If KellyCo has been around since 1955 , then ....

[Tom_in_CA]

hey there vintage metal detector buffs: Kelly-Co often touts that they've been in the business of selling mail-order detectors since 1955, right ? Supposedly the company's founder got hold of a Korean War era mine detector, after the Korean war. Ie.: upon returning home to the states, used his skills/knowledge of having used a mine detector during that conflict, and reasoned that a surplus machine ought to be able to find coins back in the USA. And apparently it was capable of finding coin-sized objects. Eventually Kelly-co was born out of that.

So my question is: If kelly-co dates back that far, then is there catalogs of theirs, that date to these earlier years ? It would be interesting to see what machines they offered for sale, at such early times.

Anyone know ? Anyone from kellyco reading this to tell us what your own archives have that date back to these earlier times of your company's existence ?

 

[slingshot]

I tossed mine-never thought of them having value. I can still see pics in my mind of the different models. The one I wanted was the Gardiner Electronics model which had a HUGE coil and was even supposed to have discriminated pulltabs. Of course I started with the D-tex TinyTec which was almost like a walking stick with a teeny BFO box near the handle. Back then, dowsing was hot with the most unusual bobbers, wand, devices known to man. Compass, Whites and Garrett were the big guns, with others vying to compete. Jack Gifford went with C&G technology and I dreamed of of having one of these collapsible backpack-like detectors. One of the best discriminators of all times was the AH Pro, and right before I got mine, I saw a user walk out of our tab-infested carnival grounds with a pouch full of quarters, dimes and pennies. If there was ONE detector I wish I still had, it would be the Compass Coin Magnum, which I believe was the forerunner of todays motion detector. It was deep and as close as you could come to hunting in a/m mode as far as smoothness. They had not yet perfected the phase shift signals and a target would hit, and according to where you set your disc control, you would get a sort of half signal and have to go back over the signal slowly to check whether it was above the disc level. OMG. I'm getting outta control-gotta stop.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

slingshot, you're not out of control. That's what this forum is for afterall, vintage detectors (and related nostalgia, doh!).

I remember several of the machines you cite. But the Gardiner was before my time. Well, at least no one around here had that. I recall them & C&G in the magazines at the time, but they were "on their way out" even then.

I do recall those early Compass attempts you speak of. Compass had some great machines in that day. And I recall a buddy here who had the AH pro, and as you say: was a great discriminator for tab/foil infested spots, where someone wished to cherry pick coins. Like under bleachers, grandstands, etc... Trouble was, like you say, depth was a whopping 4" max, haha

Prior to the advent of VLF (aka GEB) all metal in the early to mid 1970s, some enterprising fellows in my area had learned to take the older all-metal auto-tune Compass detectors (like the 94b and 77b), and could actually use it on the wet salt sand ! They would black-tape the retune button to be "permanently re-tuning". And provided the beach was a white sand beach (ie.: not much minerals), it would actually work on wet salt. Probably only to 5" on a coin, but at least it worked Didn't work on beaches where the sand color was cinnamon colored through. Only whiter sand beaches.

In the early 1970s, a certain fellow in my area was versed/experienced in nugget hunting. So he was somewhat familiar with how heavier items "pole up" and gravitate towards fixed objects in rushing water. Or "settle out" in patterns. These are obvious to nugget hunters who study the lay-of-the-land in gold regions creeks (to know where to stick his dredge for likely spots that nuggets settled). The fellow figured "coins and rings probably do the same thing after beach erosion too". So he took his hunch down to a local beach here in about 1977, right after some storms, and had a field day! Over 100 silver coins, and 15 gold rings. Word spread, and by the end of those storms, several others had joined him in this new technique. Sounds silly now (we take beach storm erosion for granted to watch for). But at the time, these guys were "figuring it out for themselves". Sometimes totally by accident.

Ah those were the day

 

[kellycochris]

Working on it right now. There's an entire room full of paperwork and advertisements to go through.

 

[kellycochris]

This one's from 1975, oldest I can find at the moment. I'd say 40 years old isn't too shabby though. lol

 

[kellycochris]

This one's got some age to it as well. "Mr. A," is featured on the top left.

 

[PSS1963]

Who is Mr. A? The print is too small to read.

-pete

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Chris, last I had talked to anyone there, it was "Ray". And it sounded like it was too much of an undertaking there for anyone to sort through it. But he had said that *possibly* they would open their archives to someone else wishing to take pix of old materials. That's where it ended though, as I never found anyone in Florida, remotely close, willing to go there and fiddle around. And since I'm in CA, it just sort of fizzled there.

So are you willing to take some pix of sample things for vintage machine buffs ?

The samples you posted so far are cool. The 2nd one is not resolute enough to read the print. But I can see the print on the first pix ok.

As for the date, 1975 is well into the "boon times" when no shortage of magazines, catologs, etc.... were abounding. Since the hobby had taken off in the early to mid 1970s. So did you find anything older than that ? That's also 20 yrs. after the 1955 origination of Kellyco, so was wondering what you had from the late '50s and/or early 1960s. Looking forward to any help you can lend ! Thanx !!

