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Watling Manufacturing Company - Scales, Slots, and Scandal

The story of Watling Manufacturing (later Watling Scale Company) has at its heart a story of two brothers from Midlothian, Scotland - John Burns Watling born on September of 1860, and Thomas White Burns Watling born on August 1862. It’s generally considered a thriving time in Scottish history, Queen Victoria was found of Scotland and often vacationed at her newly-purchased estate. The boy's father, Francis, died at the age of 27 after the birth of their sister, Jessie. Francis left behind 26-year-old Elizabeth with 2 young boys and a newborn. She moved the family to the United States in 1867, settling in Cincinnati, Ohio where the children grew up, John learning the ways of blacksmithing, and Tom became a painter. On the side, the brothers sold candy in theater lobbies. This is where the fun begins.

A Brief History of Coin-Op

When it comes to coin-operated machines, there are 3 pivotal points in history:

  
1 - Heron of Alexandria (c. 10 CE - c. 70 CE) invented a holy water dispenser for worshipers. They inserted a coin through a slot, the coin would fall onto a lever where its weight opened a valve to let water flow out. When the coin slid off the tray from it’s own weight, a counterweight would raise the level, closing the valve until the next worshiper inserted their coin. 
 
2 - Richard Carlile (1790 - 1843) built the first book vending machine in 1822 so he could sell Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason without having to face the punishment for selling “blasphemous material.” Carlile had previously been found guilty in 1819 of “blasphemy” and “seditious libel,” sentenced to 3 years for publishing Tom Paine's Common Sense, The Rights of Man and the Age of Reason, which criticized the Church of England. His vending machine succeeded in every way but keeping Carlile out of jail.

3 - Percival Everitt (~1846ish - 1893) invented the first coin-operated vending machine in 1883 that dispensed post cards. Later machines dispensed stamps, envelopes, tobacco, scents, etc. around London, England and surrounding towns.
Percival Everitt and Heron of Alexandria's Coin Operated Inventions

Can you pronounce the hometown of this trade stimulator's inventor?

Inventors Percival Everitt and J. G. Sanderman

Though J. Parkes of England is credited with migrating automata from a machine needing an operator to being independantly coin-operated in 1867 (a fortune-telling machine), Percival Everitt, with help of his partner, J. G. Sanderman, is considered the father of modern coin-operated entertainment by varying the uses of coin-operated entertainment. Between 1883 and 1891, Everitt obtained over 24 patents for coin-operated machines including blow testers, grip testers, and fortune telling. He helped form at least 5 major companies in the United States and United Kingdom. But it was his 1884 patent of a coin-operated scale that took the world on both sides of the Atlantic by storm. The Automatic Weighing Machine Company was created in 1885 to sell this coin-operated weight machine, and attained a patent in the United States in 1886. No other machine came close to public popularity.
Percival Everitt and his coin operated scale
Throughout the 1890s, height, weight, hand strength, kick strength, punching power, twists, stretching, and pure electroshock power tolerance, there was hardly an aspect of the human body that wasn’t tested, tried, pried, and punched… all for just a nickel. Fortunately mutoscopes and kinetoscopes seeped in at the very last of the 1890s to save part of humanity from it’s own joyous coin-operated punishment.
Despite the variety of options - many of which Everitt and Sanderman had patented themselves, the scales were the most endearing and enduring, providing a steady monetary intake to a wider variety of consumers. It was the coin-operated scales that compelled the Watling brothers to shift from selling candy in theaters, to placing coin-operated options in theaters (most likely in "1889") and elsewhere.  Within a few years, they became salesmen for Daniel N Schall and Company, a Chicago-based manufacturer and largest producer of counter wheel machines (machines that could be placed on top a counter, bar, or table), the most popular model being STAR. 
Daniel Schall's Star counter coin op game

The Watling Bros, Manufacturers

The Watling brothers took out a high-interest loan and bought out Schall in December of 1903. Immediately they found themselves with with a slot machine business and a line of Schall’s coin-op machines with a public demand for more. While Tom began work managing and promoting the business, John was working on the mechanics of the products, increasing their space to include both 153 and 155 West Jackson Boulevard and reproducing other maker’s machines just to keep up with demand. Sometimes they would keep another maker’s shell, but completely reinvent the inside mechanism. By this time, Tom Watling had become close friends with Charles Fey, the inventor of the slot machine with three turning wheels - perhaps the most iconic image of machinery invoked when one says the words “slot machine.” 

