It was simply dubbed “Marshfield.”
Manufactured by Marshfield Novelty Works, the electric slot machine was a breakthrough invention in 1897. With five slots, multiple people could play at the same time. For a time, orders from around the country for this machine exceeded what could be produced.
Jeremiah “Jerry” L. Blodgett, operator of Pratt Electrics in L.A., filed a patent July 20, 1897 after reengineering Pratt and Berger electric machines with more coin slots and color payout. It was then manufactured in Marshfield through the business run by his father, C.E. Blodgett.
Hand-carved oak cabinets for the slot machines were made in the city at Hans Bille’s workshop. After the 1887 Marshfield Fire, Bille had an active part in the rebuilding effort and started his business in 1890.
A Feb. 18, 1898 local newspaper report stated, “The rip saws and turning lathes in Hans Bille’s Shop keep up a busy song these days. Since the shop has been enlarged and new machinery and benches added, work is turned out more rapidly, but with the help of nine operators, they are behind on orders. They are now engaged in making 100 of the new improved Marshfield Novelty’s Co.’s slot machines.”
An Elgin, Iowa newspaper reported in March that Marshfield Novelty Works had sold $3,500 worth of slot machines to a Chicago buyer.
Today, Jerry’s descendants do not own the now-antique slot machine, but do possess one of the slot tokens marked with the words “Marshfield Novelty Company,” and “Good for Trade.”
While the slot machine took these tokens, it wasn’t immune to the trickster. The Marshfield Times reported on April 15, 1898 that several men from Wausau visited nearly every slot machine in town and played with washers “until the machine refused to pay in the coin of our realm and the operators moved on.”
Around 60 washers were estimated to have been taken out of one machine alone. “If anybody or firm is shy of washers in Wausau let them come here, prove property and take the same away,” the report humorously concluded.
The slot machine invention wouldn’t be the only innovation by Jerry Blodgett. In 1908, he patented “a new type of automobile” that was “superior to any now in use,” according to the Nov. 14 (likely paid) newspaper report. The machine’s casting had been received in Marshfield and would immediately be put together. However, it appears it was never mass-produced and only one automobile was made.
Special thanks to Tim and Sandra Smith for providing historic information about his ancestor.
Hello! The man sitting in the drivers seat is my great grandfather, Anson James Campbell, he married Jerry’s sister Paulene (Blodgett) Campbell, I am also a descendent of Charles E. Blodgett. I have an original newspaper clipping of the above photo.