Thomas Edison’s 1870s Stock Ticker Machine to Sell at Potter & Potter Auctions

Potter & Potter Auctions’ upcoming Coin Op & Advertising sale offers collectors a glimpse into the past with assorted mechanical items of bygone eras. Among the top lots is an Edison stock ticker from circa 1900. This piece comes to auction on a cast iron base. Atop is an ink box, paper spool, and glass dome. A plaque on the ticker shares the following history: “This authentic old self winding stock ticker was designed by Thomas A. Edison in 1870. It was used for about eighty years for receiving stock and commodity quotations from the nation’s leading exchanges.” American inventor E. A. Calahan created the first stock ticker in 1867, aiming to minimize the inefficiencies of having messenger boys rush between offices with stock market information. Edison built on and improved Calahan’s invention by making it smaller and smoother to operate. It was one of Edison’s first inventions, and it helped catapult him to fame. 

Elsewhere in the catalog, bidders will find assorted arcade games and mechanical curiosities. This includes a fortune telling arcade machine featuring a silk-clothed donkey that spins a ship’s wheel to tell the player’s fortune. The piece includes a marquee at the top, advertising the donkey’s powers to solve problems. Additional lots of interest include a French arcade automaton theater with ten vignettes from the early 1900s. Arranged in a neat row, these miniature theaters depict a cobbler in his workshop, firemen addressing a burning building, a farmer grabbing a pig, and other scenes. A red cast iron Mutoscope (an early motion picture device) from 1928 and assorted 1950s advertising signs will be available as well. View the complete Coin Op & Advertising sale and register to place a bid by visiting Potter & Potter Auctions. Find more auction previews and news on Auction Daily.