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I learnt recently from a collector friend in Sydney that he had bought the Old Thro Ball machine at an auction sale of showman’s equipment in about 2001. The machine was in a much more deteriorated state than in the photo that I have published here which has a date stamp of 1988. However, although the photo was taken by the owner in 1988, I did not see the photo or these machines until a later trip to Sydney 1994. I then bought another machine shown in this dated set of photos, the Whirlygig but more of that below.*

My Sydney collector friend says that the object of the Old Thro Ball machine was indeed to catch a ping pong ball in the cup. This was fairly difficult at first but the player did not lose the ball if it did not land in the cup. Mostly it was returned for another shot, so that one got about ten shots before the ball was actually lost and it did not return to the ledge that propelled the ball. After a while one learnt how much force to exert on the ball in order to land in the target. He got a bit bored with the machine and sold it on to a collector in Adelaide a few years later. When he bought it at auction the cabinet paint was peeling and he stripped it and re-polished the cabinet which he did not consider to be the machine's original one. So, presumably the machine survives in Australia.

*Topic split & moved to The Whirlygig fortune teller - Site Admin

Here's a copy of the Shelspeshel Australian patent.

Thanks for that Bob. I've added them to the Pokies article (together with 20+ new pokies in the gallery). As I suspected, the Shelspeshel patent doesn't claim anything very novel that wasn't already in the trade stimulators it was based upon. It refers to seven small technical improvements and:

improved spring control means and arrangement thereof adapted to be actuated by the player whereby he may control the speed and rotation of mechanism parts

Hmmm...

Talking of Australian-made machines, what about these three?

A very Art Deco 1931 Weighing machine by the Bousche Scale Co. of Australia (described here).

A very basic kiddies horse ride:


and a more substantial job, circa 1946, by John Dow & Co., Flemington Victoria (Pat. 7737-46?)

That's A US made scale PM, by Barnes called the Navco. Just has an Aussie operators badge on it. This happened a lot over here as often the real makers name is removed or scratched off to keep the operators monopoly safe.

Tut tut PM, Bob already talked about the Dow horses on this very thread - see page 2!

I am suitable contrite and a tiny bit more educated.
Maybe one of us should inform the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, Australia that their scale wasn't made in Oceania.

The Bousche scales had a lovely art deco design but the mechanism wasn’t so great and they weren’t very accurate. Consequently they were operated in New South Wales where the government weights and scales department checked scales in shops selling food etc., but not personal weighing machines. So Bousche scales and some other makes of scales were able to be operated there but not in Victoria where the weight and scales people checked these machines regularly and issued them with a license and stickers or lead plugs that went on the scales when first operated.
I spoke to a curator at the Sydney Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (Powerhouse Museum) at length a few months ago re coin op machines and sent him a stack of photos relevant to what had been discussed and did not even get an acknowledgement that they had received them. Rather disappointing.
The Dow Kiddie rides had beautiful wooden horses that were carved by and maintained by Robert Bartlett, a rocking horse manufacturer of 50 years. In later years they used a more modern looking fibreglass horse as shown in Mr Pennymachines illustrations.

After the old La Guardia smashing bandits in New York bit, here's some rare footage showing banks of Jubilee Rivieras being played and the machines being assembled, presumably in Nutt & Muddle's factory at Barcom Avenue, Rushcutters Bay.

Hilarious bit of film that.
The bloke who just lifts a complete machine up and plonks it straight into a cardboard box, reminded me of myself….. I've got an ear on each side of my head too.

I assume the machine that's emptying its hopper is destined to be rediverted back to quality control to find out why it's done that.
BP

Some selective editing at the end there......?!?

Reminds me of a video shot at my house, the camera took various shots of different models, e.g. handle being pulled, close-up of reels spinning & stopping, then the coins spitting into the payout tray. Then in the editing, shows handle pull of one machine, then cuts to reels of a different make machine then finally edits shots of the payout from a 3rd different make and model machine. Nothing wrong in that as they are not inferring it's the same machine and probably just used the best individual shots that's all.

Thanks for the heads up Mr pm, not seen that one before and particularly as it showed one of my current Jubilee models being played, which is always nice to see.

Video will not play on my phone? Says ssl connection error.

Just confirms my theory - phones are for making phone calls.

This machine lacking parts of mechanism and cabinet has come up on ebay here item no 123545602887. Interesting in that it is an early Australian four reel poker machine.

Lovely, a three realer was posted a few months ago. As mentioned then most of the mechanism appears Aristocrat, but on closer inspection I am not sure the base of it is Aristo....shame I don’t live in Melbourne

Anyone have an Ace-Hi Deluxe?

Appears to be an Apex machine Tree as identical in many ways to several I've worked on. Though they come with many names and small casting differences.

Hi Bob

I have a Bousche pedestal scale. it was anodized grey and was in very poor condition sitting in an exposed shed in Dubbo NSW. I could not find any information on it but decided to restore it but painting it and refurbishing the mechanism. It's close to being finished but i was sniffing around to find out some more about the brand. There is not a lot on the company and I am still none the wiser on knowing anything about the scale's manufacturing date and where the company was located, along with their history. I would love to know something about them and it.

Andrew Foley

Hi Andrew, sadly Bob died late last year. I'm a collector in Perth and we were great friends for 30 years, but I never spoke with him about the Bousche scales as they were not operated in WA. Though I may be able to help in the near future as Bob left me his huge archive of coin-op documents and parts. Due to Covid restrictions I've not been able to get over to Melbourne to pack them all up to truck back here. cheers, rory .

Might be worth contacting Christopher Steele , he is certainly one of the most knowledgable people in the world when it comes to the history of penny scales,I don't know how good he is on Australian makes but id be surprised if he doesn't know something about the make, email him at americanpennyscales@gmail.com
learn a little bit more about him at https://www.penny-arcade.info/penny-weight-scales

Hi Rory

That is very sad to hear of Bob's passing. I will send you the pictures of the scales once I have finished, which should be next week. It sure would be interesting to see what he had collected after all these years. My wife is a journalist for Dubbo Photo News which is basically a good news printed weekly paper that features human interest stories. Bob's collection may be of interest to her especially with the scales I have and the threads that led back to someone who knew so much when they were alive.
Andrew