Nic Costa Slot Machines
- More Automatic Pleasures, The Slot Machine Revolution. Slot Machines, Dieter Ladwig 1994. Originally publ. The Nic Costa Collection of Amusement Machines Christies, 19 Jan 2006. Video Arcade, Pinball, Slot Machine and other Amusement Tokens of North America, Alpert & Smith.
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Christie’s Nic Costa Collection of Amusement Machines catalogue from 2006.This is a ‘must-have’ for all collectors and a fabulous resource for collectors. Pages of descriptions and colour photographs and prices. Condition is 'New'. Dispatched with Royal Mail 2nd Class.Please see the other books I am selling on EBay.Seasons greetings and happy bidding. Oct 12, 2013 This is a big book, nearly 200 pages and filled with photos and stories about coin-op machines, centering on slot machines. The book is filled with great coin-op history, and is mostly a compilation of articles written by Nic Costa from several years back. If you love slots, you'll love the photos and history here. Nic costa on working models (an extract from his book, Automatic Pleasures, republished in 2013 and now available from Amazon) A lthough automatons in one form or another were to be made in almost every century since the days of classical antiquity, the 18th century was to prove the point at which the art of the automaton maker reached fruition.
NIC COSTA ON WORKING MODELS
From 1772 onwards, with the founding of Coxes Museum by James Cox, exhibitions or shows comprising wholly or in part of automata became a regular feature of London life, predating the automatic amusement arcade of the late Victorian era by more than a century — the crucial difference being that the proprietor or an attendant was required to take the public around the exhibition on a guided tour. As the new century progressed, such exhibitions grew not only in size but also in number; that of Signor Gagliardi (shown in 1836-7) consisted of approximately 200 different automatons. By the 1860s these exhibitions were to be found not only in the major cities, but also from time to time, as part of a travelling fair. One such exhibition was described by a contemporary eye-witness as consisting . . . . . . entirely of machines that (the showman) had made himself with the help of an apprentice, and sometimes with the employment of a workman. The style of work would not be called high class engineering but there was a certain merit in every machine that it was a good working model. Besides two steam engines of different types there was a locomotive that carried a train round the show; a Jacquard loom, which wove silk ribbon with a small flower pattern; a diving bell in which two dressed dolls were seated, which came out of a tube of water after immersion quite dry, which was very incomprehensible to the country folk; the model of a steam-boat, which worked so far as to turn the paddles round under a sheet of glass which represented the surface of the water; an automatic doll which danced and said ma! ma!; an electrical machine which gave the audience shocks, and some other machines and mechanical devices. We can see in such shows the embryonic form of the latter day amusement arcade. In May 1875 the Leeds Times published the following report, relating to a current exhibition: Not a little interest is excited in this department by the many working models that are shown. For 1d dropped into a crevice like that of a tramway fare box, you may have soldiers on duty, and a host of other novelties. One of the men who shines here most is John Dennison, 26 Salop Street, Bank, Leeds. Mr. Dennison exhibits the model of a ship which is very beautifully executed, and which as the work of a man living in an inland town, reflects very great credit upon him. Although John Dennison was not the first to fully automate a working model by means of a coin entry mechanism (he is predated in this respect by one or two other known makers), and he was certainly by no means the only maker of automatic machines in the late 1870s and early 1880s, he was nevertheless an extremely important figure in the history of the automatics genre, for he was essentially the earliest recorded person to make a living by means of the manufacture and operation of coin freed novelties, and was to remain actively involved in their exploitation and production from the mid 1870s until his death in 1924. From then the business he had founded was carried on by his daughters until the outbreak of World WarTwo. However, for all his pioneering spirit he failed to fully capitalise upon the enormous money earning potential of this new genre. This was to be left to men of much wider vision, such as Percival Everitt or Herbert Stephen Mills. Each of Dennison's machines (he concentrated solely on working models and fortune tellers) was hand built, and essentially a one off. None were ever sold until the daughters sold out the entire enterprise to the Blackpool Tower Company in 1944. Somewhere in the region of 30 Dennison machines are known to survive, covering a wide range of subjects, although unfortunately for us, the daughters embarked upon a policy in the late 1920s of revamping or rebuilding (and in some instances of even scrapping) them. Whilst this must have enhanced the family's revenue in the 1930s, the process effectively destroyed many of their father's creations; clockwork was substituted by electricity, original figures and subjects done away with, and new ones substituted. Whilst they managed to create some of the finest models of the 1930s they at the same time consigned to oblivion some of the most historic machines in the automatics genre. Only a very precious handful have escaped the net, surviving almost intact, complete with original clockwork motors, figures and subject matter. John Dennison's last surviving daughter, Florence, bequeathed a notebook to the Leeds Museum containing a photographic record of the revamping work they did, and listing the models made by their father. It was a wonderful, and