BASED ON ELECTRONICS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27504, 26 September 1950, Page 6

BASED ON ELECTRONICS

PA / AUCKLAND, Sept. 25. Auckland engineers have invented an electronic totalisator which, it is claimed, will enable off-course investments to be made on races throughout the Dominion until the moment when the on-course totali-

sator closes. The machine, which is the only one of the kind in the * world, incorporates features developed during war-time radar research. Among those invited to a demonstration this afternoon were the Mayor, Sir John Allum, local members of Parliament, police, scientific and

research workers, the clergy and the judiciary. The secret of the scheme is electronics. Thousands of valve* (vacuum tubes) are broken up into units, which receive, transmit and count the impulses. Each impulse represents a bet on a racehorse. The counting unit reckons speeds up to 200,000 impulses a second.

This is how the scheme would 'operate:

the issue of a completely printed win ticket, and the pressing of a button on the lever end issues a place ticket. Should no ticket emerge from the machine, that would mean that the particular horse concerned had been scratched.

1. The Dominion would be zoned into.districts. Each district would have a circuit of investment agencies linked to a district office.

. ' 2. Each agency would be supplied *, with a combined ticket issuer and an electronic unit—no bigger than a mantel radio cabinet. These units would be connected by the existing telephone wiring to the district office. : 3. The face of the ticket issuer has - "two dials. Each letter on the lefthand dial represents a race meeting. ‘ The right-hand dial is numbered up ‘to 24, and each number represents a horse.

5. In the same instant that the ticket issuer is operated, the investment is recorded by electronic impulse and is noted in the district office.

A minute or so later the investment is shown at the on-course totalisator, sent there by teleprinter from the district office. This process would be going on simultaneously from agencies throughout the country. All the time the central control office would have charge of the situation. It would turn a switch, and the ticket issuing would immediately stop in all agencies at the same time as the on-course totalisator closed. The .on-course totalisator would then show the total investments on each horse and on the race for both a win and a place. The electronic totalisator balances itself automatically.

4. Investing is by numbers. The investor tells the agent he wants to put, say, 10s each way on No. 3 horse at Forbury Park. The agent turns the lever on the left dial to the letter representing Forbury Park and then turns a lever on the right dial to the number of the horse. A slight compression of the right-hand lever sees