Photographs

Birmingham Museum

Shops

BEDWORTH. "Nuneaton Co-operative Society, Ltd. requires a young lady Cashier to take charge of 'Lamson' Cash Carrier system at Bedworth." Nuneaton Chronicle, 15 Aug. 1930, p. 1

BEDWORTH. J.C. Smith. "Perhaps the most memorable feature, certainly for the customer, the overhead payment system. When a customer handed over the money it was put into a canister along with the bill. The canister was then put into a tube and a vacuum sucked it up to a central cash office." The memories of Mike Kinder on Facebook

BIRMINGHAM. Army & Navy Store. "I remember those systems in ... the Army & Navy store." Birmingham History website

BIRMINGHAM. Beehive Warehouse, Albert Street. "All transactions at the Beehive Warehouse are completed in the Lamson way - bill and money are flashed to an Automatic Central Desk and change (double-checked for accuracy) is whisked back, all in a few seconds." Evening Despatch, 24 Sep. 1931, p. 5

• "The installation of Lamson cash tubes was another progressive move by the company and the firm's faith in this system of control is so strong that it is to be continued in the new store." Birmingham Mail, 20 Nov. 1967, p. 4
• "The Beehive Stores in Albert Street had a similar system. Incidentally, Jasper Carrot used to work there!" Charlie in posting to Birmingham History Forum, 1 May 2007.
• "The Beehive Store was situated at the bottom of Albert Street, Birmingham, and as soon as you entered the building, it felt as if you had gone back in time. A cash pulley system went across the ceiling on the first floor. When anyone made a sale the cash was placed in a container and screwed onto a wire. The assistant would pull a cord which sent the money to a cashier at the other end of the store. Once she removed the cash she placed the change back into the container and returned it back to the assistant. (I'm sure a cash register would have been much more practical, they had them in all the other departments around the store)." Birmingham Mail, 1 Dec. 2012

BIRMINGHAM. Beehive Stores, Priory Ringway. See above. (It later became a Tesco store.)

BIRMINGHAM. Bliss's, 7 Snow Hill. "Cash railway, five stations; suit hosier; Swift system." Birmingham Mail, 13 May 1914, p. 1

BIRMINGHAM. Burtons, Acock Green. "Fosters and Burtons in Acocks Green they had the same [?wire] system." Birmingham History website

BIRMINGHAM. Cable (shoe shop), Bull Street. Pneumatic tube system between ground and first floors in 1950s. (J.Eastlake)

BIRMINGHAM. Central Drapery, Smallbrook Street. "The last shop I remember using this system [cash ball] was the Central Drapery .. which, I believe, was destroyed during the war." Letter from J.Branch (Lamson employee for 44 years) to Daily Mirror, 11 July 1977, p.20

BIRMINGHAM. Co-op, Aston Brook. "Now passing the Co-op where they put the money in little pots on the overhead wires that shot into the cash box." Astonbrook-through-Astonmanor website

BIRMINGHAM. Co-op, Moseley Road. "We had the overhead cable system in the Moseley Rd co-op when I worked there." Maypolebaz in posting to Birmingham History Forum, 16/12/13

BIRMINGHAM. Co-op, Stoney Lane, Yardley, B25. Lamson wire system. Photograph of grocery department in A. & J. Douglas: Birmingham shops (Studley: Brewin Books, 1992)
• "The Co-op on the Coventry Rd, Yardley used the wires into the early 1960`s. " Lencops in posting to Birmingham History website, 9 May 2009

BIRMINGHAM. Co-op No. 2 branch (grocers), Midland Road, Cotteridge, B30. Wire system. Cotteridge website

BIRMINGHAM. Co-op, Deritend High Street, B12. "I can see the shop now with its 2 counters facing each other... Over the top of both counters was another fascinating gadget, where the counter assistant would put your money and the ticket with your divi number into one half of a cup. This was then attached to the other half of the cup that was suspended on a wire line. The line ran the full length of the shop from the counter up to a small office raised on a higher level than the counters, and occupied by a cashier. After the attachment of the cup to the overhead wire the assistant would pull down on a handle and the cup would shoot along the wire to the cashier... There were 3 or 4 of these wire gadgets operated from each counter by assistants servivg different customers or produce. Small Heath Circle website

BIRMINGHAM. Co-op, Erdington, B23. "During and after the war years, I loved to go shopping for my granny, because it fascinated me to watch the brass screw on cups with the money inside fly along the steel cables to a central cash point, and back again with the change." Membership matters: newsletter for Midlands Co-op members, Sept. 2006, p.6