in the annals of automatics history a rare gesture, where so much of value has been discarded or destroyed over the years. However, in spite of John Dennison's relative importance to the history of the fledgling automatics industry, he was to prove, as the 1880s and 90s came and went, just one of literally dozens of makers of coin operated working models. As early as 1884 they could be bought over the counter at at least one of the leading London establishments specialising in mechanical music and automata; witness a Silber and Fleming catalogue of that year which features a coin operated mechanical Sleeping Beauty complete with musical accompaniment. Indeed, a number of the early manufacturers of coin freed devices during this period would make up models to special order. Few, if any, were to be produced in any quantity since almost all were made up as one offs and the subject range covered over the years was to be exceedingly diverse. Some of the prime users of working models during the last quarter of the 19th century were the various rail and steamship companies who saw in them a convenient means of advertising their wares. Witness this reminiscence from a 1935 article in the World's Fair: It is of interest that railways and coin slots have been closely allied over a very long period — most readers of more than 40 will recall when they implored their parents to drop a penny in the slot machine, which contained an exact replica of George Stephenson's Rocket. The earliest type I remember was mounted in a large glass case. Movements consisted chiefly of engine wheels revolving for a few moments and the illuminating of the case from the interior. Next, several of the big steamship companies saw the possibility of the coin slot on railway stations (not perhaps as a commercial proposition but as propaganda) with the result that at one time we saw a regular boom in 'Ship Models' built to scale and mounted in large glass cases. Here again the movements and mechanical operations were of a simple nature usually comprising a slight rocking of the ship itself, and the lighting up of the vessel . . . In spite of the fact that automata in general were universally popular throughout the latter half of the 19th century, and were to be found on sale as rich people's toys in all the major western cities, they were only ever to be truly adopted as a legitimate branch of the automatics industry in Britain. Here, they were to be manufactured as set piece scenes which had no other function than to entertain or amuse the user in return for his coin, and as such were to remain a mainstay of the amusement arcade business up until fairly recent times. Because the manufacture of such machines was undertaken by relatively small concerns which concentrated upon variety as opposed to quantity, their documentary history has been poorly recorded. Since, they rarely if ever incorporated anything fundamentally new, almost nothing exists in the patents documents concerning them. In most instances they would have been made for specific undertakings and were therefore little advertised. Many would be made up to suit the client's or the manufacturer's own requirements (in which case he would also act as operator), and when their novelty had worn out (as in the case of the Dennison’s machines) would have been discarded or revamped to portray new scenes or images. As a consequence, even the names of the makers of some of these machines have not survived the years, let alone a great many of their products. Of the names that we do know, the most notable were, apart from John Dennison: Nelson and Leonard Lee; Vincent Canova and Billy Thompson; Charles Ahrens; Frederick and Arthur Bolland; and Markie Kraft (both Bolland and Kraft were still making models as recently as the early 1960s). In particular, the machines made by Ahrens, Bolland, and Kraft came the closest to what may now be termed production pieces, in that they each marketed a fairly limited range of subjects, but manufactured relatively large numbers of each subject, their products being as a consequence well advertised. Although, as we have already noted, working scale models of such things as trains, ships or pieces of machinery were marketed early on, they were easily surpassed in popularity by working models of a more entertaining nature which purported to depict scenes of daily life, either comic (such as the poor harassed father minding the screaming brats whilst mother lies in bed fast asleep) or tragic (such as the last moments of a dying child). Others had moral undertones, relating in the main to the evils of drink, or the inevitable brutal end of a life of crime; execution scenes were particularly popular, so too were scenes of a more macabre nature featuring ghosts and ghoulies and things that go whirr and clank for the insertion of a penny. All in all, through the medium of these machines we are witness to the nightmarish world of our childhood dreams when all the toys come to life and re-enact the larger drama of our waking hours. What better way to conclude this brief survey of working models than this extract from a Punch' article of 1891 relating to machines on show at the Royal Naval Exhibition: Before a Model Representing an Execution A Daughter:'But why won't you put a penny in this one Father?' The Father (firmly): 'Because I don't approve of Capital Punishment, my dear'. Daughter:'Oh please father, please!' Father:'Well, let me see — yes, I can lend you one'. (He does, the penny is put in — nothing happens) 'Out of order, I suppose — scandalous! and nobody to speak to about it — most discreditable! Stop — what's this?' (A sort of woolly beat is audible inside the prison) That's the bell tolling — it's all right it's working!' (It works) A Spectator;'Very well done that was — but they 'urried it over |
Below is a partial list of publications that have cited Nicholas Costa’s work:
2020 Huhtamo, Erkki. “The Self-Driving Car: A Media Machine for Posthumans?”. Artnodes, [online], 2020, Num. 26, pp. 1-14,
