Coin-op Strikers

[bob]

Split & moved from Spirometers (lung testers) - Site Admin

I had a look for the first time at the most impressive new Museum section of this site. A great collection of machines many of which I was not aware of previously, particularly some of the British postwar wall machines which I had not seen in any collections or illustrated elsewhere. A really great effort to assemble this collection of excellent photos trimmed of any surrounding machines and much appreciated.
Of particular interest to me was the machine called 1849 Prospector (you can go to this quickly by going to games of skill) which is a coin operated fairground striker type of machine. I had only ever come across one coinop fairground striker machine before in the small Australian counter top JaJo Puncher which Gameswat obtained from me quite a few years ago.
Seeing the Prospector reminded me that I had inquired on the Pennymachines Forum some time ago if anyone in the UK had come across Matthewson's coinop machine similar to a fairground striker which he had patented in 1892, number 19243. I notice also that this patent is not listed on this site's collection of British coin op patents. Is any reader familiar with this machine of Matthewson? Are any illustrated on postcards? Have any survived?

[gameswat]

Bob, John Gresham owned an example of the English striker mentioned as the 1849, though his was without any such graphics, it's now in the USA. From memory the case is cast alloy and may have had info cast into it? On inspecting I remember thinking it was circa 1930 ish.

And here's the patent on the site GB338504

[pennymachines]

I had a look for the first time at the most impressive new Museum section of this site. A great collection of machines many of which I was not aware of previously, particularly some of the British postwar wall machines which I had not seen in any collections or illustrated elsewhere. A really great effort to assemble this collection of excellent photos trimmed of any surrounding machines and much appreciated.

Thanks Bob. Unlike the old Museum, which depended upon me alone to add content, the new version is designed to allow anyone to contribute, as easily as posting in the forum, and with the same login. Unfortunately, few have done so yet, with notable exceptions widget2k4 and nobby.pennytoy. This might be partly due to login issues which hopefully are now resolved.

I notice also that this patent is not listed on this site's collection of British coin op patents. Is any reader familiar with this machine of Matthewson? Are any illustrated on postcards? Have any survived?

A search of "Ernest George Matthewson" at https://worldwide.espacenet.com turns up 14 results, but not the striker patent. Where did you find it? By-the-way, just as anyone can contribute to the Museum, the same applies to the patents archive, which is far from complete.

I know of two incomplete countertop coin-op payout strikers which somewhat resemble the Matthewson patent, but look to be more 1930s. I own one, and will post a picture if I can find the thing. It has a very plain pressed steel exterior (a bit like the one you posted, but with a tall vertical scale).

[bob]

I started searching coin op patents in the early eighties quite a while before the internet existed in Australia. The Melbourne Public Library held copies of all the British Patents Office publications although most of these were not held in the library but in suburban and later country storage facilities from where they had to be ordered to be brought in to the library, a tortuous and lengthy (days long) process. Fortunately most of the publications detailing categories and inventors were still stored in the restricted to the public bowels of the library, to which, my persistence, enthusiasm and maybe even charm had gained me access.
Thus I could search by class and category the coin freed, amusement, etc., categories and by name and date the inventors that I was interested in. In this way I searched British patents. British registered design patents only existed in a store belonging to the Public Library in Canberra which was inaccessible for many years (perhaps still) due to asbestos contamination and I obtained these from the British Patents office in the UK by phone and fax communication.

[pennymachines]

I too started searching patents pre-internet, but no doubt a little later than you Bob.
They were held in the brutalist Birmingham Central Library (built in 1974 and currently under demolition). Once I'd found what I was after in the A-Z indexes, a librarian would summon the required tomes from the vaults.

I uploaded all of them to this site, but only scratched the surface. Bryans fan added many more and others have contributed since we've been online.

I don't know if the patent hard copies were transferred to the fancy new Library of Birmingham (not checked) but the espacenet scans are not from the British Library - they have the old Birmingham Central Library rubber stamps on them.

Sweetmeats has a hardback which I believe lists just coin-op patents from the early days, with short extracts of each. This might permit more exhaustive harvesting.

According to the espacenet numbering system, the Matthewson striker should be GB189219243, but it ain't there.

Reading the extract you posted, I realize it differs from the payout striker I mentioned. For one, it doesn't payout and it uses the penny as the 'slug'. Presumably it's more like a real fairground striker - i.e. a test of strength, not a game of skill.

Payout strikers have to be 'skill' games (else the strong man wins every time) - like the mythically elusive Bryan's Bumper, without mention of which this thread would be incomplete.
([url=
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=6297]Flyer here[/url])

[bob]

In those early days of my searching patents, books with foldout pages (and this included the foldout illustrations in patents) were not allowed to be photocopied but had to be photographed by the library, a process which took weeks and cost the equivalent of $25 per page at today's values! Thus for some years I had to do my photocopies of patents surreptitiously when the attendants weren't looking, with other books taken into the photocopy room as well, to hide the fact that I was copying the patents. Fortunately after a few years this restriction was lifted.

[pennymachines]

It was only 10p a sheet from the coin-operated photocopiers in Birmingham and I was surprised we were allowed to manhandle those fragile old documents.

Fey's little Pep Finger Striker has something in common with the Matthewson patent - it also uses the coin as projectile.