from Amusements for Park Resorts -- August 23, 2014

"Amusements for Park Resorts" is an article from the 11-March-1905 Street Railway Journal.  Many transit companies operated amusement parks to encourage weekend travel.  This is part of my mutoscope series, but I had to throw in the Puss in Boots Slot Machine as well. 

THE MUTOSCOPE

The mutoscope, made by the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company, of New York, is one of those novelties which appeal equally to all classes. The mutoscope is a handsome silver gilt cast-iron cabinet, provided with a coin slot and a crank. When a coin is dropped in the slot the beholder views some interesting scene, embracing the use of over 700 moving pictures, greatly magnified and brilliantly illuminated by electric light. When one subject has lost its earning power, another can be substituted in a few minutes. The mutoscope does not use films, the pictures being bromide photographs mounted on reels. The mechanism of this device is extremely simple. The parts are few and are all interchangeable, so that repairs can be made readily.

The weight of the boxed machine is 325 lbs.; the height to the eye piece is 4 ft. 6 ins., and the floor space needed is 2 ft. square.

“PUSS IN BOOTS” SLOT MACHINE

 

Roovers Brothers, of Brooklyn, N. Y., whose aluminum name plate machine has proved a most profitable slot device, have placed on the market an amusing and ingenious vending or fortune-telling apparatus known as “Puss in Boots.” This machine is mounted on handsomely carved legs, which, however, are not shown in the accompanying illustration. By placing a coin in the slide recess, drawing down the handle on the right-hand side of the machine and then letting it return, the cat is caused to greet the customer with a bow, then to move its left paw, which holds a pan, to the chute containing the article to be delivered, the head moving in unison with the pan so as to see that the latter is in the correct position to receive the article from the chute delivery opening; next the cat moves its head toward the right paw, which holds a nickel-plated rod, with which it carefully opens the lid of a basket in front, the paw holding the pan containing the article having taken a position over the lid. On lowering the pan, the article drops on the lid, then the pan is raised again to allow the lid of the basket to be closed a second time. The cat follows these movements with its head, and ends with a bow of thanks. The article falls through the basket into a receptacle in front of the machine. The figure is dressed in satin. and the seat and floor are covered with velvet. The net weight of the complete machine is 136 lbs., and the weight crated, 190 lbs. The size of the case is 32 ins. high x 14 1/2 ins. square. The stand is 30 ins. high x 16 ins. square. The full height with sign is 6 ft. 2 ins.