The Harris Automatic Coin Changer was designed to operate on all kinds of vending machines including soda, cigarette and candy vendors. It could be modified to return change in many different combinations, as needed. An important feature at the time was the ability to prevent “jackpotting”, or releasing a gush of coins all at once. [...]

[Read more →]

These two photos show ads for a variety of bottle and can openers used for soda and/or beer. These ads date to about the 1950s. The first ad is for Vaughan Novelty Mfg. Co. of Chicago, Illinois. They were manufacturers of a variety of kitchen accessories and made bottle and can openers for Coca-Cola as [...]

[Read more →]

Before 1960, there were more Vendo 83s made than any other model of Vendo soda machine. It was the first coin-operated, upright soda vending machine made by Vendo that they mass-produced. As with all other Vendo machines, it was manufactured exclusively for the Cola-Cola Company. The 83s with a mechanical coin mechanism were manufactured from [...]

[Read more →]

The Walrus Manufacturing Company of Decatur, Illinois was one of the many manufacturers that tried to cash-in on the ongoing soft drink craze in the early 1900s. This advertisement is from the “National Bottlers Gazette”. Walrus, like other manufacturers, was marketing their product directly to bottlers in the hope that they could become their cooler [...]

[Read more →]

These are a series of ads for Arnold Bottle Chest Coolers. These were manufactured by G. J. Arnold Bottlers’ Supplies Co. in the late 1930s and early 1940s. They must be quite rare, as I was only able to locate one source that even knew about the Arnold coolers: in the book titled “Classic Soda [...]

[Read more →]

This brochure illustrates the Lyon 500 Coca-Cola cup vending machine. It was built in the early 1950s by the Worthington Pump & Machinery Corp. It was marketed by Lyon Industries of New York City, who partnered with Worthington in order to sell and distribute soda vending machines.
The Model 500, with its unique art deco [...]

[Read more →]