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Pin-Ticketing Machine
Society
Main Category
Sub Category
Era
Date Created
Location Country
us
Coordinates
39.638645, -84.238788
Address1
Monarch Marking Systems
Address2
170 Monarch Lane
City
Miamisburg
State
Country
Zip

This was the first successful machine for mechanizing the identification and price marking of retail merchandise. At a single stroke of the operating handle, the machine formed a tag from a roll of stock, imprinted it with price and other information, formed a wire staple, and stapled the tag to the merchandise. This means for dispensing with handmade and written tags amounted to a minor revolution in the then rapidly expanding retail industry.

This machine was developed by Frederick Kohnle of Dayton, and early examples were produced by the Automatic Pin Ticketing Machine Co., a predecessor of the Monarch Marking System Co. In 1890 Kohnle invented a paper price tag with fastening device and was granted US patent #457,783 in 1891. While Kohnle founded a company to manufacture these machines, he continued developing improvements and had begun working on a table-top, hand-operated machine. On November 18, 1903, the Automatic Pin Ticketing Machine Co. purchased the patents of Wm. G. Metcalf, another Dayton inventor (patents #607,119 and #619,773, in 1898 and 1899 respectively). Kohnle completed a engineering model in 1902 and tested in at a local department store. He soon developed a floor-mounted, foot-treadle version for which he received a patent (#762,322) on June 14, 1904. By mid-March of 1904, nearly 150 units had been completed.

The landmark artifact is the earliest known model, believed to be either the device or a companion model to the table-top test device of 1902.

early model of first successful price-marking, tag-attachment machine for US retail merchandising
Image Credit
Courtesy ASME
Image Caption
Pin-Ticketing Machine

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