Editing Claw machine (section)

==Early history==
[[File:Erie Digger ad illustration.png|thumb|Illustration of an Erie Digger in a 1927 issue of ''[[Billboard (magazine)|The Billboard]]'']]

Claw machines are believed to have originated in the United States in the 1890s, when they were made to resemble the machines that built the [[Panama Canal]].<ref name="usnwr">{{cite web |last1=Yoon |first1=Dasl |title=Grasping for Hope |url=https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2017-09-29/south-koreas-claw-arcades-explode-in-popularity |website=[[U.S. News & World Report]] |access-date=8 May 2023 |date=29 September 2017}}</ref> The first patented claw machine, the Erie Digger, was a glass box containing candy and other small objects, a chute, and a coin-operated miniature steam shovel that moved in an arc, could be moved with a handle, and could be lifted and dropped into the chute using a hand crank.<ref>{{cite court |litigants=Commonwealth v. Ward |vol=281 |reporter=Mass. 119 |opinion=183 |pinpoint=N.E. 271 |court=Mass. |date=1932 |url=https://casetext.com/case/commonwealth-v-ward-5}}</ref> It was invented in 1926, manufactured by the Erie Manufacturing Company, and named after the construction of the [[Erie Canal]]. It found success at carnivals, partially because it did not require electricity like other carnival attractions. Throughout the 1930s, it saw use as furniture in train stations, hotels, drugstores, cigar stores, and bus stations, where it was used to keep customers entertained.<ref name="mf" /> During the [[Great Depression]], designing intricate, [[Art Deco]] claw machines for hotels and stores became a lucrative endeavor.<ref name="phoenix" /> 

The Miami Digger, invented by American carnival operator William Bartlett of Miami and patented by him in 1932, improved upon the design of the Erie Digger by using an electric motor and allowing the crane to move around the entire box.<ref name="phoenix">{{cite web |last1=Ernest |first1=Alec |title=The secret history of the claw machine - Lifestyle Features |url=https://thephoenix.com/boston/life/121907-secret-history-of-the-claw-machine/ |website=[[The Phoenix (newspaper)|The Boston Phoenix]] |access-date=2 May 2023 |date=10 June 2011}}</ref> It was also known as the Nickel Digger, as it contained money, such as [[Nickel (United States coin)|nickels]] and [[Dollar coin (United States)|silver dollars]], as prizes; premium versions of the diggers had watches and cigarette lighters as prizes for adults. Bartlett became rich from the popularity of the machines and died in 1948.<ref name="mf" />