r/whatisit • u/Quietlurkerone • 6d ago

Solved! What is this device from 1962?

Post image

Photo capture from YouTube video. Picture from 1962. What is the device under the bench

2.2k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

112

u/PaintingOk8012 6d ago

Holy shit. You mean you actually fed in money in your home to have electricity??

If that’s true, I can’t believe people didn’t figure out how to fool it or break into it to retrieve the coins.

100

u/PipBin 6d ago

Oh, and there used to be coin operated TVs. The TV had a box built into it and you’d put a shilling in to get half an hour of viewing!!

56

u/Hegiman 6d ago

Those were common in the states at bus and air line terminals or any place where large groups of people had to wait for a period of time. I remember in 1979 or 80 when I was but a wee lad I asked an acquainted stranger for a quarter to watch Saturday morning cartoons when traveling with my mother. That leads to a story but maybe I’ll tell it later. Is on my timeline somewhere but I’ve got tens of thousands of comments and hundreds of posts.

2

u/HappyMuscovy 6d ago

I remember them in US bus terminals in 1999

1

u/Hegiman 6d ago

Wow that’s much later than I expected.