AUTOMATIC CLERK.

Mataura Ensign, 18 March 1910, Page 4

AUTOMATIC CLERK.

The Great Western Railway Company will start some time in February upon an important experiment (says the 'Daily Mail' of January 27). They have decided to instal at Snow Hill station, Birmingham, a railway ticket printing machine which, it is contended, will render almost superfluous the booking clerk as we know him to-day, and that it will also do away with the cumbrous system of storing tlietliousandsol' different tickets which may be called for by the travelling public. The railway ticket printing machine is not at present in practical use, but the Great Western Railway Company arc to try it and the Great Central have decided to instal a machine at one of thoii stations on March 1.

The machine is a. small and unpre-tentious-looking contrivance. It is 311 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 ready for usj. That is all the work required. At the same time the 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 he has to do is to total the continuous strip and to count hi:; cash. The machine is capable of printing 3000 different tickets.