BIRMINGHAM. Co-op, Hagley Road West, Quinton, B32. "I watched fascinated as the money was put into a small metal container together with the ticket showing the cost and most importantly, your Co-op number. The container was attached to wires overhead, by pulling a cord it was whisked away to the Cash Desk where the cashier sat. The change and your ticket was placed back in the container and returned along the wires to the assistant serving you." Quinton Local History Society website

BIRMINGHAM. Co-op, Hall Green. "I  can remember the overhead wires in the Coop in Hall Green." Johnedward in posting to Birmingham History website, 10/3/07

BIRMINGHAM. Co-op, Kingstanding. "The Co-op was the biggest shop along here with its strange centalised payment system. When you paid for your groceries the assistant would write out a ticket for the amount along with your dividend number .. place the ticket and the money into a metal cup which was clipped to an overhead wire. Pulling a handle sent the cup wizzing across the shop to an office where the money was received and any change was returned in the same manner. Richard Wall on Wordpress.

BIRMINGHAM. Co-op (grocery shop), Bristol Road/Oaktree Lane, Selly Oak, B29. "One of those marvellous old overhead wire contraptions for the cash". Ron Martin posting to Eng-Warks-Birmingham-L list, 5 Mar. 02

BIRMINGHAM. Co-op, High Street, Small Heath, B10. "Over the top of both counters was another fascinating gadget, where the counter assistant would put your money and the ticket with your divi number into one half of a cup. This was then attached to the other half of the cup that was suspended on a wire line. The line ran the full length of the shop from the counter upto a small office raised on a higher level than the counters, and occupied by a cashier. After the attachment of the cup to the overhead wire the assistant would pull down on a handle and the cup would shoot along the wire to the cashier. She would then enter the transaction into her ledger, and return the cup in the same manner that she received it, together with any change, and your little divi ticket. There were 3 or 4 of these wire gadgets operated from each counter by assistants serving different customers or produce." Small Heath Circle website

BIRMINGHAM. Co-op, Stechford. Cash carrier. Ann Harvey in posting to Facebook

BIRMINGHAM. Co-op, Stirchley. Carole Orion in posting to Facebook

BIRMINGHAM. Co-op, Strickley, B30. Cash carrier in 1940s. M.Widdicombe

BIRMINGHAM. Co-op, Turves Green, B31. Cash carrier in 1940s. M.Widdicombe

BIRMINGHAM. Co-op, Kingstanding Road. "The Co-op was the biggest shop along here with it strange centalised
payment system, when you payed for your groceries the assistant would write out a ticket for the amount along with your dividend number, in my mums case it was 131718, place the ticket and the money into a metal cup which was clipped to an overhead wire, pulling a handle sent the cup wizzing across the shop to an office where the money was received and any change was returned in the same manner." Voices of Kingstanding

BIRMINGHAM. "Dolcis shoe shop birmingham where i worked as cashier". Pam Ashcroft in posting to Facebook

BIRMINGHAM. Fosters, Acock Green. "Fosters and Burtons in Acocks Green they had the same [?wire] system." Birmingham History website

BIRMINGHAM. Fosters, High Street, Aston. "They had them [overhead wire systems] in most Fosters. Ours was High St. Aston." Alf in posting to Birmingham History Forum, 30 Apr. 2007. Also Dave George Holland.

BIRMINGHAM. Foster Brothers (clothing), Coventry Road, Small Heath. Wire system in 1940s-60s. J.Eastlake.

BIRMINGHAM. Foster Brothers, Gooch Street, Highgate, B12. "I do recall them [overhead wire carriers] at a Foster Brothers in Gooch Street, Highgate. They used to be fascinating to a three year old child." Brunetteandred in posting to Birmingham History Forum, 30 Apr. 2007

BIRMINGHAM. Freeman Hardy Willis, Bull Street. "When I started my career with Freeman Hardy Willis shoe shop in 1981, the Birmingham Bull Street branch had a Lamson pneumatic tube system serving the three sales floors." Jon Richmond

BIRMINGHAM. Thomas Henry Hall (draper). 55 and 58 Corporation Street and 33 Martineau Street. "The trustees .. offer for sale .. the lease and possession of the premises .. excepting the electric light fittings and the fixtures and fittings forming the cash railway." Birmingham Daily Post, 6 Dec. 1893, p. 1

BIRMINGHAM. Henry's. Cash carrier. Jacquie Millerchip in posting to Facebook

BIRMINGHAM. House that Jack Built, Newtown Row, Aston. "The main thing I remember about this shop was no tills. You handed your money to the lady over the counter she would then put it into a tin and pull a string and off it would shoot, then the tin came back with your change and receipt." Richard Sheppard on Astonbrook-through-Astonmanor website

