I bought this at a yard sale years ago and thought that it was just a lamp until I discovered that it opened up and found cigarettes, matches, a 1936 calendar, and a piece of plastic ticker tape inside. It also has a little metal tray that slides out and has a lid. It’s made by the Trans Lux corporation and I know that they made ticker tape and movie projectors, but this doesn’t look like a projector to me. I have looked it up using Google images and I can’t find anything that looks similar. I have also looked up the history of the company and can’t find pictures of anything like this.
All comments must be civil and helpful toward finding an answer.
Jokes and other unhelpful comments will earn you a ban, even on the first instance and even if the item has been identified. If you see any comments that violate this rule, report them.
OP, when your item is identified, remember to reply Solved! or Likely Solved! to the comment that gave the answer. Check your notifications for a message on how to make your post visible to others.
Click here to message RemindMeBot
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
Trans-Lux is still around. They made projectors of all sorts. Like the ones we saw in school, both movie and overhead. A search for wooden TransLux stock ticker projector gives an AI result that claims the company was well known to make such a product. I don't see any similar images online, so you may have something that is quite rare. I would contact the company and see if they have any info on it
I will probably contact the company.
Maybe a really fancy ashtray/tobacco cabinet/end table lamp combo?
I think that the metal tray is an ashtray, but I forgot to mention in the description that it has some sort of roller mechanism next to the lightbulb. It looks like you feed film into it, like you would into a projector.
Perhaps it projected ticker tape onto a wall or just onto a screen that magnified its size?
Maybe, but I don’t see how it would have projected it unless there was maybe another piece attached to it.
Maybe it was just backlit by the lightbulb. I thought maybe that large slot across the front of the lightbult might have had a translucent glass piece that the tape went in front of.
edit, if that's a pinhole in that metal sheet, maybe it projected the light through that pinhole through the tickertape onto whatever.
That could be, but the screw in the middle of the tray can’t be removed.
I meant that painted metal sheet next to the roller, but that's a super wild guess.
Oh, okay. I think that I will contact the company. It just seems weird that I can’t find any pictures of another one.
I just noticed that there is a little hole in the metal underneath the lightbulb.
Super cool piece you have! I think the horizontal opening in front of the bulb (under the Trans-Lux logo) used to hold a glass window, and that the stock ticker tape was routed between the long bulb and the long glass to allow the stock symbols to be viewed.
I think not that narrow film that was found with it. But can you transcribe all the text on that film, or take photos with it straightened out?
Just guessing really, but I'm thinking wider film, with holes in at least one edge, similar to camera film. Two spools, I think, both missing. The film would pass round the pins in the corners to be held behind the window at the front (which may have had glass) and in front of the bulb to do... I'm not sure what, but I don't think projection of anything, maybe some kind of sign?
A mechanism in the blocked off part of the lower compartment would gradually wind the film, via a shaft at the back left passing through the pillar to the sprocket wheel thing at the top, with the contraption at the back right of the upper compartment doing something when the film was finished, using that contact leaf, perhaps the cylindrical part is a buzzer, or maybe something like a solenoid to stop it winding? The knobs on the base presumably control something, on and off, and speed, maybe? Or one control for the lamp and the other for the winding?
No idea about the tray part, what is that attached to the middle of it?
There's something attached to the underside of the upper part, what is that? Maybe the light could shine through a hole there with the tray part as a reflector for some reason.
I can’t completely straighten out the film because it’s pretty fragile and a piece has already started to fall off, but it says: GRL SO GS CGG PLOBI EMR WSX NAC GRB SM GS LI DIS RJR, and there are numbers underneath. I don’t know what the thing is in the middle of the tray. It looks like some sort of screw.
Those are stock symbols. Not sure about most of them but GS is still around. It’s Goldman Sachs.
ETA: RJR is RJ Reynolds Tobacco, DIS is Disney.
Possibly an earlier version of this?
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/trans-lux-personal-ticker-stock-1890567718
Title describes the thing. I have searched using google images and haven’t found anything.