The Parking Meter Page

Your One-Stop Shop for (just about) Everything You'd Care to Know About Parking Meters

Current State of the Art page active as of 12/21/98

NEW! Click Here for Parking Meter Restoration Tips

Parking meters. Those pesky money-pits-on-a-post. Armless bandits that everyone hates. Everyone, that is, except the folks who own them. Usually a local government. A city. "AnyTown, USA." Sometimes a college or university, or even a private parking facility.

Ever wonder who on earth came up with such an idea? And why? How long have they been around? Well, you've come to the right place - The Parking Meter Page! Created and maintained by Ron Luttrell II, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Where it all started, thank you very much. For those of you who might wonder why I created this site, take a look at the page entitled Why a Parking Meter Page?

The parking meter was originated by Carl C. Magee, who filed for a patent on the invention May 13, 1935. The patent was issued May 24, 1938 as patent number 2,118,318. The world's first parking meter installation was on the streets of Oklahoma City in July 1935. More information can be found on the History page.

That first meter was manufactured by the Magee-Hale Park-O-Meter Company, the predecessor of one of the current parking meter makers, POM Incorporated, whose web site is the source for most of the historical links provided by The Parking Meter Page.

Other current manufacturers of parking meters are Duncan Industries, whose web site provides photographs and data on the current line of Duncan parking meters, and J.J. MacKay Canada Limited, makers of MacKay Meters. Links to these manufacturers, as well as others, can be found on the Links page.

Want to buy your very own parking meter? Be sure to check out the links under Buy One of Your Very Own!

You can help me write a book about parking meters! If you have anything to contribute, such as historical information, photographs, or parking meter related Internet links, please let me know. Any submissions used will be properly credited.

Thanks for visiting The Parking Meter Page.

You are visitor number since moving to ioNet March 15,1998. There were 486 visitors to the old site from January 18, 1998 to March 15, 1998.

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