In wire systems, the car has pulley wheels which run along wires fixed between the sending and receiving stations ("propulsions"). There may be a single wire (as in the Rapid Wire system) or a pair of wires (as in Gipe's system). The car may be propelled by gravity, a catapult or multiple-pulley arrangement, or by the separation of the wires at the sending end. As well as carrying cash, there was a variant of the Air-Line system which carried the purchased goods for wrapping in a wire basket.
A patent was granted to David Brown of Lebanon, New Jersey on 13 July 1875 for a system using an endless cord attached to the car and operated by pulleys and one to ??? White on 11 November 1879 for one where the car was propelled by gravity. Then in 1884 a patent (no. 293,192) assigned to Byron Osgood and Edwin Osgood described a car running on a horizontal wire with the momentum imparted by a single impulse or push.
Air-Line | Barr | Basket carriers | Baldwin Flyer | Dart Cash | Gipe | Kick-Back | Lamson Rapid Wire | Push-car | Other manufacturers
Carrier of a Lamson Air-Line wire system - note the short whelbase and vertical ends where the propulsion cable goes.
Cover of a (U.S.) Lamson brochure, ca. 1917 (Air-Line system)
Carrier from a Rapid Wire system. Note the short wheelbase and the curved frame round
Long wheelbase, curved sides and solid wheels on system in Musum of London