Coin operated cranes and diggers

[coppinpr]

If anyone is interested I've just published a new section on my www.penny-arcade.info website. It's dedicated to Cranes and Diggers so, if like me, you're a mug for these machines that only grabbed one thing with ease, your money!! and would like to browse the 50+ photos on show take a trip to https://www.penny-arcade.info/cranes-diggers

[pauljt71]

Great update, always fancied a mechanical table top crane but not seen one available as of yet.

I have a few crane “bits” in the garage. Will post them on here and see if you know what they are from… other than a crane. :-)

[pauljt71]

Here you go, as promised. Here are the range bits from the garage. Let me know if you recognise what they are…

[gameswat]

Paul, from an early Exhibit Supply Novelty Merchantman. This model was most often converted into Bolland working models.

[pauljt71]

Cheers for the info. It was part of a job lot I acquired some time ago. I have been looking for a crane for some time and was told there was one in bits in the lot I acquired, this was it! Still looking for a table top crane.

[arrgee]

Really good addition to the website and some great looking machines - just wish I had the space for one.............

[clubconsoles]

Well done.
Great selection of Diggers and good researched article.

[dickywink]

A wonderful web site with some fantastic crane photos and info ... absolutely love it

all the best ... Dicky

[pennymachines]

Still looking for a table top crane

There aren't very many, especially in the UK. It took me years to find one.
Off the top of my head, the ones that come to mind are:

The Erie Digger (ancestor of all the novelty cranes) and its various 'clones'.



See James Roller's excellent website for more information about these (and all other cranes and merchandisers): https://jamesroller.com/picture-gallery/

See also Digger project

An early motorised copy of this idea was William Bartlett's Miami Digger of 1932.



Exhibit Supply's Iron Claw was another very successful version which really started the craze for coin-operated amusement arcade diggers.



The 1928 Scientific Machine Corporation Panama Digger is my favourite, combining great aesthetics with purely mechanical operation.

There's a nice example of the Panama on Jim's site.

This video of a slightly different model shows that it works like the first diggers; the grab automatically moves to a new position each go. The player can only control the forward/backward position.



Mutoscope also made two very nice counter-tops - which were essentially miniature versions of their floor-standing Electric Traveling Cranes, called the Junior Crane (all-mechanical) and Champion (motorised).

The most common portable crane to be found in the UK (at least in my experience) is the attractive Buckley Jewel Box electric crane. See Buckley Jewel Box Digger restoration

[coppinpr]

thanks for the kind words regarding my site

The Erie Digger (ancestor of all the novelty cranes) and its various 'clones'.

actually, William Bartlett's patents predate the Erie digger by 13 years, the first three Erie,Bartlett and Norwat all came out so close to each other no one is sure who was first.
https://www.penny-arcade.info/cranes-diggers