Cash tube systems

Bunkers, shelters and other buildings
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String o' beads
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Joined: Wed 06 Feb, 2008 6:09 pm

Cash tube systems

Post by String o' beads »

We've talked about these before - I believe I described the tube system in the old Yorkshire Post building on Albion Street but I can't use search at the moment to update it.

I came across a few memories of the systems at various Leeds shops here:

http://www.ids.u-net.com/cash/locations ... kshire.htm

<LEEDS. A corset shop, County Arcade. "I used to love the way Auntie Dolly's money was put into a round cylinder and sucked up a pipe to the cash office and then returned with the change." Brendan Sheerin. My life: a coach trip adventure. London: O'Mara, 2011, p.31

LEEDS. Hitchins. Tube system."At Hitchins department store in Leeds more than fifty years ago I was fascinated by these. They worked on a suction/vacuul principle." Mary Fisher in posting to DIYbanter.com 3/11/04
• "I can vividly remember, as a small child, the overhead lines running throughout Hitchen's shop, to enable your money to be sent, via a suction tube, to the cashiers' office." Cynthia on Leodis website

LEEDS. Lewis's, Headrow. Pneumatic tube system "including a tube room fifty feet below street level. It was connected by twenty-five miles of pneumatic tubing with the 250 change points in the store, the change returning to the points, it was boasted, at thirty miles an hour."Briggs "In 1932, at the age of 14, Mrs McNess got a job at Lewis's in the 'Tube Room' counting change and sending it back up to the shop floor." Methleys website
"Lewis's, Matthias Robinson and Schofields had an ingenious system of pneumatic pipes that took your money down to the cashiers in the bowels of the store. A hand-written slip was put into a canister with the cash, stuck in the pipe and away it went, only to return moments later with any change and the receipt. It never ceased to thrill as it shot back up the pipe with a satisfying thwuck!" This England, Winter 209, p.35

LEEDS. Matthias Robinson, Briggate. "With those roaring pneumatic tubes whose grey-capped cylinders fetched back your change from some distant basement". Alan Bennett in the Guardian, 1 Apr. 1994, p.7. "A Grace Brothers-type store with a lift and a lift-man." This England, Winter 209, p.35

LEEDS. Pygmalion. Cash Ball system. Information from Mrs Proctor.

LEEDS. Schofields. Pneumatic tube system throughout the store, including quick sale departments. (Hammond). Good photographs of cash office in 1987, when the shop relocated, at Secret Leeds website. Schofield's "did have a nice gentility to it". This England, Winter 2009, p.35>

So - what or where was 'Pygmalion', which Mrs Proctor recalled?

Dalehelms
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Re: Cash tube systems

Post by Dalehelms »

If you Google Pygmalion Leeds, you will find a couple of references. Chris Nickson has written an article about it. Sorry I can't post the link.. I am still useless in spite of the excellent new site.

String o' beads
Posts: 1360
Joined: Wed 06 Feb, 2008 6:09 pm

Re: Cash tube systems

Post by String o' beads »

Dalehelms wrote:If you Google Pygmalion Leeds, you will find a couple of references. Chris Nickson has written an article about it. Sorry I can't post the link.. I am still useless in spite of the excellent new site.
Why on earth didn't I check Leodis? :roll:

A giant store on the site of C&A, so it was. Thanks Dalehelms.

http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... 8_19236391

warringtonrhino
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Re: Cash tube systems

Post by warringtonrhino »

C R Butlers furnishings on Low Road in Hunslet had a cash tube system.

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liits
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Re: Cash tube systems

Post by liits »

Cashdisa [spelling?] also had a vacuum tube system. "Lamson Tube" are the most famous but there were other makes.

warringtonrhino
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Re: Cash tube systems

Post by warringtonrhino »

I realize this is nothing to do with Leeds, but some might find it interesting.
The cash tube system does have its faults
In shops where the money goes to the cashier and the change is returned to the shop assistant, the system works OK.
In shops where the cash tube is used to transfer surplus cash to the cashiers office, as in most supermarkets, there is opportunity for theft.
In my work I was made aware of a supermarket in the midlands, where money was going missing.
One of the service engineers had constructed a pipe diversion, in the space above the ceiling.
When carrying out the weekly service, they diverted some of the cash into their tool boxes.
It was not discovered for several months.

jim
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Re: Cash tube systems

Post by jim »

Leeds City Station had one of these systems. I believe it was used for messages rather than cash, and it linked several offices in Aire Street office block (in particular "Control"), the booking office, and the various operating offices around the station. The vacuum exhauster was in one of the arches under the station, and for a time I was in charge of its maintenance.

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chemimike
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Re: Cash tube systems

Post by chemimike »

Not Leeds, but an interesting story. In Reading a firm called Jacksons had a Lamson system in their shop until it closed a bit over a year ago, apparently the last working system of this type. They had a sale and the whole system was bought for £900 by the person who had been maintaining it for 20 years.
(http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/local- ... gs-6469313), .Would have been interesting to see what he did with it.

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