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Automatic Hamburger Machine - 50 Years Ahead of Its Time!
YouTube ^ | June 16,2014

Posted on 07/27/2015 8:55:24 AM PDT by Hojczyk

Fifty years ago, the engineers of AMF's Central Research Labs in Stamford, CT invented automated foodservice. This entertaining film (circa 1964) describes a pilot operation for the then-burgeoning fast-food industry.

Watch as hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken, seafood, french-fries, onion rings, shakes, and soft drinks are ordered, prepared, and packaged automatically by AMF's revolutionary AMFare System.

All the food was delicious, especially the flame-broiled hamburgers, double-hamburgers and cheeseburgers. The entire menu was cooked-to-order and served in minutes - at the desired temperature for each item.

AMF's Orbis system (shown here) pioneered the concept of electronic ordering, price tabulation, and inventory management in foodservice. Today that is the standard worldwide. However, AMF's Orbis system went further; it electronically controlled the machinery that prepared, cooked, and packaged the food items. AMF's automated beverage dispensers (also shown here) are today common at the "drive-through windows" of many fast-food operations.


TOPICS: Business/Economy
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To: Vendome

21 posted on 07/27/2015 9:52:11 AM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: Hojczyk

Not a lot of stuff on AMFARE on the net, but here are two more items:

http://hackaday.com/tag/amfare/

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1964/05/28/page/81/article/a-m-f-automates-drive-in-chef

The system cost $125K in 1964 dollars - pretty expensive.
And I wonder what cleanup was like?


22 posted on 07/27/2015 9:58:35 AM PDT by Little Ray (How did I end up in this hand-basket, and why is it getting so hot?)
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To: Hojczyk

Then there’s In and Out in California. Great food, national reputation for a regional brand.

They pay their employees well over minimum wage, and customers will pay more should they be forced to.

McDonalds is old school. Chipolte, Panera, Shake Shack have passed them.


23 posted on 07/27/2015 10:01:40 AM PDT by cicero2k
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To: Gaffer

>>>It failed because it couldn’t spit in your burger<<<

You obviously haven’t seen the new updated Jesse Jackson Model.


24 posted on 07/27/2015 10:02:22 AM PDT by Kickass Conservative (Leave to Gun, take the Cannoli...)
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To: Hojczyk
$15 minimum wage for fast food workers?

AMF! (If you know what I mean.)

25 posted on 07/27/2015 10:03:53 AM PDT by N. Theknow (Kennedys-Can't drive, can't ski, can't fly, can't skipper a boat-But they know what's best for you.)
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To: Yo-Yo
Would you like a Titan I with those fries sir?

I was born in Stamford. My father had moved there to work for AMF on designs for hardened ICBM launch silos, specifically the Titan I.

26 posted on 07/27/2015 10:11:13 AM PDT by atomic_dog
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To: cicero2k

Go to an In and Out and watch the Staff perform.

You never see an Employee standing around looking for something to do. No Deer in headlights looks, just an efficient use of Human Resources.

They pay better because they expect better. They have been doing that for Decades, and they make a point to Promote from within.

Many former Burger Flippers working there are Managers now. They do not Franchise, so they have complete control of their Product. They have the same Menu Items that they had when I was a Kid and people still keep coming in droves.

When a Double Double costs the same (or less) than a Big Mac, you know who has it figured out and who doesn’t. Is there even an argument between the Quality of those two Items?


27 posted on 07/27/2015 10:25:37 AM PDT by Kickass Conservative (Leave to Gun, take the Cannoli...)
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To: Little Ray
wonder what cleanup was like?

Cleanup?

28 posted on 07/27/2015 10:30:20 AM PDT by NoCmpromiz (John 14:6 is a non-pluralistic comment.)
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To: Kickass Conservative

Please tell me it’s not the Leona Helmsley Waiter model....


29 posted on 07/27/2015 10:32:28 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: Hojczyk

Did you see the SIZE of that computer!?!


30 posted on 07/27/2015 10:47:42 AM PDT by TigersEye (This is the age of the death of reason and rule of law. Prepare!)
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To: Kickass Conservative

The McDonald / In-n-Out comparison is similar to Oldsmobile / Toyota in 1985.

We kept hearing, and I fell for this, that is was bad unions keeping the American product uncompetitive. Actually, it was bad owners and management, perhaps more so than the unions. They did not see how a car that behaved like an appliance (reliable for 20 years) was possible.

So forcing some arbitrarily high, minimum wage will force business owners to fire marginal employees, and hire In-n-Out competent level staff, many of whom will be minorities.


31 posted on 07/27/2015 10:49:39 AM PDT by cicero2k
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To: cicero2k

Well, my Parents knew a Couple that bought an early 60’s Buick that had a rattle in the Drivers Door.

The guy brought the Car to my Dad’s Gas Station since they were friends, and my Dad found an empty Beer Bottle inside the Door.

I have no idea how that could have happened. LOL


32 posted on 07/27/2015 10:58:25 AM PDT by Kickass Conservative (Leave to Gun, take the Cannoli...)
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To: Kickass Conservative

When I lived in Michigan the largest number of drug busts in Flint were being made in the parking lots at Buick City, during lunch hour.

Just sayin’.


33 posted on 07/27/2015 11:02:24 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Attention Surplus Disorder
Of course I can’t help but visualize Lucille Ball working the controls of the Amfare console and producing 7,314 strawberry shakes.

All pouring out on the floor when she couldn't get any more in her mouth.
34 posted on 07/27/2015 11:05:52 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics)
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To: NoCmpromiz

I used to work in a meat processing plant. The clean up between batches of different product was quite meticulous. I imagine the same would be true of the AMFARE.


35 posted on 07/27/2015 2:10:38 PM PDT by Little Ray (How did I end up in this hand-basket, and why is it getting so hot?)
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To: Vendome
But the fast food industry can’t automate their processes?

Grease and dirt. And machines breakdown. All those little metal and plastic parts will distort and/or wear out and breakdown. Throw a bunch of grease and dirt in the mix and they break down even more. I know there's many people here on FR that think machines are just days away from replacing all the humans in a McD's but that's just not gonna happen. Not in our lifetimes and probably never. That's just a dream. Humans are still cheaper and more efficent and agile than a machine like this. Even at 15 bucks an hour.

Dream on Freepers. ;-)

36 posted on 07/27/2015 6:17:34 PM PDT by Musket (It's very simple:<i>your quoted text pasted here</i><p> produces Quoted Italic with paragraph break)
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