HISTORY of KELLYCO

[Oddjob]

History

Hey folks, sure everyone here has heard of Kellyco, even the few members out of Russia still using a dial up connection.

So I was on here looking for books for my son and ran into a page called the History of Kellyco, the site is always impressive and everytime I visit it I find something new and cool they have on there.

Anyway folks if you have not read it then I think you should, pretty darn cool.

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

thanx for the link.

Re.: the 1953 to 1955 period: I read somewhere else, that when the guy was stationed in the military (and had learned to use their mine detectors), that he would go out on his spare time and find individual coins with it. Hence his curiosity and musing of the potential it would have once home in the states.

Most all detectors, prior to ~1960, were only capable of finding larger objects (like mines). Not sensitive enough to find individual coins. But apparently a single military type, that was available as early as the Korean war era, was capable enough to find individual coins. He must've gotten lucky enough to have access/training on that one particular model/type. And then extrapolated out to figure the potential from a hobbyist angle.

thanx for the link !

 

[Oddjob]

thanx for the link.

Re.: the 1953 to 1955 period: I read somewhere else, that when the guy was stationed in the military (and had learned to use their mine detectors), that he would go out on his spare time and find individual coins with it. Hence his curiosity and musing of the potential it would have once home in the states.

Most all detectors, prior to ~1960, were only capable of finding larger objects (like mines). Not sensitive enough to find individual coins. But apparently a single military type, that was available as early as the Korean war era, was capable enough to find individual coins. He must've gotten lucky enough to have access/training on that one particular model/type. And then extrapolated out to figure the potential from a hobbyist angle.

thanx for the link !

I like to read about a company, I had only stumbled on to that read and thought it was great. How many vets do we have on here who MD, then this company has a good clean and passionate history to match our passion. Just thought that was very cool.

Makes me wonder just how many Vets actually work for Kellyco today, I would think that surely if they started that clean and with a vet that they do have at least a few vets working there.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

odd-job, I love detecting nostalgia, since I used to hunt with a guy here in my town, whose brother had, by anyone's knowledge, been amongst the first to swing a detector in our city back in about 1963 or '64. He'd answered a magazine ad, sent off for a catalogue, and soon found himself the proud owner of a big old Whites BFO. He had never seen a detector in action at that time, since they were still pretty much a novelty in those days (at least in our part of the state or USA up-till-then).

So although I started more than a decade after that, the "early beginnings" and "early machines" has always been a nostalgia I enjoy too.

The Kellyco factory in FL has some file cabinets of some of their very early mailers, catalogs, manufacturer literature, etc.... If a person ever played their cards right, and got permission, I would love to see some of the early brochures (of the various brands they sold in those earlier days), and any other nostalgia paperwork they have, to be digitally photographed for the web.

I talked to one of their P.R. persons from Kellyco, who told me of these archive file cabinets. He opened up a few folders, and rattled off some contents, dates, material, etc... that it contained. But that was just a single random folder he sampled. And said there were several drawers FULL of such past stuff. He had no time or interest in spending a week, spreading out stuff, photographing, hosting, etc... But said that if someone ever cared to come there and do it, perhaps it could be arranged. Later I found that that person no longer worked there. But ... perhaps someone else on staff could arrange such a thing ?

Anyone there in FL , who's handy with pix and 'puters care to do that ?

 

[Oddjob]

A digital archive would be really cool, UT in Austin does great jobs at making copies for such things and they have done many digital archives around the world.

Kellyco seems to always go that extra few steps in letting folks know that they are not just selling machines, they too have a passion for it as well. This has become a lost art in the past 20 years or longer in some industries. Bike industries went sour for a while then companies started coming around with bikes built by rider for riders so to speak. Looks like Kellyco has never lost that either.

Another cool thing they do is give stuff away here on this website, they have a monthly give away for Charter Members. Nothing cheap or useless either, they always have a choice between a couple things, your pick and both are always things like Wow.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

A digital archive would be really cool, ....

Oh, and that reminds me of another notion the fellow I talked to had: His opinion was that it would be something that costs. Ie.: not free to view. Like somehow Kellyco would make money for those wishing to view it (like books you have to pay to view, or whatever). Because in his mind's eyes, the time and effort to digitally scan and host all of the stuff, is time & money on their end. So it would be only fair if there were some financial motive for them.

And that's when I asked if someone, for simple nostalgia motives (and not a financial motive) did it on their own time & energy. On the one hand, he said that perhaps permission could be granted (to have a non-employee rooting around in their dusty-archives). But on the other hand, I could tell he had images of hassle on their end. You know, like having a total stranger in your house looking through your stuff, and now you have to have a company rep. be there to accompany them, or staff time and such.

As much as they might be "customer friendly" and "go the extra steps" as you say, yet they are still a business with a bottom-line.

 

[Honest Samuel]

I will purchase a Fisher 75 from them in April or May because there may be snow on the ground until April or May in Connecticut.

 

[Oddjob]

I will purchase a Fisher 75 from them in April or May because there may be snow on the ground until April or May in Connecticut.

You should become a charter member, sometimes they give away gift certificates on the monthly give away.

 

[fmrUSMC_0844]

Pretty cool history. Now I may have missed something but how did he come up with the name Kellyco?

 

[boogeyman]

odd-job, I love detecting nostalgia, since I used to hunt with a guy here in my town, whose brother had, by anyone's knowledge, been amongst the first to swing a detector in our city back in about 1963 or '64. He'd answered a magazine ad, sent off for a catalogue, and soon found himself the proud owner of a big old Whites BFO. He had never seen a detector in action at that time, since they were still pretty much a novelty in those days (at least in our part of the state or USA up-till-then).