2019 They Create Worlds:The Story of the People and Companies That Shaped the Video Game Industry, Vol. I: 1971-1982.
2019 Transgression in Games and Play, Kristine Jørgensen and Faltin Karlsen, MIT Press, Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts., USA
2018 СРБИ У СРЕДЊЕМ ВЕКУ: Блог који се бави историјом Срба у средњем веку Serbs in the Middle Ages: 536 the year without a sun: http://srpskosrednjovekovlje.blogspot.com/2018/11/536.html
2018 Voices from the Uncanny Valley, Tiina Männistö-Funk / Tanja Sihvonen, Digital Culture & Society Volume 4 Issue 1, Editor-in-Chief: Reichert, Ramón Ed. by Richterich, Annika / Abend, Pablo / Fuchs, Mathias / Wenz, Karin. http://digicults.org/
2018 Great Mosque of Kufa https://wikivividly.com/wiki/Great_Mosque_of_Kufa Costa, Adam to Apophis 2013
2018 Thierry DEPAULIS, « MACHINES À SOUS », Encyclopædia Universalis [en ligne], URL : http://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/machines-a-sous/
2018 Archaeologies of Touch, Inter facing with Haptics from Electricity to Computing David Paris University of Minnesota Press
2018 Jonah https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonah#CITEREFCosta2013 Adam to Apophis
2017 The Kinetoscope: A British History, Richard Brown Barry Anthony Indiana University Press
2017 Max Jentzsch & Meerz by Jörg Wagner http://www.alte-spielautomaten.de/index.php/max-jentzsch-meerz/firmengeschichte
2017 Health and Power- Perspectives on biopolitics and management technology (Sundhed og Magt:Perspektiver på biopolitik og ledelsesteknologi) Editors: Mads Peter Karlsen, Kaspar Villadsen. Hanz Rietzel Publishing, Copenhagen, Denmark
2017 Leucodermia https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/leucodermia Adam to Apophis
2017 History of Digital Games: Developments in Art, Design and Interaction, A Williams – CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, USA
2017 Press the Red Button Now, Hamish MacGillivtay, Heritage Journal. Vol 22, No 1, Summer 2017. Association of Heritage Interpretation, Gillingham, Kent, UK
2016 Cosmic Catastrophism Affecting the Earth Bibliography and Handbook. Editor: William I. Thompson III, M.Sc. Millbury Massachusetts USA
2016 게임의 과거를 돌아보는 방법 한국콘텐츠진흥원 A look back at the past of the game Create New Wave, Korea Creative Content Agency, South Korea
2016 Spielautomat https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spielautomat#cite_ref-26
2016 Writing, Medium, Machine: Modern Technographies. Sean Pryor and David Trotter. Open Humanities Press, London, UK
2016 Key Issues in Product-Based Harm Minimisation: Examining theory, evidence and policy issues relevant in Great Britain. Prepared for: The Responsible Gambling Trust
Authors: Jonathan Parke, Adrian Parke, Alex Blaszczynski
2016 게임의 역사 ( History of Games), by 나보라 (Nabora) , Communication Books, South Korea
2016 Gender Arcade, Meena Daneshyar, Newcastle University Culture Lab, United Kingdom http://dm.ncl.ac.uk/meenadaneshyar/
2016 Debugging Game History: A Critical Lexicon (Game Histories) Henry Lowood (Editor), Raiford Guins (Editor) MIT Press, Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
2016 Exploring the tourist destination as a mosaic: The alternative lifecycles of the seaside amusement arcade sector in Britain. A Chapman, D Light – Tourism Management – Elsevier
2015 Esporre la memoria : film e audiovisivi negli allestimenti dei musei di storia tra ventesimo e ventunesimo secolo, Mandelli, Elisa, : Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italy
2015 Architetture dell’azzardo Progettare il gioco, costruire la dipendenza, Natasha Dow Schüll, Luca Sossella Edizioni, Italy
2015 Reconstructing WARRIOR: Vectorbeams, Natural Magick & Business Intrigue. TH Rousse – kinephanos- California, USA
2015 They Create Worlds-the innovators who shaped the video game industry, Alexander Smith https://videogamehistorian.wordpress.com/
2015 Granular Modernism, Beci Carver, Oxford University Press, UK
2014 Playing to Win: Sports, Video Games, and the Culture of Play. Edited by Robert Alan Brookey and Thomas P. Oates. Indiana University Press, USA
