Photographs
Shops
CAMBRIDGE CITY. Boston Store. "The latest invention of cash systems now in operation at the Boston Stores... The first one of these lightning change makers for this city has just been put in operation at the Boston store... It is called the Lamson Cable System, and is propelled by a ??? volt motor. A track is suspended along each side of the store(?), through which a double cable is kept constantly in motion, one out and the other returning. The carrier is a little square metal box, grip attached to one end. Cambridge City Tribune, 12 May 1892.
CAMBRIDGE CITY. Morris & Krahl. "We, the undersigned, will sell the following at auction in the Boyd Room, formerly occupied by Morris & Krahl, in Cambridge City, on Monday Night, April 17... one Cash Carrier System (4 way). Cambridge City Tribune, 13/4/1933
COURTHOUSE SQUARE, Monroe Co. J.C.Penney's department store. Pneumatic tube system. Senior Cybernet website
EVANSVILLE. Bon Marche. Lamson pneumatic system. Lamson brochure, 1952
FORT WAYNE. S.Chasaka & Co. "A reporter of the Sentinel happened to be passing Chasaka's dry goods store in the Certia block... Busily at work was Mr J.W.Hoffman, of the Holbrook Manufacturing Company, Chicago, engaged in getting the apparatus in working order. This firm are the owners and builders of the 'Lamson Cash Carrier System', which has obtained its first introduction in Indiana through Messrs. Chasaka & Co. This arrangement consists of a lofty trestle work running parallel to the ceiling, and provided with the necessary switches, etc. The money is placed in a polished wooden ball which opens in the middle, placed in a receiver which is hoisted to the trestle work by a cord which runs on pulleys. The ball is discharged upon the plane and is given an impetus by a gentle descent...
There will be five stations for as many clerks in Mr Chaska's system. The mechanism is most simple and Mr Hoffman tells us that the company have never had to repair one of these cash carriers... The cash carrier costs him a royalty of $10 per month... The carrier will be in operation tomorrow.
" Fort Wayne Daily Sentinel, 1 Aug. 1882
FORT WAYNE. Keil Bros. "Keil Bros. have a unique cash railway in operation at their store. The occupation of the smart errand boy is waning as inventive genius moves on." Ibid. 29 Apr. 1887, p. 2
FRENCH LICK. Star Store. Overhead tube system connecting to wire-enclosed office in centre of store. In 1942 the assistants had cash registers but used the tube system for change and approval of orders or credit. Beatty Family Newsletter
HAMMOND. Edward C. Minas Co. "A new and improved cable cash carrier system is now being installed to convey the cash from all floors to one central station, which will be located on the mezzanine floor." Lake County Times, 14 Oct. 1913, p. 8
• "Completion of the second unit of the home of the Edward C. Minas Co. in 1905 gave Hammond its first real department store... Consider the cable cash carrier system. The buying public scarcely gives it a second thought now. The novelty wore off long ago... It is an expensive system to maintain and operate but it aids the store in giving better service." Lake County Times (Hammond) 15 Nov. 1922, p. 4
INDIANA HARBOUR. Seifer's, 3422-3424 Michigan Avenue. "The store is equipped with air line cash and parcel carriers." Lake County Times (Hammond), 27 Jan.1910, p. 3
INDIANAPOLIS. Lauries. "Laurie's animating feature was a brightly nickled overhead railway connecting all the counters with the cash desk. The cables ran constantly, with a clacking that anticipated purchases - efficiently acknowledged. When you bought your calico, your money was put into a little car and went whizzing away across the ceiling." Charlotte Cathcart. Indianapolis from our old corner. (Indianapolis Hist. Soc., 1965), p. 44
INDIANAPOLIS. Model Clothing Co., 43 and 45 E. Washington Street. "Which house has the Elevated Cash Railway System? The Model." Indianapolis Journal, 27 Sep. 1883, p. 4
• "The only one in the city." Indiana State Sentinel, 3 Oct. 1883, p. 1
INDIANAPOLIS. New York Store. "A conspicuous feature are [sic] .. the new cable cash-delivery system, operated by an electric motor." Indianapolis Journal, 10 Oct. 1890, p. 8
INDIANAPOLIS. Original Eagle Clothing Co., Washington Street. "The present manager ... has introduced every modern contrivance for the rapid transaction of business, the latest cash railway system having been recently put into the store-room." Indianapolis Journal, 2 Jan. 1887, p. 7
INDIANAPOLIS. Stouts Shoes, Massachusetts Avenue. Baldwin
Flyer basket system made by J.L.Baldwin Conveyor Co. in 1928 and said by
them to be the only one in active use. The store dates from 1886. Indianapolis
Star 27 July 2003 and Inc.com
magazine, 15 Sep. 1998. Close-up of a car from wire level on Historic Indianapolis website. Photographs from Gene Davidson.
