Lot 1
1
A Mutoscope
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… Read more Amusement Machines - To start the ball rolling... It must come as a surprise to many to learn just how old coin-operated devices are. Indeed, to find the first recorded instance of use of them, one has to travel back in time almost 2,000 years to the Hellenistic world of Alexandria in Egypt. When analysed, the inventions of this civilisation were truly staggering, even by modern standards; They had designed improved water clocks, sundials and mileage measuring devices, not forgetting a water-driven organ. Mathematician and inventor, Heron (first Century B.C.), designed and built the first recorded coin-operated machine which sprinkled holy water when a five-drachma coin was inserted. The Industrial Revolution in 18th Century Britain, was to provide the first tentative beginnings of a new age, one which has increasingly relied upon the use of machinery as a means of supplementing or enhancing the production of goods or services. It was during this new age of innovation and invention that the coin freed machine was to reappear, at first making a negligible impact upon the course of daily life. In its earliest form, it was to be encountered in taverns and the like as an Honour Box. As its name implies, it relied heavily upon the user's honesty. It consisted in essence of a small portable box divided into two compartments, one to hold coins and the other to hold a quantity of loose tobacco. Insertion of a coin would release a lever enabling the user to open the compartment containing the tobacco and he was then 'honour bound' to take only as much tobacco as he had paid for in the slot. As crude and simplistic as the device was, it was to survive in use until the middle of the 19th Century, when more sophisticated versions of the Honour Boxes were to be encountered, which vended a predetermined amount of tobacco for a given coin. The tobacco would be wrapped in paper and stacked in a column and access to the product would be by means of a coin freed drawer. The first coin freed patent was not applied for until 1857, when Simeon Denham of Wakefield in Yorkshire came up with 'A Self-Acting Machine for the Delivery of Postage and Receipt Stamps'. He was given provisional protection for his machine but unfortunately, the machine was not a commercial success and Denham never bothered to take out a full patent for his invention. Progress into the world of coin-operated devices was further improved in 1867 when two patents were taken out. The first was granted in Britain for a fortune telling device designed to answer questions by means of the discs inserted into it. The second was granted in Germany for a vending machine designed to sell hankerchiefs, cigarettes and sweets. Over the course of the next fifteen years, Britain was to witness the granting of a total of twelve patent applications for coin freed devices. By the start of 1883, the prospective purchaser could buy: stamps; photographs or almanacs; any number of other small articles (notably cigarettes); obtain change for a gold sovereign; enter through an automatic turnstile; play a game of billiards or bagatelle; tell his fortune and if this was not enough, be able to use lavatory paper. The trend for the musical hall at different locations also produced an interest in automatic working models, sometimes playing to a musical air. From this turning point in 1883 where three patents were applied for, interest quickly grew so that in 1884 there were six, in 1885 there were 20, 1886 saw 70 and in 1887 there were 139. By 1895, well over 1000 patent applications for coin freed machines had been received by the U.K. Patents Office. From 1883 until the turn of the century, there were many 'firsts' in the field of automatic machines and some of them were to play a key role in society. They not only introduced new technologies to the public at large, but also became an integral part of everyday life: 1884: Telephone. The telephone had been invented just eight years earlier in America by Alexander Graham Bell; The ticket dispensing machine, patented by Everitt; this machine was to be heavily marketed on both sides of the Atlantic. 1885: Strength Tester; Liquid dispenser 1886: Electric shock machine; Lung tester; Stereo viewer; Height measurer; Hot drinks vendor 1887: Electric light - the first coin-operated electric light was designed for use in hotels, railway carriages etc. Although the lightbulb was invented by Edison and Swan in 1878, it was not manufactured on a large scale until 1881; Gas meter; Horse racer; Shooter; Speed tester; Photographic machine - This machine automatically took, developed and delivered a photograph of the user. It was made possible by the development of geletin dry plates from around 1880, which were much more sensitive to light and required a much shorter exposure time. 1888: Sight tester; Savings bank 1889: Age calculator; Ticket machine for railways and trams; Phrenological machine; Spinning pointer/dial machine for use as a fortune teller or gambling game 1890: Towel machine 1891: Lift - The first electrically operated lifts were introduced by Otis; Boot cleaner; Telegraph 1893: Kinetoscope - effectively the first 'living picture' machine, the direct precursor of the cinema. Invented by W K L Dickson and Thomas Alva Edison; Two player competitive game 1895: Mutoscope 1899: The Automatic Restaurant By far the greatest number of patents granted during this period related to vending machines; machines which provided a service, or sold items of everyday necessity. The Gambling machine, unlike the innocent and humble vending machine, was safer to operate in that it never offered the player a tangible commodity other than the money previously inserted by other players. Theft from such a machine was not theft directly out of the operator's pocket. The promise of easy money ensured (for a well designed machine) an enormous amount of repeat play, making it all in all, a low investment, high earning proposition. Although the first purpose-made coin-operated gaming machine dates back to 1876, made by Edward McLoughlin of New York, the automatic gaming game was essentially a by-product of the automatic revolution of the late 1880s. Indeed, gambling by machine or otherwise was furthest from the minds of the majority of our early revolutionaries. Yet once such devices had been placed on the market, the extremely high income they generated could not be ignored. As vending machines inspired novelty gaming machines, this turned the whole practice of designing more elaborate gambling machines and the extent to which the companies who set up to get money out of punters increased steadily so, by the 1920s, different formats of machines such as multiplayer racers and one-armed bandits became the norm in various establishments. Back in the late 1890s, the idea that electricity was a healer from a head complaint through to broken bones, meant that some of these coin operated machines actually produced a shock from an induction coil if the player won the challenge. These machines were usually wall versions with two connections at the front for the shock. Machines which just delivered Electricity for Life were wall mounted or earlier examples on a stand, or for a table. With the advent of the Pinball Table in the 1930s, which took off very quickly in America, the fate of amusement in social society was sealed - it was only a matter of time in the late 1950s that the first electronic machines such as the 'Fruit Machine' were labelled as the new automatic pleasure of the day. (Extracts and notes from Automatic Pleasures - The History Of The Coin Machine, Nic Costa, 1988: pp7, 9, 11, 17, 18, 35, 49 and additional material. All following literature notes taken from this and 'The Costa-Haskell Collection of early and important Coin Machines' by N. Costa and P. Haskell with kind permission from Nic Costa.) (For the benefit of clarity, most glazed fronts were removed for the following photography) Mutoscopes and Stereo viewers
A Mutoscope

Details
A Mutoscope
by the British Mutoscope and Biograph Co. Ltd. London, No. 7476, in cast iron hexagonal case with green and red decoration on tapering circular cast iron column pedestal with coin collection door, Mutoscope reel depicting lady undressing in a photographic studio -55in. (140cm) high overall
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis. This lot is subject to storage and collection charges. **For Furniture and Decorative Objects, storage charges commence 7 days from sale. Please contact department for further details.**

Lot Essay

(Automatic Pleasures, N. Costa pp. 194,195,196)

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