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Lee-White

Lee-White V. M. Co., Brockport, NY, c. 1905, 35 ¹/₂". Everything I know about this machine I learned from Silent Salesmen Too and from the stenciled writing on the front of the machine. That writing says the following:

DELICIOUS
CONFECTIONS
and
Salted Peanuts
ONE CENT

DROP PENNY IN SLOT
PUSH ROD WAY IN
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Lee - White V. M. Co.,
Brockport, N.Y.

Silent Salesmen Too claims that this machine was made in 1905 by a company that may have existed only that year. It was the only year Lee-White was listed in city directories, so they either went out of business soon thereafter or else moved. Bill Enes was proud of his sleuthing abilities when tracking down information about vending machines and the companies that made them, so I'll trust his opinion on this until I see evidence to the contrary.

This is a 2-column vendor, one side of which apparently sold Delicious Confections and the other side of which apparently sold Salted Peanuts. With only one rod for the 2 columns, the side that dispensed was the side into which the coin had been dropped.

I think these are quite scarce, which you'd expect for a machine made by such a short-lived company. This is one of only 2 examples I know of. This one looks remarkably like the one pictured on page 84 of Silent Salesmen Too, while the other one looks the same except for the stenciling, which has the same information but uses different fonts and all black ink.

In spite of its scarcity, this is a pretty plain machine. It's solid oak, with the only eye-catching feature being the front stenciling, and even that's not exactly vivid. Still, it's a very clean machine, is a quality piece, and---in the words of the guy I bought it from---is a very nice piece of furniture.

The example pictured above is 100% original and is mint. It's not electric---the cords emanating from the back come from a wall socket immediately behind the machine. I don't like to see wall sockets, so this machine is placed strategically in front of one in order to block the view. The strategy works well.

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