So although I started more than a decade after that, the "early beginnings" and "early machines" has always been a nostalgia I enjoy too.

The Kellyco factory in FL has some file cabinets of some of their very early mailers, catalogs, manufacturer literature, etc.... If a person ever played their cards right, and got permission, I would love to see some of the early brochures (of the various brands they sold in those earlier days), and any other nostalgia paperwork they have, to be digitally photographed for the web.

I talked to one of their P.R. persons from Kellyco, who told me of these archive file cabinets. He opened up a few folders, and rattled off some contents, dates, material, etc... that it contained. But that was just a single random folder he sampled. And said there were several drawers FULL of such past stuff. He had no time or interest in spending a week, spreading out stuff, photographing, hosting, etc... But said that if someone ever cared to come there and do it, perhaps it could be arranged. Later I found that that person no longer worked there. But ... perhaps someone else on staff could arrange such a thing ?

Anyone there in FL , who's handy with pix and 'puters care to do that ?

Was that the BFO that had a real long box & would wear out your arm after ten minutes use? Heavy old tuber with huge batteries? Got mine from something like popular mechanics or science. Took almost all my Christmas, birthday, atta boy chore money. The only delay in shipping I've had over the years from Kellyco was when they called me to tell me there'd be a delay since the roof of the warehouse blew off in a storm. One or two days later it showed up. Now that's service! Everyone I've talked to since can't remember that far back.

 

[Old Bookaroo]

History of Kellyco:

"1960-1964 - Spanish silver treasure coins were found on a beach in Ft. Pierce Florida by a man using a surplus army mine detector. The "find" led to the discovery of the remains of the 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet which generated a huge amount of publicity on national television as well as newspapers and magazines throughout the world."


Frank Allen - National Geographic - Jan. 1965 - "Drowned Galleons off Florida Yield Spanish Gold" by Kip Wagner

"Besides the heaving Atlantic, a treasure seeker searches the beach with a mine detector...'My first investment in salvage equipment was a $15 surplus military mine detector,' says author Kip Wagner, 'and I still use it, especially after storms have reshaped the sands.'"


Good luck to all,

The Old Bookaroo, CM

2.0:



Buried Treasure and Lost Mines by "Treasure Hunter," Frank L. Fish [1961; reprinted 1970]

Did Fish actually find anything with that machine? Perhaps some artifacts - little if any treasure.

Good luck to all,

The Old Bookaroo, CM

 

[Oddjob]

Pretty cool history. Now I may have missed something but how did he come up with the name Kellyco?

Heck if I know man, pretty sure it did not say that. But something I wondered my self for a while.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

History of Kellyco:

"1960-1964 - Spanish silver treasure coins were found on a beach in Ft. Pierce Florida by a man using a surplus army mine detector. The "find" led to the discovery of the remains of the 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet which generated a huge amount of publicity on national television as well as newspapers and magazines throughout the world."

View attachment 1403347
Frank Allen - National Geographic - Jan. 1965 - "Drowned Galleons off Florida Yield Spanish Gold" by Kip Wagner

"Besides the heaving Atlantic, a treasure seeker searches the beach with a mine detector...'My first investment in salvage equipment was a $15 surplus military mine detector,' says author Kip Wagner, 'and I still use it, especially after storms have reshaped the sands.'"


Good luck to all,

The Old Bookaroo, CM

2.0:

View attachment 1403364

Buried Treasure and Lost Mines by "Treasure Hunter," Frank L. Fish [1961; reprinted 1970]

Did Fish actually find anything with that machine? Perhaps some artifacts - little if any treasure.

Good luck to all,

The Old Bookaroo, CM

Thanx bookaroo for the pix ! I luv 'em ! There was a guy in my city, who .... in the 1970s, had picked up one of those machines (I guess he was unaware of how "dated" they were by the mid 1970s, doh!). He took it to a stage stop in our area, and said that he was doing good just to find large cast iron junk, barrel hoops, etc.... He could not see how it would find individual coins.

But there were several different models used by the military from WWII to Korea and the cold war, and then Vietnam era. So perhaps the guy I know just had one of the lame ones. Or perhaps he didn't know what he was doing. But suffice it to say, the mere PURPOSE of mine detectors in the old days, was for large objects (mines). So they didn't need to be sensitive enough to find coin-sized items in the first place. In fact, that would be a nuisance, because you might keep having to stop to investigate small junk signals.

As time went on, and increasingly less and less metal was used in mine (so-as to foil the detectors), then yes: Eventually military models had to get more and more sensitive.

 

[boogeyman]

History of Kellyco:

"1960-1964 - Spanish silver treasure coins were found on a beach in Ft. Pierce Florida by a man using a surplus army mine detector. The "find" led to the discovery of the remains of the 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet which generated a huge amount of publicity on national television as well as newspapers and magazines throughout the world."

View attachment 1403347
Frank Allen - National Geographic - Jan. 1965 - "Drowned Galleons off Florida Yield Spanish Gold" by Kip Wagner

"Besides the heaving Atlantic, a treasure seeker searches the beach with a mine detector...'My first investment in salvage equipment was a $15 surplus military mine detector,' says author Kip Wagner, 'and I still use it, especially after storms have reshaped the sands.'"


Good luck to all,

The Old Bookaroo, CM

2.0:

View attachment 1403364

Buried Treasure and Lost Mines by "Treasure Hunter," Frank L. Fish [1961; reprinted 1970]

Did Fish actually find anything with that machine? Perhaps some artifacts - little if any treasure.

Good luck to all,

The Old Bookaroo, CM

Cool bit of history! Thankk you Bookaroo!!

 

[sprailroad]

All I can add to this thread is that I've dealt with "Kellyco" for at least 20 years I guess. Never had even one complaint.