INDIANAPOLIS. Wassons. "Five elevators, pneumatic tube cash carriers and quick deliveries." Indianapolis Journal, 7 Dec. 1902, p. 7
INDIANAPOLIS. The When. "It is now not merely the largest but the handsomest clothing house in Indiana... The When has put in the new cash and bundle-carrier system, the Bostedo." Sunday Journal (Indianapolis), 26 Mar. 1893, p. 1
MONTICELLI. Goodman. "One tube in the old Goodman store, now Alex appearal in Monticello, Ind." Carol Beecher in posting to Historic Photographs on Facebook
NORTH MANCHESTER. Lew Urschel (dry goods). "When you bought, the charge slip and your money went zinging to a dim back balcony where an office girl recorded the sale and sent your change back down the humming wires. Later this charming system was discarded for more efficient cash registers." Newsletter of North Manchester Historical Society XXV (2) May 1998
PERU. Sengers Dry Goods Co., 51 N Broadway Street. Cable system. Building now houses the Miami County Museum which has a small display with two cars but not the carrier system. Photograph held by the museum shows the cashier's desk with at least seven lines coming in. Gene Davidson and Miami County Museum
PORTLAND. Bimel Block. "As a kid in the 50's I loved to watch in wonder as the little cash basket would whiz up to the ceiling on a wire-pulley system and disappear into the cashier's window." Vintage Portland Post Cards. Building erected 1896-8.
PORTLAND. Weiler Brothers (dept. store). "The current 44,000 square foot Art Deco Weiler Brothers Department Store building located at perhaps the most prominent business corner in downtown Portland, Indiana, was designed by .. Walter Scholer and was constructed in 1926... The department store actually occupied only the basement and first floor of the building... The building was also well known for its Lamson cash carrier system used by the store clerks to transport cash and sales slip to a central cashier on the mezzanine level. Parts of this system are scheduled for restoration by J & P Custom Plating of Portland and will be re-installed in the building for historians to admire. Unfortunately, much of the system was damaged by years of neglect and flooding in the basement of the building where most of the equipment was stored... The John Jay Center for Learning acquired ownership of the Weiler building in February of 2004." Flickr website with four photographs of cable system parts including "the end of the line" at the cash office.
• Was in use as late as 1982. Building is now a learning centre. Now down to small collection for planned display. Gene Davidson
RICHMOND. Hoosier, 6th and Main Streets. "They used pneumatic tubes in the old Hoosier Store in Richmond!!!" Sue Parrish Skaggs in posting to Historic Photographs on Facebook
RICHMOND. Geo. H. Knollenberg Co. "We have just rearranged our office and extended our Cable Cash System." Richmond Palladium and Sun-Telegram, 9 Oct. 1908, p. 2
ROCHESTER. Big Store, North Side, Public Square. "George Wallace has purchased the cash carrier apparatus of E.H.Murray and will install it in his big store north of the court house." Rochester Sentinel, 11/4/1907.
ROCKVILLE. The Elephant, 13-14 Ohio Street. "The largest clothing and furnishing-goods store in the place... He [Edward Brubeck] also has a cashier, and uses the Standard Cash Carrier system. Portrait and biographical record: Montgomery, Parke & Fountain counties, Indiana (Chapman Bros., 1893)
TERRE HAUTE. A.Herz, 646-652 Wabash Avenue. Built 1906-7. Pneumatic tube system. Wabash Valley Profile
VALPARAISO. Regulator Store. "Mr L.D. Wolf has built up in the "Regulator Store" as fine a grocery business as can be found in this part of the State... The store is nicely fitted and provided with a cash carrier system." Journal of Fine Arts, vol. 10, Nov. 1899, p. 14
WHITESTOWN. W.R. Lee. "For sale - Used store fixtures... 5-cup Baldwin flyer cash system... W.R. Lee, whitestown, Ind." Indianapolis Times, 8 Jul. 1922, p. 10
WINCHESTER. W.E.Miller."We have the only .. cable cash carrier .. in the county." The W.E.Miller Co's store 'as it is'. (The Company, 1902) p. 28. The system appears in a number of photographs.
Museums
PERU. Miami County Museum, 51 N Broadway Street. See PERU above.
indicates systems which
are still there (as far as I know) though they may not be working.