Why Were Scales Amusements?
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- čas přidán 1. 08. 2024
- A few weeks back my buddy Ed texted me a photo of one of those big old scales that you might come across at a boardwalk and asked “Why are these popular? Why do people pay a quarter to weigh themselves?” It was a great question. I had seen these countless times over the years and while it seemed obvious that they were an older amusement, I still wondered why they were ever an amusement to begin with.
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Additional Sources
Miller, Kelsey. 2021. “The Completely Bonkers History of the Bathroom Scale.” Medium. Elemental. February 15, 2021
“The Christopher K. Steele Collection.” 2020. Theamericanweigh.com. 2020.
Steele Collection, Christopher. 1891.
“Penny Scales Make Millions”, The Journal Times (Racine, Wisconsin), Sep 16 1927
“Weigh the baby free of charge”, Portage Daily Register (Portage, Wisconsin), Apr 18 1924
Rob: Answering the questions only I asked
Penny scales are still super-common in Spanish pharmacies, and most of them now come with built-in cuffs for measuring blood pressure.
Penny scales are also kind-of-common in Mexican pharmacies and superstores, including a third of the mexican Wal-Mart stores I've ever been. Some of them show your weight and lucky numbers (!) in a LED screen, but the more expansive ones print tickets with your weight, height, and blood pressure.
Shout out to the last penny scale I used: It was located in a Farmacia del Ahorro (a mexican franchise chain of pharmacies), it had a beautiful circular screen with a ticket printer, and that electronic bastard ate my 5 pesos coin without even telling me how fat am I.
I continue to enjoy the odd and obscure topics that you choose to talk about.
My Grandparents who were antique dealers had a fortune telling penny scale in their laundry room. I always liked playing with it. Thanks for bringing back memories.
2:42 The local supermarket had a scale just like that one, back in the 1960's. My cousins and I would get our weights and horoscopes when we had the money. It was fun because there was nothing else to do.
An old drug store had that same one when I was a kid. I was also fasicnated watching the owner open it to empty the coins and refill the cards. Many a quarter was eaten by that thing. At that time it felt like a great use of my allowance.
I remember these were still quite common in and around NYC thru the 1970s. We would bother our parents for pennies to weigh ourselves even though we had a scale at home. Why, not so much for the novelty but for the fact the store scales looked so well built, we thought they were more accurate too.
I used to be so excited to put a coin in, I thought something amazing would go off, despite me doing it previously and being upset. Ha ha ha.
I seem to remember seeing a penny scale somewhere that would tell you what your weight would be if you were standing on Mars, and I imagine ones for other planets existed as well.
We are all total nerds for finding this information interesting. I remember my mother talking to me about Penny Scales.
If you need an idea for another video I would love to find out how much Disney’s firework shows cost them and the how they are made and planned
Interesting! Something I would have never pursued
They still have these in Thailand, they're pretty much in front of any convenience store, and they cost 1 Thai Baht to use (USD $0.03)
Love a good obscure amusement I’d never have thought to ask about
An old ice cream parler I live close to has one and and it looks ancient we've used it a few times just for curiosity needless to say it wasn't very accurate lol
Good to see you again Rob. We missed you.
That was interesting. One of my memories from going to Disney for the first time in the mid to late 80's was the Penny Arcade on Main Street. Every time I go now I tell my wife that I wish they brought that back, we have enough souvenir shops. It was something interactive that you couldn't find anywhere else.
Don't forget that in the late 1800's people literally died of TB which was then called 'Consumption.' A major sign was unexplained loss of weight. It literally was the cheapest way for the average person to get a piece of hard data about their health if they had a cough or noticed their pants were loser. It's hard to imagine now in the middle of a public health problem with obesity, but being underweight was a major health risk during most of human history.
You’re so great at finding subjects I didn’t know I wanted to know more about.
I remember seeing more modern versions of the penny scales in the 2000s - they had a big arm over your head with a sensor it in and would do your weight, height, and then give you your BMI - so they kept going for some time!
Huh, I didn't know these were used for amusement, I had only ever seen them in public restrooms before, and even then it's been a while since I've seen one.
Missed ya! Glad you’re in the new place.
THAT'S A BIG SCALE!!!!!!!!
I love these videos. I love your narration. I love your voice. Thanks for making them!
This is definitely something I never knew I needed to know until now.
PENNY SCALES WERE PRETTY POPULAR!
I wish *my* digital scale gave me horoscopes. XD
They still have these at many public restrooms at malls. Usually the ones by the food courts. I remember as a kid seeing the charts they had. It was like an early form of BMI index. In fact, it might’ve been just that except they hadn’t made the information more available to the public. You took your weight and compared it with your height. There was a range for small frame, average frame, and large frame. I am assuming large frame was what people who claimed they were “big boned” were, but perhaps it was to consider that people had various levels of muscle mass, and it would be wrong for a very muscular healthy person to be classified as morbidly obese, like they are with BMI.
Rob, I love your content! Can you do a video on the history of Joe Rhode’s ear? 👂🏻
Seriously!
That was so cool!
Thank you for this. Questions I didn't know I wanted answers too.
Those are free at Publix
Some of these old scales would read your fortune too.
Awesome video
I have always wanted one of these things. And an old school gumball machine.
They were $0.05 to $0.10 back in my day. The lucky cards they dispence were part of the novelty.
Added: i seem to remember one that had a random chance of dispensing gum....getting food in a bathfoom always seemed weird to me.
Thats so weird. Nowadays we can just weigh things with our phones
Wait no we cant
Sure you can. If the glass breaks it is too heavy.
Neat!
Do/Did they have any penny scales inside the Disney land train building?
Interesting
I want rob to play Minecraft again those videos were so awesome
He’s moved on from gaming videos, his primary focus is theme park history. I doubt he will do them again.
Wonder if the scales would be broken now due to the increasing waist bands of the American.
Yo, remember mcmagic?
first people to buy personal scals must have been insanly rich imagine spending 100×+ the price of wieghing out in public. it would take most people years to save money on it
The first people that bought them in any quantity were the middle class, which was a growing group from the 1920s onward; yes, even in the 1930s there was a middle class that had a livable amount of money, though they had to be more thrifty than in the 20s. But they could have afforded a scale, since it was close to a lifetime purchase.
At a guess, a bathroom scale in the 20s or 30s would have cost about 5 bucks. A middle class person probably made around 40 bucks a week back then. So it was a day or two's wages. Now this wasn't "easy money" you could throw away. Remember back then there was one "wage earner" or "bread winner" for a typical family of four, so that 40 bucks had to buy food, clothes, housing, and taxes for four people.
But the definition of "middle class" is that you have some amount of disposable income that you can use as you please, even if it isn't much. So just like you and your family might be able to take a week or two of vacation every year, you could afford the occasional candy bar or a big purchase like a watch or a bathroom scale.
@@lwilton $5 is equal to 500 uses of the public scales is all im saying. if you wigh yourself once a week wich would be very often for the time period thats 10 years befor you even save 1cent.
so i doubt anyone bought it thinking it would save them money. it was definitely very disposable income. an item you barly use at all is very different then a vacation.
@@theendofit You can buy a lot of bus rides for the price of a car. But when people could afford cars, they bought them and stopped riding buses. Convenience and (in those days) a sense of personal liberty to do what you wanted often trumped minimalist social economy. It is an attitude that is almost impossible to comprehend these days. The attitudes and aspirations of the people in the US before about 1965 were almost the complete polar opposite of what they are these days.
Huh.
Did you know that there is a name for girls (Example Penny from the WarioWare series)
Weird to think that bathroom scales used to be rare...