25. Stock Market Crash
During the stock market crash of October 1929, the mechanical printers could not keep up with the volume of trades. As the tickers fell behind the volume of trading, panic gripped investors.
26. The Black Box
It was clear that a new and faster ticker was needed. By 1934, the New York Quotation Company put the black box into full operation. This was an extremely fast machine.
27. The Three Most Popular
The Universal and the self-winding stock tickers were turned into sports tickers. The Universal was often used in baseball stadiums and in illegal sports gambling. The self-winder was used at radio stations as a news feed. Many were destroyed as excess inventory when the New York Quotation Stock Ticker became the preferred ticker in the early 1900s. It has also been reported that during World War II many of the Universal and self-winding tickers were scrapped for metal or sold off to businesses in South America. In 1960, Western Union ordered all these remaining tickers destroyed.
28. Last Mechanical Ticker
In 1960, The New York Quotation Company introduced the last mechanical ticker. This extremely fast machine was eventually replaced by modern-day computers and electronic displays.
29. Authorized Reproduction
In late 1999, the Stock Ticker Company in cooperation with Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village introduced a working reproduction of the Universal Stock Ticker, produced by the world-renowned Berner Machine Labs and the Berner family.