Streets Wheel Em In identified

[cleantex]

Hi,
From today, there is a new offer of a Wheel 'Em In in ebay. I will ask him for pictures of the mechanics (If the MI5 agree )
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ORIGINAL-VERY ... 2ec6fabf6e

[cleantex]

I was right, there is no possibility (for me) to talk to the seller.
MI5 ? maybe, or Gladio or Stay-Behind. There must be a military secret about this machine
So, perhaps somebody else could make a try ?

[slotalot]

Hi Cleantex
This is the second time this machine has been on Ebay in the last month, I managed to get some photos first time round but didn't bother to bid as it is too big for me
It looks to be a very simple mech for such a big machine... just a row of metal fingers to detect the coins.

[cleantex]

Thanks for the pictures,
Finally to see the inner circle
But somewhere is a little disappointing, simple metal fingers and before all, manual feed up of the coin tubes
No conveyor for the coins. Always a great machine and... a big one.
The secret is resolved.

Greetings to England

Armand

[badpenny]

I've always wanted to know how the payout tubes get filled?

[cleantex]

Me also, but I think it's by hand, I see no other option.

Or perhaps this part is missing, because the tubes are in descending way and shaped also like this. The black tube seems to be an overflow for the coins. So, it can be that this machine is not complete.

[badpenny]

I plump for an Archimedes Screw.

1 - There's a an easy power source in the form of the end axle for the conveyor.

2 - Looking at the payout tubes they have angled tops suggesting a flow down slope across the range.

3 - At the end is a black tube for the overflow.


I must learn to read posts fully before answering.

[andydotp]

No, no, no.
When I worked in the arcade on Rhyl fairgound our Wheel 'Em In had a little man who lived in the back
and kept the payout tubes full.
Delightful, coppery-coloured wee chap too but very hard of hearing due to all those pennies raining down on him.
Mystery solved. Next?

[cleantex]

That is the answer, a little man !
Finally I arrived to find some pictures from him, just changing a bulb in the front panel.

Catwezelbulb.jpg (15.5 KiB) Viewed 1993 times

[pennymachines]

I don't buy the idea that the operator had to refill coin tubes. Maybe on this late version - or maybe it's been altered? I'm not sure I accept the little man theory either. There's a spider, top right, in slotalot's picture. Could she have been trained to do the job?
No, I reckon there was some kind of conveyor. Paul Mitchel, in The Artful Dodgers, describes cheating the machine using pennies on string:

For some reason, the original pennies never returned amongst our winnings (years later I discovered what havoc they were causing to the innards of the machine).

Paul worked in the arcade as an adult and his comment suggests the mechanism was designed to recycle the players' coins.