BIRMINGHAM. Grays. "I have a friend who is in her 80's and worked for many years at Grays she tells me they had them [cash carriers] there." Wendy in posting to Birmingham History Forum, 30 Apr. 2007

BIRMINGHAM. "Ideal drapery in Lozells had one [cash carrier] back in the day." Linda Matthews in posting to Facebook

BIRMINGHAM. Lewis's. "Facts about the new Lewis's when completed... 5 miles of piping will be laid to provide for heating, ventilating, cash tubing and vacuum cleaning." Birmingham Mail, 3 Dec. 1925, p. 3
• "Lamson pneumatic tubes for the speedy handling of all cash and credit transactions are installed throughout Messrs. Lewis's stores at Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow." Yorkshire Evening Post, 15 Sep. 1932, p. 10
• "The pneumatic tube machines were always a fascination. The bill was written out and inserted with the money into a tube and then quickly flushed up the system to the Cashier's Office" Jennyann in posting to Birmingham History Forum, July 2002

BIRMINGHAM. Marsh & Baxters (butchers), Rowley Regis. "They would take your money and place it in a brass container which they clipped to some elaborate overhead contraption and pull a lever. The brass container would then fly across the store on wires or something arcane which I could never fathom to return with the correct change when the butcher had chopped and wrapped your meat." 'Greymalkin' posting to Rowley Regis Online Forum, 24 Sep. 2004

BIRMINGHAM. Marshall & Snelgrove (high class dept. store). "Speedier credit sanction with Lamson Pre-selector airtubes. Marshall & Snelgrove install the first system in the world. By setting the indicator ring on the carrier to the first letter of the customer's surname it speeds directly to the appropriate sanction clerk, eliminating delays and errors." Birmingham Post, 19 Mar. 1956, p. 5
"A magnetic selection system, said to be the only one of its kind in use anywhere in the world, is used to separate the cash from credit transactions en route. Out of shop hours, the system is adapted fpr cleaning purposes, it being possible to fit vacuum extensions to any of the hundreds of ports." Birmingham Daily Post, 19 Mar. 1956, p. 13
• "The Linen Department in the basement .. was next to the 'tube room' where ladies in twin sets sat receiving the tubes with money in them sent via the pneumatic tube system." Best of British, Feb. 2013, p.43

BIRMINGHAM. George Masons, Bristol Street. "A few doors along Bristol Street you would find yourself at George Mason's... [They] sent your money in a cup whizzing along an overhead wire to the cashier in her 'glasshouse'. Birmingham Mail, 2 Mar. 1992, p. 46

BIRMINGHAM. George Masons, Handsworth. Wire system. "The shop assistants would write out the 'chittys' and enclose the cash sending them up to the cash desk via a pulley system where all the calculating would take place manually and the receipt and change returned to the shop floor. Each area had its own accounts sheet." Handsworth History website

BIRMINGHAM. Maypole Dairy Co., High Street, Rowley Regis. Wire system. Rowley Regis Online

BIRMINGHAM. Moor Street Warehouse Co., 31 Moor Street. "Cashier. Young lady, accustomed to Lamson tubes, required for senior position." Birmingham Mail, 8 Jan. 1940, p. 2

BIRMINGHAM, Nortons (drapers) , Icknield Street/Key Hill, Hockley. "Cashier. Lady used to Lamson tube system." Birmingham Mail, 7 May 1941, p. 2
• "When I was a lad living in Brum, we had used to go to a department store called Norton's, it was on the corner of Icknield Street and Key Hill. Norton's had one of those overhead systems." Brummie Boy posting to I don't feel 50, 12 /12/07.
• Nortons  in Hockley .. had these in the 50s. Gillian Wood in posting to Facebook.

BIRMINGHAM. Pearks. "I remember the overhead wires in the Coop in Hall Green and also in Pearks." Johnedward in posting to Birmingham History Forum, 10 Mar. 2007

BIRMINGHAM. Rackhams, Corporation Street/Bull Street. "Girl for cash tubes.. smart girl of school age considered." Birmingham Mail, 30 Jul. 1925, p. 10
• "In the 1940s and 50s .. Rackhams was just a one-, or possibly two-, storey building... At that time it operated only as a high-class haberdasher's and draper's... I was fascinated by its overhead wire cash railway which I think was catapult-operated.  The store was demolished in in the late 1950s and replaced by an altogether bigger and extensive modern shop. Michael Stuart Green
• "All departments are equipped with the latest type of electronic cash registers - a marked improvement on the cash tube system of the old store." Birmingham Daily Post, 20 Jan. 1959, p. 4

BIRMINGHAM. Radfords (drapers), Dudley Road, B18. Rapid Wire system. Part of system was taken down in 1975 and installed in Birmingham Museum of Science and Industry. Info. from the museum where I saw it.

