> 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.
Seems like the perfect place to install a credit card scraper… I would not tap anything on that.
t1234s 5 hours ago [-]
Would have been a great How Its Made segment
OutOfHere 4 hours ago [-]
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.
derektank 4 hours ago [-]
I don’t think this is a good example of rent seeking, this seems like an entirely positive sum interaction with no attempts to restrict the supply.
There is a cost to installing the binoculars. That cost can be recouped by people paying a small fee to use the binoculars. The binoculars are in no way impeding your view of the scenery, so no one is being coerced into making the purchase. You aren’t prevented from bringing your own pair of binoculars.
So you're only going to be spending your spare change on the enhanced zoom if you believe it’s worth more than your unimpeded view. You get a view you wouldn’t have had otherwise, whoever installed the binoculars earns a small profit. Win-win.
scuppernong 3 hours ago [-]
how do they obtain the prime real estate at a scenic overlook?
OutOfHere 2 hours ago [-]
The same real estate should've been used by the respective local government to offer viewing sites for everyone to benefit.
Also, sometimes the device doesn't work right, effectively stealing money or pointlessly taking up space.
songhonglei1985 2 hours ago [-]
[dead]
Rendered at 05:44:11 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
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...
There is a cost to installing the binoculars. That cost can be recouped by people paying a small fee to use the binoculars. The binoculars are in no way impeding your view of the scenery, so no one is being coerced into making the purchase. You aren’t prevented from bringing your own pair of binoculars.
So you're only going to be spending your spare change on the enhanced zoom if you believe it’s worth more than your unimpeded view. You get a view you wouldn’t have had otherwise, whoever installed the binoculars earns a small profit. Win-win.
Also, sometimes the device doesn't work right, effectively stealing money or pointlessly taking up space.