Mills War Eagle Quarter Slot Machine

One of only a handful ever made, this Double DeLuxe Violano Virtuoso, created by the Mills Novelty Company, is an extremely rare example of American musical automata, featuring not one, but two brilliantly tuned violins. Singled out by the U.S. government in 1909 as one of the eight greatest inventions of the decade when it was introduced at the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition, the Mills DeLuxe Violano-Virtuoso stands as one of the most important and incredible musical devices ever made. The “Double Mills,” as it was nicknamed, plays classical, operatic and popular music. It can play on a single or up to 15 nickels and has the ability to run for approximately an hour. It produces exceptional sound with a crisp tonal quality and melodious notes. Housed in a beautiful quarter-sawn oak case, each violin produces 64 notes and is accompanied by a 44-note piano. It is truly rare to find a historical musical mechanism so complete, with such remarkable sound quality and in excellent condition. This particular Violano has been updated with a digital player system that allows song selections to be made over a WiFi connection. This gives the user a choice between digital downloads or traditional paper rolls for added convenience. Perfected and patented in 1912 by Henry K. Sandell, the Violano-Virtuoso was produced in limited quantities until 1929 and could be found in the very finest restaurants, hotels and oceanliners. In fact, the Violano-Virtuoso was one of the few American-made mechanical musical devices to be distributed worldwide to the most exclusive international clientele. The below testimonial was sent to the Mills Company by the Governor of Idaho, aptly describing the incredible music produced by the Violano-Virtuoso. Dear Sir, Have just had the pleasure of listening to your wonderful Automatic Violin and Piano on exhibition at the Government Building here. This marvelous instrument certainly far surpasses anything that I have eve heard in automatic music. The tone and expression of the violin and the piano are so perfect and clear that is really hard to believe but that there is the human hand playing..." Indeed, for the price of a nickel, the Mills Violano...

This Swiss-engineered cipher machine is a fascinating piece of 20th-century military and engineering history, and this particular example is one of the ...

An incredible and extremely rare artifact of world history, this mutton bone model of a guillotine was created during the Napoleonic wars by a French prisoner of war. Many of the inmates at the prisoner of war camps were skilled artisans long before they were soldiers, and because of the long duration of the conflict and cost of care, their captors encouraged detainees to use their skills to create objects to be sold at civilian open markets. Because of the intricacy of these fascinating objets d'art, very few of these models have survived the test of time. This masterpiece is impeccably detailed with soldiers and cannons lining the platforms. Adding to the rarity of this piece is that it has moving parts, as only a scant few model carvings were ever created with such mechanical accuracy. The soldiers have movable arms, while the guillotine features a movable "blade" for added authenticity. By many accounts, Napoleonic prisoners of war...

Considered the first step into the world of modern photocopying, the copying machine was among the first widely used devices to successfully produce an ex...