BIRMINGHAM. Stylo Shoes. "We had this system to send money up to next floor and the change would come back down. That was I the early 1970s." Brenda Flynn on Facebook

BIRMINGHAM. TASCOS (Ten Acres & Stirchley Co-op Society), Bristol Road South, Rubery - corner of Cliff Rock Road. "A cable system [presumably wire system] with propulsions. The building still stands. The cashier was in a large central office on the first floor." Brian Dominic

BIRMINGHAM. Woolworths. "I remember Woolworths .. on Hawthorn Road having this pneumatic system Mike. That would've been right into the 1960s, maybe even the 1970s." Vivienne14 in posting to Birmingham History Forum, 22 Feb. 2012

COLESHILL. Co-op. Cash carrier. Hazel Innes on Facebook

COVENTRY. Co-op, Central premises, Smithford Street/West Orchard. "A pnneumatic cash tube and vacuum cleaning system is also to be installed." Coventry Evening Telegraph, 30 May 1930, p. 3
• "In as many as 52 positions there are vacuum-operated cash carriers... The longest run from one of these cash carriers to the cash office occupies no more than 14 seconds, while in the latter office the last word in change-giving machines have been installed." Ibid., 6 Oct. 1934, p. 12

COVENTRY. Hogarth Stores. "The Dart pneumatic tube cash carrying system in the new premises for Hogarth Stores Ltd. Coventry was installed by Dart Cash Carrier Co. Ltd., Campbell Road, Stoke-on-Trent. Telephone: Stoke-on-Trent 47751/2." Coventry Evening Telegraph, 16 Nov. 1967, p. 14

COVENTRY. John Manners. "I worked for some time in John Manners in the Precinct where they had the more 'modern' Lamson cash tubes (a vacuum operated system)." Prof in posting to Historic Coventry Forum, 23/7/14

COVENTRY. George Mason (grocers), 15 Cross Cheaping. See Court Cases

COVENTRY. Mountford & Jones (drapers and milliners) , 12 Cross Cheaping & 80-84 West Orchard. "The new cable cash carrier system .. has just been completed at Mountford & Jones ... By this most ingenious cash carrier system, operated by electric power, every department of the house is connected with one central and spacious cash office, to which the cash boxes travel at a speed of 600 to 900 feet per minute, round corners, up stairs, down stairs, through walls, floors, fixtures, and partitions with equal facility, and return at an equal speed, unerringly arriving at their proper stations. This rapid cash system .. [is] the first installation of its kind in this district (only three in the whole of the Midlands)." Midland Daily Telegraph, 6 July 1918, p.1
• "We have also installed the Lamson Pneumatic Cash Tubes, thus speeding up and lessening the time of waiting for change, etc." Coventry Evening Telegraph, 8 Mar. 1926, p. 1

COVENTRY. Owen Owens (dept store). Wire system ca. 1950-56. Cash office in middle of ground floor or possibly on a balcony. Brian Hamilton Kelly
• "I remember that part of Owen Owen and there was the overhead cash system, when the assistant put the docket and the money in a screw up round box, attached it to the wire from whence it sailed along above the customers to the central point where all the lines met for the money to be taken and change given, then returned the same way to the customer." Prof in posting to Historic Coventry Forum, 23/7/14
• "Mr Rolf Hellberg, the Coventry architect who has designed the new Owen Owen store in Broadgate .. has been explaining some of the 'odd' aspects of the designing of a store that is mainly in reinforced concrete. It involved .. the designing of 500 'holes' .. for services and communications .. [including] cash tubes." Coventry Evening Telegraph, 10 Apr. 1954, p. 5

COVENTRY. J. Simpson, 5-12 Earl Street. "Mr. Simpson has introduced a novelty in the shape of the new 'Cash Railway'... The assistant who takes a customer's cash puts it in a round ball, about the size of those used in a game of bowls... Each ball has a number, and it invariably returns to its proper billet."Kenilworth Observer, 24 Dec. 1887, p. 5
• "The cashier's desk is in a prominent position between the old and the new shops, with a cash railway diverging to each assistant's position at the counters, and even to the departments above." Coventry Herald, 19 Jun. 1891, p. 5