2014 Religiously Motivated Responses to the Discovery of the Asteroids: 1803-1837 Clifford J. Cunningham, National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand
2014 Celestial Catastrophism Bibliography & Handbook. William I. Thompson III,Massachusetts, USA
2014 Bookshelf: Chronology and Catastrophism Workshop 2014:1 (March 2014) Society for Interdisciplinary Studies, UK
2014 Long Division :a magazine of inquiry & art, no 1, Lareese Hall, editor, University of North Carolina, USA
2014 Сент-Деннистоунская покойницкая, Andreas Zarus ,Moscow Re: Dennison models https://andreas-zarus.livejournal.com/101065.html
2013 Computer Games and the Social Imaginary. Graeme Kirkpatrick, Cambridge: Polity Press, UK
2013 Shocking Grasps: An Archaeology of Electrotactile Game Mechanics D Parisi – Game Studies, The International Journal of Computer Game Research, Sweden
2013 The Gemstone Legends of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) https://eragem.com/news/the-gemstone-legends-of-ceylon-sri-lanka/ Adam to Apophis
2012 A Companion to Early Cinema, A Gaudreault, N Dulac, S Hidalgo, Wiley-Blackwell, Hoboken NJ, USA
2012 Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas ND Schüll, Princeton University Press, USA
2012 エジソンの発明にさかのぼるアーケード産業〜日本デジタルゲーム学会基調講演 (The arcade games industry dates back to Edison’s invention-Japan digital games Conference keynote lecture) Article written by 小野憲史 (Ono Kenji) http://www.inside-games.jp/article/2012/03/04/54956.html
2012 Transformations of Retailing in Europe after 1945 Edited by Ralph Jessen, and Lydia Langer, University of Cologne, Germany
2012 Who are We, Where do We Come From, Where are We Going to? Greek Cypriot Women Artists in Contemporary Cyprus M Photiou – Women’s Studies, – Taylor & Francis, UK
2012 Der Einfluss struktureller und situationsbedingter Merkmale auf das Spielverhalten an Spielautomaten, Mark D. Griffiths, Jonathan Parke, Jeffrey L. Derevensky, Nottingham Trent University
2010 “Fountain”To understand the work we must understand the man:Marcel Duchamp. Joannie Godwin, Invercargill, New Zealand https://joannie-godwin.blogspot.com.cy/
2009 Too Close to the Money A Theory of Compulsive Gambling O Bjerg – Theory, Culture & Society
2009 Automatic pleasures? The early history of slot machines- Angelika Epple-Internationale Konferenz am Historischen Seminar der Universität zu Köln
2009 The “Automat”. A History of Technological Transfer and the Process of Global Standardization in Modern Fast Food around 1900 Angelika Epple, Universität Bielefeld, Germany
2008 For tæt på kapitalismen O Bjerg
2008 The evolution of problem gambling helplines G Clifford – In the pursuit of winning
2007 In the Pursuit of Winning: Problem Gambling Theory, Research and Treatment, Masood Zangeneh, Alex Blaszczynski, Nigel E. Turner , Springer
2007 Escape!: Computerspiele als Kulturtechnik C Pias, C Holtorf
2007 Máquinas de diversión, máquinas de problemas E Huhtamo – Artnodes: revista de arte, ciencia y tecnología
2007 Spelen in Cyberspace. Gust De Meyer, Steven Malliet
2006 Gender construction and the Individual in the work of Mona Caird. Tracey S Rosenberg, University of Edinburgh
2006 Gambling in Nineteenth-Century Literature – Nineteenth-Century literature criticism 168 . [electronic resource] Jessica Bomarito, Russell Whitaker, Gale, USA
2006 Treatment and Development in Problem and Pathological Gambling. Miranda Bulwer, University of South Africa
2006 The Sociology of Risk and Gambling Reader edited by James F. Cosgrave
2006 The Age of Chance: Gambling in Western Culture. Gerda Reith
2006 The psychology of the fruit machine: The role of structural characteristics (revisited) J Parke, M Griffiths – International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction
2005 Handbook of Computer Game Studies Joost Raessens, Jeffrey H. Goldstein, MIT Press
2005 The androids, automatons and artificial animals website siteseerx.ist.psu.edu/
2003 Griffiths, M.D. & Parke, J. (2003). The environmental psychology of gambling. In G. Reith (Ed.), Gambling: Who wins? Who Loses? pp. 277-292. New York: Prometheus Books.
