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Original MILLER Parking Meter, 1930's, Deco, Works!!
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Original MILLER Parking Meter, 1930's, Deco, Works!!
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Boy, I hate to part with this-- my name actually is MILLER.... but I have to de-clutter. I bought this meter at an estate sale just south of San Francisco. The owner was an incredible pack-rat. I have no idea HOW he came upon this parking meter.... t's no city-name on it. I tried researching cities which painted their meters orange, but I didn't have any luck. Let me know if you have this vital information. I put a penny in it, and it timed out just right. The red TIME EXPIRED flag works, too. The glass is clear and not cracked, as you can see... t are some scratches and dings, but these machines didn't get gentle treatment.... they sat out in the blazing sun and the freezing cold, and got the wrath of a lot of angry drivers! This meter is about 16 1/2 inches tall, and 8 inches across at its widest point. The only problem with this meter is that somew in the last 60-plus years, the key broke off IN the lock. I'll leave it to the new owner to fix it. I don't think t are more than a few coins locked inside. One of the photos shows the patent number. I researched it, and it was issued in 1931. But according to the Smithsonian Institution, which has one of these same Miller Meters in its collection, they weren't put into use until the late 1930's. The article below is from the Smithsonian's display description: The Miller parking meter was introduced in the late 1930s. Yo-yo manufacturer Donald F. Duncan soon purchased the Miller meter business. Duncan-Miller meters were manufactured through the mid-1940s. Spring-driven parking meter with art deco housing. This parking meter is among the earliest ones installed. In the 1920s and early 1930s, inventors filed patent claims for timing devices that regulated parking in curb lanes; some proposals involved collecting a fee. Many cities--beginning with Oklahoma City in 1935--installed coin-operated, spring-driven parking meters beside curb lanes to increase turnover, help enforce violations, reduce traffic congestion resulting from inadequate or haphazard parking spaces, and add much-needed revenue to municipal treasuries. City officials believed that parking meters were necessary to cope with the influx of automobiles into downtown areas and give more motorists access to stores and other businesses. But motorists and merchants challenged the legality of meters, claiming that they annoyed shoppers, deprived merchants and their employees of access to their front doors, and imposed an unfair tax on right-of-ways that were open to all. Most of the legal challenges failed, but meters were removed in several cities, and hours of enforcement were shortened in others. As parking meters proved their compatibility with downtown traffic and their success at increasing revenue, meters became an accepted way to regulate curb parking and fund traffic-related improvements as well as general municipal expenses.
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