Lamson cash-carrier, ‘Rapid Wire’ (flying fox) system in Loxton Historical Village.

These systems, once common in local shops and department stores, were used to carry customers’ payments from a sales assistant to the cashier and to swiftly carry the change and receipt back again. The system allowed close supervision with less opportunity for errors or theft, because customers’ moneys could be counted both by a cashier and a sales assistant, and it allowed time for more-personalised interaction with the customer. The Lamson Company dominated the market. It used a carriage suspended on pulleys from a wire between sales desk and cashier. The carriage was launched from a catapult. The best-known types were ‘Rapid Wire’ and ‘Air-Line’. Lamsons purchased the Rapid Service Store Railway Company of Detroit, which licensed an invention by Robert McCarty, of Detroit, Michigan, and their system became known as Lamson Rapid Wire. Loxton local Doreen Knowling recalls this system being used in Eudunda’s Lameroo Store, where she worked as a teenager in the mid-1950’s. Readers may recall these systems in various department stores across the Riverland and SA more generally. Now a rare item, a Lamson system is on display at Loxton Village’s Alcock’s Store.

WORDS: Wikipedia. PHOTO : Carolyn Wood.