The 90-year history of the binoculars bolted to scenic overlooks

> Tower Optical began in a Norwalk, Connecticut, machine shop in 1933, and remained in the same family until 2025.

The article doesn't go into too much detail beyond this snippet, but yeah, the original family business was sold to a cohort of investors in 2025[1]. The retrofit was outsourced to a European firm to add the tap-to-pay functionality, so I guess there's nothing left of the original manufacturing business.

[1] https://www.wsj.com/business/entrepreneurship/tourist-binocu...

Seems like the perfect place to install a credit card scraper… I would not tap anything on that.

Would have been a great How Its Made segment

It's almost an alternate universe reading this as throughout my childhood I noticed all of those coin operated binoculars were manufactured in Fairhope, Alabama. No doubt there were regional preferences for units from one company over the other but I do remember seeing Fairhope originated binoculars in the Midwest and Canada.

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Rent seeking for rentseeking's sake makes it one of the worst inventions. It could have been useful if it didn't need a coin to use. It should be removed. What are local governments for? I have my own zoom monocular/binocular, and am way happier, although I have to find a surface against which to hold it steady.