VINTAGE NORTH WESTERN 1 CENT COKE VENDING MACHINE

The NORTHWESTERN CORP. started in the bulk vending business over 90 years ago in 1909. The company was established in Morris, Illinois by Emerson Bolen.
Bolen represented the Fireless Cooker Company and traveled throughout South America and Africa selling his wares which were blackboards of all things.
Upon his return to the Midwest he came upon the idea of theYankee Clipper, a novelty device that dispensed lit matches and trimmed cigars for tavern patrons.
For bartenders and tavern owners of the day, the clever device saved them the cost of matches which were traditionally offered for free. Before long, this little device attracted the attention of two investors and in August of 1909 the Northwestern. Novelty Corporation was born. Within 9 months they had sold more than a 100,000 Yankees.
In 1911 the company introduced the a penny match vendor and in short order over 500,000 were sold. During the Depression the company introduced a unit called the Penny Merchandiser that could not only sell gum, but also nuts and other products and from there it was full steam ahead designing and introducing in 1933 the Model 33 followed by the deluxe and then the Model 49 and then the Model 60. Introduced in the late 50's which became the standard and the workhorse of the industry.

Today there are very few of this type left around and this is one of the few left. It has a very heavy metal base witch it's mostly made of only the front piece is see through.that part is platic with some scratching but not bad enough to take away from it beauty. It come with one key as you can see from the pictures and it comes with a coke bottle key chain. Inside is a coke bottle that is revealed when the gum or candy starts to go down.From what I can see there are not blemishes on the metaland the decal on the matal are painted on and the decals on hte top are glued on but orignal no tears or rips.Colors painted are red and white. Very beautiful machine.This is a rare machine and great to add to someones collection.