COVENTRY. Store at the bottom of Trinity Street "on the left hand side going down just past Sainsburys. It had a centralised cashier with a series of wires running from each assistant's counter. The assistant would take your money from your purchase, put it in a tin with the bill, and send it on the wire to the cashier. A few minutes later your change and receipt would arrive back the same way." Historic Coventry website

LEAMINGTON SPA. Bobbys. Pneumatic system in 1960s. (Brian Hamilton Kelly)

LEAMINGTON SPA. Burgis & Colbourne, The Parade. "This .. had enabled the directors to complete the building of an increased shop frontage to the Bedford Street portion of the stores; .. the installation of pneumatic tubes in place of the unsightly overhead cash railways." Leamington Spa Courier, 15 Jul. 1904, p. 7
• "The Bedford Stores have, during the past few months, been improved... The Lamson pneumatic cash tubes are a great improvement on the old overhead wire system... The tubes pass under the floor, and all that can be seen by the customer is a handsome brass tube on the counter, in which the cash carrier is placed. Customers do not have to wait many seconds before the change is returned... This system serves eighteen departments, including one on the first floor, the café, and the china shop. An electric motor of about 3 horse-power works a rotary pump, which gives a constant current of air travelling through the tubes incessantly." Leamington, Warwick, Kenilworth & DIstrict Daily Circular, 20 Nov. 1903, p. 2
•"Messrs. Burgis and Colbourne, Ltd., of the Bedford Stores, Leamington, have had installed in their premises a pneumatic cash system, which was used for the first time on Tuesday... Through this tube it [the carrier] is 'whizzed' by atmospheric suction to the cash desk at the rate of two or three thousand feet a minute... At the cash desk it is shot into one of the numbered receptacles, and .. as soon as the bill has been receipted .. the cartridge replaced in the tube with the corresponding number... There are eighteen sets of tubes, serving as many departments, and these are used by about 50 assistants, while the actual tubes themselves, 36 in number, have a total length of about half-a-mle, The tubes are made of drawn brass. An electro-motor of about 3 h.p., running at 1,200 revolutions per minute, drives a rotary pump, which displaces some 800 cubic feet of air per minute. This exhausts the air in the tubes, and thus induces suction by which the cartridges are drawn to and from the csh desk... A word of praise is due to the Lamson Pneumatic Tube Co., Ltd., of Cheapside, London, who completed the installation. Leamington Spa Courier, 20 Nov. 1903, p.6
• "In place of the old cash tube system they had installed Lamson Cash Register machines." Leamington Spa Courier, 10 July 1936, p.6
• Pneumatic tube system still there in mid-1960s. [Seems to be at variance with the above.] Taken over by Army & Navy in 1970s. Brian Hamilton Kelly

NUNEATON. Co-op, Queens Road/Abbey Street. Pneumatic tube system in 1930s-40s. "Minutes later the brass tube would crash into a wire basket with your receipt and change." Nuneaton & North Warwickshire Family History Society - Journal, Oct. 2000, p.8

RUGBY. Co-op, 45 Chapel Street. "Wanted. Cashier in cash tube system office." Rugby Advertiser, 17 Oct. 1941, p. 4
• "Rugby Co-operative Society shops were illuminated by candles yesterday, and vacuum tubes, normally used for transporting cash and containers between the departments and the cash office. were out of action... Before the great switch-off, earlier cuts occasionally resulted in containers becoming jammed in the tubes." Rugby Advertiser, 11 Feb. 1947, p. 3
• (Regent Street.) Cash carrier in 1950s. Margaret Jones in posting to Facebook

RUGBY. Hogarths, North Street. "The Dart pneumatic cash tube system in the new Hogarth store was installed by Dart Cash Carrier Co. Ltd., Campbell Road, Stoke-on-Trent." Rugby Advertiser, 15 Nov. 1957, p.13

SOLIHULL. Birmingham Co-op, Olton Boulevard. Wire system. (See Reminiscences)

SOLIHULL. Wrensons, Shirley. "Wasn't it at Wrenson's that they used cash flasks that whizzed round on wires?" Neil Varley posting to Solihull Online

STRATFORD-UPON-AVON. Debenhams. Pneumatic tube system. Steve Newman

STRATFORD-UPON-AVON. Fred Winter Ltd. Wire system. Steve Newman

Museums

BIRMINGHAM. Museum of Science and Industry. Rapid Wire system from Radfords in aircraft hall. (Also photograph in Palmer). The museum has reopened as "Thinktank" but the system is no longer on display.