I worked in a fabric store when I was in college. It felt so cool to pull the fabric through the machine to measure yardage! I had seen it done for years as a kid when my mom bought fabric....aaahhh the memories!!

that's the only way I recall having fabric measured. it was back when fabric was ripped instead of cut.

Now that you mention it, yes I remember them. That was hightech. How they regressed.

I remember them well. They stopped using them back when knits fabrics came in to popularity. The knits would stretch as they went through the machine , and when the machine made its cut , the measured amount would be short once the knit fabric retracted back , once pulled out from the machine. During this time quilting cottons became a very very small portion of what was sold.
So many quilts made in this era are from double knits, as that was what was popular. Irons almost became obsolete during this era. Poly or poly blends were the perfered fabric , as they required no ironing.

No ironing is a nice thing!

However... I still like cotton. Even in the clothes I buy, I prefer to wear cotton rather than synthetic fibers.

And yes, I do remember those machines! Oh gee. I remember back in the day when a lot of our local department stores had a fabric department. JC Penney had one, I think...

Yes I remember them, I would think they went to the hand-held machines because they are mobile.

Yes I remember them!

Sad to say that I remember them. Am I really that old?!

They still use them in some stores in this area ... but only in the upholstery dept.
If staff are available, one person rolls it thru at the start, while the other rolls it onto the new roll.

Or if you're wanting a whole bolt of quilting cotton, they will send you to that machine.

Folded fabrics do not run as smoothly as the flat upholstery, sometimes jamming. So I would suspect that might be the reason they are not on the regular cutting tables.

Yes I remember them. I have heard 2 stories as to why they are no longer in use. One is because of knit fabrics the other is that since they are a measuring device they fell under the US Weights and Measures dept. and had to be checked by them on a periodic basis to make sure they were measuring correctly. This was an additional maintenance expense. Don't know if either on of these are true, but reading about those machines sure brings back fond memories!