Park-O-Meter

Did you know the first parking meter was installed in Oklahoma City, OK? Neither did I, but I do now thanks to a site dedicated to Parking Meter History. On this site, you can also find other informative bits of tid such as how they came about and even a small history of the conjoined twins of meters - the dual head parking meter.

There's also some pictures and links to places you can buy a meter of your very own! What I really want to know though is where I can get my hands on one of those nifty collection mechanisms shown in the pic (oh, and the stylish uniform too).

The early parking meters were totally mechanical (as are many even today). The meters were powered by a clock-type mainspring, which required periodic winding. There were two general approaches to accomplishing this: some meters were automatic, and some were manual.

From that early beginning, the use of parking meters by municipalities, colleges and universities, and private parking facilities has increased to the point that today, in the United States alone, there are an estimated five million parking meters in use.