2002 An Invisible Force : the amazing psychic table, Crispin Jones. Exhibited at Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria,
2002 Vending Machines: An American Social History, Kerry Segrave, McFarland & Company, Jefferson, North Carolina
2002 Computer Spiel Welten.. Claus Pias
2002 Game over: Spiele, Tod und Jenseits edited by Reiner Sörries , Arbeitsgemeinschaft Friedhof und Denkmal e.V. Zentralinstitut und Museum für Sepulkralkultur, Kassel, Germany
2001 Faszination der Bewegung: Ottomar Anschütz zwischen Photographie und Kino, Deac Rossell, Stroemfeld/Roter Stern
2000 L’universo ludico elettronico Prisco Vicidomini
2000 Age of Chance: Gambling in Western Culture G Reith – Routledge
1999 “L’innovazione tecnoludica – L’era dei videogiochi simbolici 1958-1984”, di Matteo Bittanti, Jackson Libri, Italy
1999 A Victorian film enterprise: the history of the British Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1897-1915 R Brown, B Anthony
1998 Automatenwelten.: FreiZeitzeugen des Jahrhunderts. Wilhelm Hornbostel, Nils Jockel, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, Prestel Verlag GmbH + Company
1997 The Role of Familiarity in Fruit Machine Gambling, Griffiths M.D., Dunbar D
1997 Commercial Gaming: The Unfair Deal Sandra Dekker University of South Australia
1997 Encyclopedia of British numismatics. Volume II, Pt. 2: Numismatic guide to British and Irish periodicals, 1836-1995, Harrington E. Manville. Baldwin & Spink, London
1996 Who’s Who of Victorian Cinema, Stephen Herbert, Luke McKernan, British Film Institute
1996 Homo Aleator: a sociological study of gambling in western society. Gerda Reith, University of Glasgow
1995 Adolescent gambling, Mark Griffiths, Routledge
1995 Americana and collectibles, Harry L. Rinker, Wallace-Homestead Book Company
1994 Transactions: Essays in Honor of Jeremy F. Boissevain, Het Spinhuis
1993 Welcome to the pleasuredome : inside Las Vegas, David Spanier. University of Nevada Press, USA
1993 Gambling behavior and problem gambling, William R. Eadington, Judy A. Cornelius, Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming, College of Business Administration, University of Nevada, Reno
1993 Fruit machine gambling: The importance of structural characteristics M Griffiths – Journal of gambling studies
1993 ‘Het ding” wilde” niet wat ik wilde.’Enige notities over moderne vormen van animisme in westerse samenlevingen J Verrips – Etnofoor
1992 All right, okay, you win: inside Las Vegas, David Spanier, Secker & Warburg
1992 Lyle 1,001 Antiques Worth a Fortune, A Curtis, T Curtis
1991 The people’s palaces: the story of the seaside pleasure buildings of 1870-1914, Lynn F. Pearson, Barracuda
1991 The observational study of adolescent gambling in UK amusement arcades M Griffiths – Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 1991
1991 Collector’s guide to Victoriana, O. Henry Mace, Wallace-Homestead Book Co.
1990 Current Bibliography in the History of Technology (1988) Henry Lowood, Judith A. Adams, Stephen H. Cutcliffe, Jane Morley, Christine M. Roysdon and Ian Winship Technology and Culture Vol. 31, No. 3 (Jul., 1990), pp. 561-723 John Hopkins University Press
1989 What the Butler Played, Advanced Computer Entertainment magazine, Issue24 September. Future Publishing, London
Nic Costa Slot Machines For Sale
1988 Arcadia- Slot Machines of Europe and America Jean Claude Baudot, Nic Costa, D.J. Costelo Publishers Tunbridge Wells, Kent UK
Nic Costa Slot Machines Free Play
1988 Wenn der Groschen fällt–: Münzautomaten, gestern und heute, Cornelia Kemp, Ulrike Gierlinger, Deutsches Museum, Germany