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Chris, if selection of which items you choose to spend time scanning/photographing is an issue, can you hone in on the following type items ? Not sure about other "vintage" buffs, but .... if I could speak for the others , these are the type things that would be intriguing:

a) the oldest of the old (going back as near to the 1955 beginnings).

b) particularly of what machines were offered in that era for sale.

c) ANY stories from those earlier eras (up to the end of the 1960s) on the finds that persons were having. Like if any customers were profiled about their finds they'd been making. Particularly if it involved coin-hunting (versus large-item hunting).

Looking forward to any tidbits you find

 

[Daniel A.]

At one time I had a very large vintage collection, among them from memory a Garrett dating around 1965 one of the first and a Whites from 1966 with a wooden coil.

I'm not aware of anything dating in the fifties. but I do still have a couple I'll check the dates on.

Dan

 

[Cameraniac]

A collection of the ads would make a nice book. I'd buy one.

 

[treasure_hunter]

[Tom_in_CA]
Chris, if selection of which items you choose to spend time scanning/photographing is an issue, can you hone in on the following type items ? Not sure about other "vintage" buffs, but .... if I could speak for the others , these are the type things that would be intriguing:

a) the oldest of the old (going back as near to the 1955 beginnings).

b) particularly of what machines were offered in that era for sale.

c) ANY stories from those earlier eras (up to the end of the 1960s) on the finds that persons were having. Like if any customers were profiled about their finds they'd been making. Particularly if it involved coin-hunting (versus large-item hunting).

Looking forward to any tidbits you find [/quote]

Tom i think the biggest issue would be the immense amount of time it would take to go through the filing cabinets looking. There are at least 8-10 5 ft tall metal filing cabinets with every drawer top to bottom full..

 

[Tom_in_CA]

..... Tom i think the biggest issue would be the immense amount of time it would take to go through the filing cabinets looking. There are at least 8-10 5 ft tall metal filing cabinets with every drawer top to bottom full..

Yes. This was already brought to my attention. And yes, no one at kellyco has any incentive to sit around for days-on-end, sorting through materials to hone down specific things that would be of interest to vintage detector buffs. And then laboriously scanning, hosting, blah blah. Yes, lots of work And with nothing financially benefitting kellyco, why should they be bothered? Especially since there's admittedly only a small niche of md'rs who are interested in the nostalgic beginnings/evolution of the hobby.

That's why I was hoping that someone in FL, with the permission of Kellyco, could be allowed to do it. Ie.: someone WITH an interest in vintage detectors. Because you're right: if someone has no interest, there's no incentive. Thus it would need to be someone with a) a lot of time on their hands, and b) someone who likes vintage detector info, hence the "incentive".

But alas, apparently no one within striking distance of kellyco has the time, energy, incentive, etc...... I totally get it. If I were there, I'd do it.

Another dis-insentive in this day and age, is that there is little to be profitted from writing books, and putting out printed materials. Because no one buys books anymore. The era of the internet spelled the end to that in a big way. Thus bookstores folded all over the country. And the remaining publishers have to have a REAL whopper of a seller, to be induced to publish a book nowadays. So in order to get books published now, you almost have to self-publish. Even to try to put a website where you must pay to look at the material, is difficult.

Thus: A) no one's probably going to be able to publish a book about "vintage detectors" using the kelly co material (even if it's excellent and great stuff), because not many vintage buffs, and most don't buy books these days anyhow, and B) if he tries to start a website, he'll get few clicks as everything is free on the net now (and your pix and such would simply be lifted and reprinted elsewhere w/o your permission. C) too few vintage buffs to make that "pay-web-site" idea worthwhile anyhow.

So no matter how it's sliced, looks bad. Not unless someone did it for only a labor-of-love. How about you TH'r ? I'd buy you a 12-pack afterall

 

[Cameraniac]

I'll come over and clean out those cabinets if you want me to? Think of all the space you'll gain!

 

[skookum]

Hi,
I guess that in the 50`s and 60`s, all that KellyCo. had to offer would have been out of date army units.
Back then you had a choise between early BFO´s and early PI detectors.
And the PI´s weren´t nearly at the potential that they have nowadays, back then not even capable of beating many other detectors or detecting many items..

hh
skookum

 

[dirt doctor]

Who is Mr. A? The print is too small to read.

-pete

That would be Stu Auerbach the President at Kellyco .

 

[vlad]

The Phase Readout Gradiometer was made by some NASA engineers at Technos Inc. for hunting Florida beaches for Spanish treasure. It worked
differently than todays detectors on i.d. It would hit a quarter about 11" but this was non mineralised ground. Kellyco was the only hobby store I ever
saw that carried them and they were about $995, roughly 2.5X the price of anyone elses top of the line unit.
Somewhere I have the user's guide, [ from Ty Brook ] but I never owned a PRG-always regretted it.