Coin operated cranes and diggers

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pennymachines
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Re: Coin operated cranes and diggers

Post by pennymachines »

coppinpr wrote: Sat Jan 15, 2022 9:00 am actually, William Bartlett's patents predate the Erie digger by 13 years
That can't be right. The Bartlett patent 1,882,563 is dated 1932, which would push the Erie digger to 1945 - far too late.

Some sources say the Erie Manufacturing Company's digger was introduced in 1924:
Freddy Bailey wrote:In 1924 a company called The Erie Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut introduced “The Erie Digger” a new novelty game that was designed mainly for the “Carnivals” and the “Arcades” that were dotted along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States.
The Crane Part 1
Jim Roller wrote:By the middle 1920s it was in full production as The Erie Digger and offered 1-cent or 5-cent coin slots. The miniature steam shovel was encased in a solid oak cabinet with glass windows on three sides and continued to be all-mechanical, using no electricity; not even an electric light.
https://jamesroller.com/history/

Automatic Age was advertising them for $100 each by 1927.

AA-1927.jpg


AA-2.jpg

Bartlett's patent was for an electrically motorised carnival digger which, "...employs, in miniature, the well-known excavator mechanism now used in analogous art," (i.e, already commonplace). On your site you say this was from a "design he came up with back in 1918". Can you cite the source of that?
pauljt71
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Re: Coin operated cranes and diggers

Post by pauljt71 »

Thanks for taking the time to post this info. Looks like a quest for the Holy Grail :HaHa:
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coppinpr
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Re: Coin operated cranes and diggers

Post by coppinpr »

That can't be right. The Bartlett patent 1,882,563 is dated 1932, which would push the Erie digger to 1945 - far too late.
I know you wont agree with me (you never do) but the first digger built was in 1896 and Bartlett's first patent (manual not electric) was 1919 but he never built a usable version until 1923.
Several online histories agree with these dates (although I know you wont agree with that either because they are online) but they are there if you search
I wont comment again, we will just go with what you say..as usual
pennymachines
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Re: Coin operated cranes and diggers

Post by pennymachines »

coppinpr wrote: Sun Jan 16, 2022 9:14 am I know you wont agree with me (you never do)...
I do agree that, 'Bartlett didn't file a crane patent until 1932', as it said on your website yesterday. I can't agree that, "Bartlett's first patent (manual not electric) was 1919" without a link to the patent, or at least one source (print or online) that claims this patent exists.

Much remains unknown about the early development of the crane. I'm not sure we have a name (or source) for the oft mentioned enterprising American who converted a child's toy digger to pick up sweets at random in 1896 for use on carnival fairs. On page 244 of Arcade 1, Dick Bueschel said, "Diggers have a long and convoluted history which will be covered editorially in later volumes." Sadly, he died shortly afterwards. I suspect he had already compiled copious research.
Alexander Smith wrote:Sources differ on when exactly the first digger machines entered the marketplace, but most evidence points to the first models appearing in 1924. In that year, Norwat Amusement Devices introduced the Steam Shovel, while the Erie Manufacturing Company began selling its Erie Digger, which dominated the market into the early 1930s. By 1926, digging machines had become standard fare at boardwalks and amusement parks, but were particularly attractive for traveling carnivals due to their compact size and relative simplicity. In fact, it was a carnival concessions operator named William Bartlett who introduced the next important advance in crane games in 1926 with his popular Miami Digger, which allowed the patron to move the crane all around the inside of the box rather than just up and down as in earlier models. Unlike Erie, Bartlett did not mass produce and sell his machines, but instead dispatched licensed agents to travelling carnivals around the United States and Canada, who would operate banks of 12-17 units on his behalf.
https://videogamehistorian.wordpress.co ... ie-digger/
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