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Question regarding jackpot glass on early machines.

I have two different Jennings machines whose jackpot glass was trashed with brown crusty stuff. It was found between the two layers of glass in the jackpot windows. After disassembling them, it appears to be some sort of plastic that was burned-looking.

Thinking about it, there is absolutely no plastic on any of these machines. So.

Could it be some sort of material like acetate which they made early films from? Makes no sense that they would use something as high-tech as plastic back then.

Removing any trace of that stuff made the glass clean and sparkly so I just inserted a thin film of clear plastic and re-assembled them.

It is laminated safety glass, the same glass used on all car windows before it was replaced by tempered. This glass is still used on windshields because it is illegal to put tempered glass in a windshield because it doesn't give when hit. Heat and cold will cause the glass to turn brown like yours and sometimes it will turn a milky white. This same thing happened to old car windows. Putting the safety glass in was just to make it harder for someone to break the glass and take the money.

Watlingboy

Thanks Watlingboy. So, they did have some plastic back then, albeit, bad stuff. Can just imagine how the car windows of that era aged with that material.

It seems like those glass pieces were installed into the castings with plumber's putty, all dried out and crumbled. I have been using very thin strips of closed-cell foam that's adhesive backed. I know it's not original, but sure reliable.

I can get he exact same laminated glass in the size you need. Also I suggest Plumbers Water Putty ... that matches the stuff used in the old days. I have an old Duchess machine that used that to secure the glass in place. Works well and I feel it is what was originally used in some of the machines.
Dave F

The reason they used the laminated glass was to keep the cheats from breaking the glass and getting access to the machine. This keeps the glass in place if some one hits it with a hammer. It does break but the laminate keeps all the glass together not allowing the cheat to gain access to the insides of the machine.
Dave F