[ Ref. 240311 MMDigest ]

This is a shoutout to Nancy Fratti and Jamie Brewer for helping me
with making replica sticks of gum for my Regina 17a musical gum
dispenser. I checked out eBay for genuine old sticks and was surprised
to see there's a market for World War II-era gum at very high asking
prices - who would have guessed! I then printed out some label scans
provided by Jamie and these proved to be very colorful and varied.

I found wooden project sticks of approximate width and thickness at
a local chain-store hobby outlet and made a few dozen examples that
work pretty well in the dispensing mechanism; They are not always
flawless in operation, and I can imagine a shopkeeper over a hundred
years ago occasionally having to dislodge real gum sticks for young
customers even then.

It's fun to wait for the gum stick to pop out while the music plays.

Thanks for your help!

Bob Barnett

 [ Regina 17a Musical Gum stick Dispenser and Gumsticks
 [ https://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/24/03/26/240326_143630_Regina%2017a%20Gum%20Dispenser%20with%20gumsticks.jpg 

 [ Regina Gumstick Printed Scan Sheet
 [ https://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/24/03/26/240326_143630_Regina%20Gumstick%20scans.jpg