How the Jukebox Got Its Groove

When Thomas Edison showed off his phonograph in 1877, no one could imagine how important sound recording would become. That would only happen with the improvement of recording media quality so that music could be shared. Coin-operated vending machines were already around, and an enterprising inventor named Louis Glass married the two concepts together with his 1889 device that later became known as the juke box.

Glass's machine looks nothing like what we've come to know as a jukebox. The phonograph was encased in a lead-lined oak cabinet and had a 25-lb. sulfuric acid battery that provided electricity through wires to the motor. It could only play one wax cylinder at a time and had to be changed manually, meaning the music options—which probably included 1889 hits like "Down Went McGinty" and "The Rip Van Winkle Polka"—were quite limited. One clever tidbit: As part of the deal with the saloons, he had added an announcement at the end of each cylinder that told patrons "to go over to the bar and get a drink."

Amplification was poor, hence the four listening tubes. "It was a nickel for each tube, so you wouldn't want to join when (the song) was half-way through," Koenigsberg says, "Also, (the tubes) went into people's ears, so there was the not-quite-aesthetic pleasantry of handkerchiefs hanging on the side of the machine to wipe off the tubes." Nonetheless, the machine was a San Francisco sensation. A few weeks later, Glass placed a second machine in the same saloon. On December 18, 1889, he filed his application for the patent and quickly went to work making more.

That set off a race to make a better jukebox, with Glass competing to keep his innovation on top. Read the history of those delightful machines that fed the pop music industry for a hundred years at Popular Mechanics. -via Digg

(Image credit: Joe Mabel)


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Reminded me, and I believe my memory is correct, in the Army I had an M1 Carbine that had "RockOla" stamped on the barrel. WW2 was all military goods for the most part.
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I thought those were SO neat when I was a kid! It gave us something to read while waiting for our food, and it was a thrill when "our" song finally played. Skip ahead forty years, and my own kids felt the same way when seeing them at a local truck stop. Sadly, that truck stop was torn down soon after.
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This appears to be a gentleman's lice removal tool. Properly positioned by placing his organ in the lower chamber with handle pointing away from body, hot coal was placed on the upper pan. A slight tilting of the handle up and toward the body sent the hot coal off the pan, over the spikes, setting the pubic hair aflame. When the lice ran into the clearing, they were quickly dispatched by repeated stabbing from the three prongs.

Forest Hitchhikers forest green medium
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This is the original prototype Spork. During testing it was found that users would often impale their upper lip on fork portion , and that the spoon portion failed to hold any liquid. The first Spork patent, based on this prototype, was issued to Samuel W. Francis under US Patent 147,119 in February 1874.

The lesser of Two Weevils, XL Black.
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We use that every thanksgiving when carving the bird. It's a combination turkey peeler-serving fork. For use with the combination carving knife-nail clipper.

Inappropriate xl
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Ultimate s'mores tool, you place the first graham cracker & a liberal serve of chocolate in the lower tray; roast not one, not two, but three marshmallows on the prongs; whilst the marshmallows cook the chocolate melts; finally slide the final cracker off the top tray and enjoy perfection.

P and A (Medium)
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It's a rodent/mole removing tool. The flat end stops the mole from moving along in their burrow, and then the picks come down and pin/stab the mole. Krampus Greetings 2XL
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The traditional tool for preparing "Absinthe corn on the cob".
Slide your corn into the bottom tray, sugar cube (or these days, maybe a cube of slpenda) on top of the prongs, slowly pour your Absinthe.......and bingo ! A tasy treat made by green faeries !!!
* Note that this also works well with candy bars and hot-dogs, too!

Lovecraft's canned octopus
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black
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It is obviously a sspecial device that serves for picking up cigarette stubs with the spikes, the "shovel" serves for picking up half full packs of cigaretttes and the flat part may serce as portalbe ashtray for the cigaretts recycled from colletected cigarette stubs...
Only rarely used by fashionate hobos in the early 1920th...

http://www.neatoshop.com/product/Never-Grow-Up
2X ladies fit suggested colour
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It's a cheese plate server. The bottom is used for shaving slices from large blocks of cheese. The prongs are used to fend off all the mice that show up.

Inappropriate XL
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