AUTOMATIC SELLING MACHINES

Evening Star, Issue 20311, 21 October 1929, Page 1

AUTOMATIC SELLING MACHINES

EHORMOUS EXPANSION IN AMERICA The spread of the automatic vending idea is astonishing* Tho«'» .*i ,th'- husv ness prophesy huge arcades inhere ciistomers arc Availed on exclusively by vending and change-making automatons. Already there are stores of this sort. One at an amusement _ beach near Now York soils fifty difieront commodities. Broadway has a “ Sodamat,” in which eleven machines sell loganberry juice, root beer, orangeade, and the like. One inventor, says the ‘Literary Digest’ has produced a machine that rivals the blonde lady who stands in the restaurant window and defth' flips hot cakes. The automatic wheat cake vendor, electrically operated, has a magazine which will accept enough dough for a hundred servings. A quarter dropped into the slot entitles yon to four wheat cakes, and starts a fascinating series of operations. One by one the portions of batter drop on the hob plate. When one side is brown, an automatic flipper turns the cake. The machine supplies syrup. Butter has to be served by hand. Even gasoline now is sold by machine. The slot takes fifty cents. An adjustment allows the owner to set the amount according to the day’s price. The owner of a washing machine business recently was struck with a, thousand old-fashioned units. Application of the coin-and-slot idea, not only saved his financial hide, but is making his fortune. Me put a time attachment on each machine, and installed them in the easement of apartment houses. For twenty five cents the housewife could use the washer for thirty-five minutes. The success of this venture was immediate, and tiio business is being greatly expanded. The sale of music and entertainment via the coin slot is as old as the penny arcade. From this humble beginning the automatic idea, has spread into many and higher branches. There is a machine which plays twelve phonograph records for a nickel. Another gives yon a selection from an automatic orchestra. Pianos with coin, attachments have been greatly improved. Th' -1 autnrmlio now is being'installed in hotel rooms.