AUTOMATIC BOOKING CLERK.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2769, 26 March 1910, Page 3 (Supplement)

AUTOMATIC BOOKING CLERK.

Tlie Great-Western Railway Company (says the ; ‘Daily Mail”) have decided to install at Snow Hill station.. Birmingham, a railway ticket printing machine which, it is contended, will render almost superfluous the booking-clerk, and will also do away with the somewhat cumbrous system of storing the thousands of different tickets which may be called for by the travelling pubiic. The machine is 3ft. 6in. long, barely 2ft. broad, and 4ft. in height. When a ticket to a certain station is required, an indicator, which carries the name of every station upon the system, arranged in alphabetical order, is touched, the clerk slips a blank into a slot in the printing carriage, a small handle is turned, and a completely printed ticket drops out leady for use. That is all the work required. At the same time tlie ticket is printed a record of the sale is placed in duplicate upon a continuous strip of paper, together with the fare, and all information required for bookkeeping. As a result, when the clerk goes off duty, all that lie has to do is to total the continuous strip and to count his cash. The machine is capable of printing 3000 different tickets.