
Your Photo By X Ray
This little counter-top machine with cast aluminium front is a relatively late version of a fortune telling theme introduced by BMCo. in the early 1900s to exploit the public fascination with X-Rays. A penny inserted releases a drawer to deliver a cartoon image of a skeletal male or female, replete with hat, bonnet, pipe, etc. See also Whom Shall I Marry? and Your Fortune By Cards. |
Woodward 1930s

Your Fortune By Cards
Unusual and attractive counter-top or wall-mounted machine with pine case and cast aluminium light-up front and glass topflash. See also Your Photo By X Ray and Whom Shall I Marry? |
Woodward 1930s

Whom Shall I Marry?
Rare counter-top machine by little-known maker. The original glass 'Whom Shall I Marry?' topflash has been replaced on this example. See also Your Photo By X Ray and Your Fortune By Cards. |
Woodward 1930s

Salter’s Automatic Weighing Machine
These ornate weighing scales were once common on railway stations and other public places. |
George Salter and Co. 1890s
Octopus
One of only a handful of surviving examples. The mirror makes the play area appear twice its actual size. The tentacles rotate and push the coins up a ramped track which prevents the player from knocking the machine to dislodge the coins prematurely. |
Jamieson 1960s


Swinging Swinger
My Brenco Swinging Swinger machine. I used to play this actual machine back in the mid 1970s in Barrys Amusements, Bangor N.I. and got the chance recently to purchase it along with a Ring a Bell machine. I restored the cabinet to original colour scheme. |
Brenco December 1967

Clown
British-made example of the very popular Clown game. Handan-Ni appear to have made several variants from around 1915, employing a rather different mechanism to the original German machines. This one operates on the old ha'penny coin. |
Handan-Ni 1915

Clown
Around 1905, newly founded German company Jentzsch & Meerz introduced the Clown game, based upon, and licensed under the patents of British pioneer JG Pessers' ball catching games. It was such a terrific success, British manufacturers returned the compliment by copying it, which they felt free to do after the outbreak of WWI. So did the French. This early British example by Handan Ni is distinguished by, amongst other things, the absence of a rolling ball beneath the clown, a different ball lifting mechanism, and the use of composite (in place of steel) balls. |
Handan-Ni 1915