A Gripping History of Claw Machines

(via mental_floss) You’ve seen them everywhere.  Drop a claw, get a prize.  The components may have changed, but that hypnotic interaction between player and claw has been going on for nearly 100 years. Some amusements historians believe the machines existed as early as the 1890s, mechanical dioramas that were built to entice people fascinated by the machinery used in constructing the Panama Canal.