6 ms·

The Rise and Fall of the Cash Railway

38 points by ductionist 7y ago

Animats 7y ago
Disneyland Paris has one of those, built by Disney Imagineering.
- xfour 7y ago
  Do you have a link to pictures?
  - Animats 7y ago
    There's a whole site for cash railways.[1] It's on there. [1] http://www.cashrailway.co.uk/ http://www.cashrailway.co.uk/
    - jagged-chisel 7y ago
      direct link: http://www.cashrailway.co.uk/photos/dlp.htm http://www.cashrailway.co.uk/photos/dlp.htm
dredmorbius 7y ago
high-spirited sales clerks would occasionally try to prank them by placing live mice or dead spiders inside the canisters. In-store gossip and romances could be covertly conducted by secret messages passed back and forth via the cash-carrier wires. Create a link between people, capable of carrying messages (or dynamic entertainments), and hijinks and love will follow.
carapace 7y ago
This is one of those things where it's like, are people just making stuff up? Like dogs "bred to run on a wheel in order to turn meat so it would cook evenly." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnspit_Dog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnspit_Dog
pbalau 7y ago
I'm fairly disappointed with the quality of discussion/things posted here, but from time to time, there is an article like this and all is good with the Universe again.
shahink015 7y ago
professional hackers for hire : https://www.hackerslist.co/ https://www.hackerslist.co/
Sniffnoy 7y ago
After reading this article, I still don't understand what problem these were solving that is now solved by other means. Why was there a need to rapidly transport cash around the store in the first place? This apparently isn't needed anymore, so what problem existed then that no longer exists now? The article says cash carriers went away due to 1. pneumatic tubes, and 2. automatic counter registers. However, pneumatic tubes isn't much of an answer, because that's just a different way of rapidly transporting cash, and those are now gone as well. So presumably the real answer has to be these "automatic counter registers". But the article never elaborates on what those are. How does an automatic counter register differ from earlier cash registers, and why was it that without them one needed a rapid cash transport method?
- smelendez 7y ago
  The idea seemed to be that the customer could check out with clerks around the store, but the cash was stored and counted in a secure area by trusted employees. A decline in robberies probably also helped. Department stores like Sears and Macy's now have distributed cash registers around the store, sometimes in low traffic areas, but I've never heard of them getting robbed.
  - londons_explore 7y ago
    I suspect that in the past stores had more staff and more different departments, which were each smaller. Think more like market stalls. Each department might not have staff dedicated to payments, but instead roving salespeople designed to advertise the benefits of goods, and then to complete the sale there and then on the shop floor. These salespeople probably weren't paid well, or identified well, so the shipowner couldn't trust them. Instead, for every payment, they need to get a receipt from a central place, which prevents any dishonesty.
  - jdsully 7y ago
    I used to work at Walmart. It wasn't uncommon for someone to go in with a crowbar at an unused register and take something. It just doesn't make the news. That's why they are always emptied on a regular schedule.
gumby 7y ago
I continue to be amazed by how much effort over the years went in to moving and managing random physical objects around (money, file folders, books, etc). There have been two parallel processes, one optimizing the process (e.g. containerization, JIT delivery, et al) the other eliminating the physical stuff (e.g. files as data, money as data etc). Both processes are at their core ones of abstraction, though all sorts of vestigial traces remain (e.g. calling directories "folders", or even the term "file"). When I go to offices I feel that a lot of that subject matters (physical stuff) has merely been replaced by people moving data around (copying entries into a spreadsheet, for example, or writing reports). That's what we'll get rid of next and again, I believe it will be through a process of abstraction.
masonic 7y ago
Many Costcos still have their pneumatic tubes in place.

38 points by ductionist 7y ago

Animats 7y ago

Disneyland Paris has one of those, built by Disney Imagineering.

xfour 7y ago
Do you have a link to pictures?
- Animats 7y ago
  There's a whole site for cash railways.[1] It's on there. [1] http://www.cashrailway.co.uk/ http://www.cashrailway.co.uk/
  - jagged-chisel 7y ago
    direct link: http://www.cashrailway.co.uk/photos/dlp.htm http://www.cashrailway.co.uk/photos/dlp.htm

dredmorbius 7y ago

high-spirited sales clerks would occasionally try to prank them by placing live mice or dead spiders inside the canisters. In-store gossip and romances could be covertly conducted by secret messages passed back and forth via the cash-carrier wires. Create a link between people, capable of carrying messages (or dynamic entertainments), and hijinks and love will follow.

carapace 7y ago

This is one of those things where it's like, are people just making stuff up? Like dogs "bred to run on a wheel in order to turn meat so it would cook evenly." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnspit_Dog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnspit_Dog

pbalau 7y ago

I'm fairly disappointed with the quality of discussion/things posted here, but from time to time, there is an article like this and all is good with the Universe again.

shahink015 7y ago

professional hackers for hire : https://www.hackerslist.co/ https://www.hackerslist.co/

Sniffnoy 7y ago

After reading this article, I still don't understand what problem these were solving that is now solved by other means. Why was there a need to rapidly transport cash around the store in the first place? This apparently isn't needed anymore, so what problem existed then that no longer exists now? The article says cash carriers went away due to 1. pneumatic tubes, and 2. automatic counter registers. However, pneumatic tubes isn't much of an answer, because that's just a different way of rapidly transporting cash, and those are now gone as well. So presumably the real answer has to be these "automatic counter registers". But the article never elaborates on what those are. How does an automatic counter register differ from earlier cash registers, and why was it that without them one needed a rapid cash transport method?

smelendez 7y ago
The idea seemed to be that the customer could check out with clerks around the store, but the cash was stored and counted in a secure area by trusted employees. A decline in robberies probably also helped. Department stores like Sears and Macy's now have distributed cash registers around the store, sometimes in low traffic areas, but I've never heard of them getting robbed.
- londons_explore 7y ago
  I suspect that in the past stores had more staff and more different departments, which were each smaller. Think more like market stalls. Each department might not have staff dedicated to payments, but instead roving salespeople designed to advertise the benefits of goods, and then to complete the sale there and then on the shop floor. These salespeople probably weren't paid well, or identified well, so the shipowner couldn't trust them. Instead, for every payment, they need to get a receipt from a central place, which prevents any dishonesty.
- jdsully 7y ago
  I used to work at Walmart. It wasn't uncommon for someone to go in with a crowbar at an unused register and take something. It just doesn't make the news. That's why they are always emptied on a regular schedule.

gumby 7y ago

I continue to be amazed by how much effort over the years went in to moving and managing random physical objects around (money, file folders, books, etc). There have been two parallel processes, one optimizing the process (e.g. containerization, JIT delivery, et al) the other eliminating the physical stuff (e.g. files as data, money as data etc). Both processes are at their core ones of abstraction, though all sorts of vestigial traces remain (e.g. calling directories "folders", or even the term "file"). When I go to offices I feel that a lot of that subject matters (physical stuff) has merely been replaced by people moving data around (copying entries into a spreadsheet, for example, or writing reports). That's what we'll get rid of next and again, I believe it will be through a process of abstraction.

masonic 7y ago

Many Costcos still have their pneumatic tubes in place.