Tom Watling and Charles Fey

 It was a very exciting, fast-paced, experimental time, and Chicago, Illinois was at the center of the madness that would take the coin-op world by storm - not just with slot machines, but with all kinds of various styles of coin-operated entertainment including mechanical horse races, coin drops, card, and dice games.

Take a look at our antique 14-horse racing game

Watling Factory Derby coin op machine

When White City amusement park opened in 1905, the brothers grabbed up all the available arcade spots they could. It didn’t take long for them to find themselves in the forefront of the coin-operated business, and a major factor in the industry, moving the business to a larger area at 1029 West Adams Street in the 1910s.

White City Amusement in Chicago, 1905

Check out local PBS affiliate WTTW's Chicago Time Machine

In the 1920s, Watling Manufacturing had space at both 701 West Washington Boulevard and 411 South Sangmon Street. After a 1927 fire that effected an entire block of West Washington, the Watlings purchased the property they will be associated for the bulk of the 20th century - 4650 West Fulton St. This is the address found with most of their machines.  

Johnnie Law Blows His Wig 

Starting in the 1920s, Chicago followed with the rest of the country in an “anti-slot machine” phase running parallel to Prohibition on sales of alcohol. Watling Manufacturing started producing under the name Watling Scale Company. Right after moving into their new factory on Fulton Street, Chicago passed their 1935 Anti-slot Ordinance. 

Anti-Slot Machine raids Chicago Heights

Passing from fathers to sons, Watling Scale Company continued to making technological and amusement upgrades to their most widely accessible machine of coin-operated scales. But throughout the success and governmental turbulence, the Watlings established their rightful place next to The Mills Novelty Company, O.D Jennings & Company, Pace Manufacturing Company, and Lion Manufacturing Company as a pivotal part of the Chicago’s Golden Age of coin-operated entertainment, vending, and gaming.

Need to unload your antique coin-op and gaming machines? 

Tom Watling and sons in front of Fulton Factory, Chicago

In 1951 when the U.S. Government passed the Transportation of Gambling Devices Act - commonly known as the Johnson Act - prohibiting the transfer of “gambling devices” across state lines where gambling is prohibited. Most companies, including Watling, packed up and moved to Nevada where gambling had been legalized. 

Chicago Coin Machine capitol of the World

ROL-A-TOR vs ROL-A-TOP

Watling's ROLL-A-TOR is their most recognizable product line due to its immense public popularity. It came in conflict with Norge and their "Rollator Refrigeration." Being in the height of anti-gambling fervor, Watling had their machinists carve out the leg of the "R" in "TOR" to create "TOP." Arguably "ROLL-A-TOP" is a much better name for a slot machine, and it's popularity soared even more.

Roll-a-Tor coinop vs Rollator refrigerator

Sources:

Arcade One: Illustrated Historical Guide to Arcade Machines (1993) by Richard M. Bueschel and Steve Gronowski
Automatic Pleasures, The History of the Coin Machine (1988) by Nic Costa
An Illustrated Price Guide to the 100 Most Collectible Slot Machines - Volume 2 (1979) by Richard M. Bueschel
Drop Coin Here (1979) by Ken and Fran Rubin
Guide to Vintage Trade Stimulators and Counter Games (1997) by Richard M. Bueschel
Slot Machines, A Pictorial History the First 100 Years, Fourth Edition (1994) by Marshall Fey
Chicago Tribune Archives
Google Patents 

 


1 comment


  • Gloria Russell

    Thomas Watling was my grandfather I remember him well. I was about 8 years old when he died.


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