Top: The British brochure (?early 20th-century)

Bottom: Sending a carrier in the low-level horizontal cable station (Story of a service idea, p.20) 

Lamson's Bulletin J-2 (ca. 1912) describes the "Lamson Perfection Cable" system. Cash boxes were despatched merely by placing them on the track and pressing a small lever. They were 'keyed' to automatically select and disengage themselves at their particular station on their return trips from the cash desk". The system could carry any required number of cash boxes in either or both directions at once and the speed averaged 10-15 feet per second. Any number of stations from one to eight could be located on a single line. Several cash boxes could be keyed to each station so giving the system a greater capacity than a wire line system (which had only one car for each station). The tracks usually ran in lines parallel to counters, shelving or fixtures, so avoiding overhead obstruction. An automatic "take up" kept the cable tension constant with variations of temperature. Cable systems were seen as the natural successors to wire line carriers. Twenty (or more) stations could be operated with a one horse-power electric motor, usually under the cashier's table.

A Perfection system cash box, showing the lever that attached it to the moving cable.

It was rectangular in shape and the internal dimensions were 1.94 X 3.19 X 1 inches. Lamson brochure J-2, ca. 1912

The cash box with the lid closed and mounted on the cable.

Cashiers in the Elliott Taylor Woolfenden store, Detroit MI. Dry Goods Economist, 9 Apr. 1921. p. 68

Cable system at Joyner's, Moose Jaw, Canada before the fire. Photo credit: Joan Miller. The video on YouTube shows how the track went up and down again to allow staff and customers to pass underneath.