Green Ray Television restoration

[badpenny]

Strewth, it's Mertle & Gerty!
How are they keeping these days? They were the good times had by all.

[tim575]

Interesting photo, another confirmation of side panel art, and example of one with the Globe on top. It seems to have writing on the Globe instead of a "?" seen on some restorations, but I can't tell what it says, maybe Television? I had wondered if the Globe was original to these or an operator add on, either way I see now they were present in at least one original placement. I have a set of repro cards in the works for mine, taking a long time as it is a manual process one card at a time with an antique letterpress and needed test runs first for press setup on such thick stock. I had restored the coin mech and card dispense to the original design for large penny and very thick cards, testing it so far on hand cut blank 1/16" matt board stand in cards works well.

[bryans fan]

Scan_20230314 close up 2.jpg

This is as close as I can get, plus adjustments for contrast and clarity.

[tim575]

I had newly printed fortune cards made for my Green Ray, 6 bricks worth using 5 fortunes from known original cards. These are 1/16" thick like the original and were printed using an antique letterpress printer. That completed the restoration project and it is now on display in my game room. An updated video was also made of it in operation.

NewGreenRayCards.jpg

[bryans fan]

FANTASTIC! What a great job you have made of restoring this wonderful machine. Thank you for sharing, you should be very proud!

[tim575]

So far I have identified at least 10 examples of an original green ray. 8 found online and in pics in that museum pdf document some of which are also seen in books. One recently started restoration by another forum member, hopefully he will post some pics of that project. And of course one with the best original artwork by our very own Mr. PM. Here are some You-tube links to the ones online.
2018 Tony’s Vintage – Not one of the 6 in museum PDF ref

and and are the Luna Park Restoration 2016 in PDF museum ref, it dispensed smaller card sideways with unique pattern, so not original card mech anymore and part of the restoration added new large neon tube.

one also seen in the museum PDF ref.

- in the Secret Town Arcade collection (mine)

[daveslot]

I have been lucky enough to own at least 4 green rays over the years, the first I bought in 1990, but I can only find photos for 2. Still got lots of cards somewhere

[tim575]

There was another collector who contacted me recently for info as he has one under restoration. If you don't have any Green Ray machines now but find those cards, I am sure he would be interested in them. They can be reproduced today in original 1/16" thickness on antique letter press printers, but it can get pricey to do that ( I know, it is what I did).

[pennymachines]

I have been lucky enough to own at least 4 green rays over the years

The second one pictured has now resided with me for a decade or so...

Still got lots of cards somewhere

It would be cool to record all the different cards on here. Maybe just a text record. I believe Clive Baker improvised a few new ones when he was printing them.
tim575 - how many different cards did you print?

Here's the GR from the recent John Taylors Auction:

[tim575]

I printed 5 sets of cards using original fortunes. I would have done more but there was setup cost that was for each type. Anyone with one of these should really download the PDF document that was done as a museum restoration project. It has a wealth of information in it. In that PDF table 6 on pp 83-84 lists text for 30 different original cards. Fig 13-14 on p19 shows front and back of an original card. The front was script writing in purple ink to match the pen and some comments about special electronic ink, with the back in normal text in black ink.

What is missing in the PDF is the exact card dimensions. I measured an original card to be 2&5/8 inch wide 1&3/4 inch long and 1/16 inch thick. A good match for stock material to print on is 4-ply Rising Museum Board in warm white color. It is 100% cotton and acid free. I had mine printed on an antique letter press printer which has a lot of hand work as card stock was cut to size first and then printed one at a time. But I could not find a modern printer that had equipment able to do 1/16" thick stock, but speciality printers are around that do this kind of job. Also, as I had these printed in the USA I noted for the printer in proofing that some of the words were not misspelled or wrong, just the English language of 1930 vs. modern US version of that.

The PDF link is still working: https://doc.rero.ch/record/330132/files ... Master.pdf