In the same year, he was granted a US patent for an improved coin selecting device which could discard coins that were too small.
Two years later in 1906 he left Mills(seemingly on good terms) and founded the Industry Novelty Co Inc whose business was refurbishing Mills machines.īy 1923 the company was called O.D.Jennings & Co and was doing very well despite a misguided attempt to revive the Garbell Typewriter Corp which he had bought out of liquidation, the attempt was a total disaster. The Mills Spectatorium at the 1904 worlds Fair,St Louis The building was brightly lit at night (Edison's contribution) and attracted a huge number of visitors.
This was a massive building, partly designed by Thomas Edison , and featured (what was said at the time to be ) hundreds of Mills slot machines, it was the only free attraction at the worlds fair but probably made more money than any other. So much so he was given the task of running the Mills Spectatorium at the 1904 World Fair in St Louis. In his late 20's he went to work for the Mills Novelty Co where his natural engineering ability soon made him an expert on coin-operated machines. Ode Jennings was born in Kentucky in 1874.
