I wondered how the automatic pay-out worked. As there is no mention of electricity I wondered if the bumper lever had a dual purpose; a further depression/s of the bumper after a win made the pay-out.

John

No John you're confusing its payout with the Bryans Scratch'it. The Bumper paid out more like the Scribbler did.

BP

[wembleylion]

Oh dear, I think I have just been Moderated for using too many Scratchets'.

The Patent number quoted on the Flyer is for the Clock.

and

Think like a Bryans clock face.

It says in the flyer that the pay-out is "Automatic" Is it possible then that the Clock mech was adapted to make the pay-outs, hence the Clock patent number and the "Other patents pending" related to the linier adaption of the clock face and the bumper action? If this is likely is it feasible that just hitting the bumper would start the clock mech?

John

[treefrog]

You know John, I wonder if you have something here, the payouts and misses are similar to a clock and would not take a lot to create some kind of actuator to trigger a vertical win bar, instead of the round clock award. All you would need is some kind of of mechanism that transfers the pressure of the strike to the spin. It would be a lot easier to use most of an existing design, than total redesign. I guess Mr Bryan liked the challenge though of creating something new and complex... Who knows?