An early patent for a parking meter, U.S. patent, was filed by Roger W. Babson, on August 30, 1928. The meter was intended to operate on power from the battery of the parking vehicle and required a connection from the car to the meter. Holger George Thuesen and Gerald A. Hale designed the first working parking meter, the Black Maria, in 1935. Thuesen and Hale were engineering professors at Oklahoma State University. They began working on the parking meter in 1933 at the request of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma lawyer and newspaper publisher Carl C. Magee. The world’s first installed parking meter was in Oklahoma City on July 16, 1935. Magee received a patent for the apparatus on 24 May 1938. Industrial production started in 1936 and expanded until the mid-1980s. The first models were based on a coin acceptor, a dial to engage the mechanism, and a visible pointer and flag to indicate the expiration of the paid period. This configuration lasted more than 40 years, with only a few changes in the exterior design, such as a double-headed design (to cover two adjacent parking spaces) and the incorporation of new materials and production techniques. M.H. Rhodes Inc. of Hartford, Connecticut started making meters for Mark-Time Parking Meter Company of Miami, where the first Rhodes meters were installed in 1936. These were different from the Magee design because only the driver’s action of turning a handle was necessary to keep the spring wound. At the same time, Magee’s meters needed a serviceman to wind the spring occasionally. We celebrate this magnificent feat of technology with an AI image of a vintage parking meter …