Photographs

Lawrence: Weaver's

ADA, Okla. Katz, Main Street. Wire system. 'Farngirlok' in posting to OKPONTOT-L list, 18/10/99

ADA, Okla. Shaws. "Shaw's big department store is installing a cash carrier system this week which is going to be a great improvement." Ada Evening News, 26 Oct. 1920, p.5

ARDMORE, Okla. C.R.Anthonys. Pneumatic tube system in late 40s/early 50s. "The kids were always in awe of the vacuum tubes that were used to pay for your purchases that whizzed around above head [sic] to the cashier box on the second floor. "This & That" News, 17 Aug. 2002 (letters)

ARKANSAS, Ark. O.P.Houghton "has put in his dry goods store a cash railway system. It is operated by means of compressed air and differs from any other system in use in the city." Arkansas City Republican, 19 Mar. 1887

ARKANSAS, Ark. A.A.Newman "have just established the rapid cash railway system in their mammoth dry goods house." Arkansas City Republican, 12 June 1886

AUSTIN, Min. J.C.Pennys. "I remember that JC Pennys and maybe Kresges had that cable system that shot those cups from the registers where the clerks were up to the cashier." Cecil Monson posting to antique-tractor list, 23 Dec. 02.
"As recently as the 1960s, the old Penney's store in downtown Austin, and the department store in Taylor, TX at the time, had the little cable-car money transporters. There was one cash register on the mezzanine level at the rear of the store with small diameter steel cables radiating out from it to the different sales departments on the street level. When you made a purchase, the clerk would place your money and the sales slip in a little cup and attach it to the carrier mounted on the cable. A mighty tug on a little cable hanging down would propel the carrier with the cup up the cable to the cash register. A little later, the carrier would come sliding back down the cable, bearing your change and receipt. The ceiling area of the store looked like a great spider web, and it was fun to be a kid watching the constant overhead traffic to and from all parts of the store." Jim Stinson posting to Dallas History Message Board, 20 Apr. 2005

BROWNSVILLE, Tx. J.C.Penney, 1032-6 East Elizabeth. "Classed somewhere between a fixture and a convenience for both the store and customer is the new pneumatic system for making change. This new pneumatic tube system has been installed in the new Penney store... Two to four girls work in relays serving the twenty tube stations which go to all departments of the new store... Money and sales slip is placed in a cup in the tube and from the furthest point, reaches the cash desk in less than two seconds. Installed by Frank E.Ware, Texas representative of the Grover company." Brownsville Herald, 27 Apr. 1949, p.17

BROWNWOOD, Tx. J.C.Penny store. Wire system. Brownwood High School Newsletter, no.5 (Summer 1998)

BUTLER, Mo. Levey's clothing store. Shop opened in 1876 and closed in 2003. Lamson wire system installed in 1906 and there until the shop closed. Carrier has "R-488" stamped on it. Re-erected in museum at Adrian. (T.Hall)

CHARTER OAK, Ia. The Farmers Store. "Money trolley carrier." Obituary of Leona Pautsch

CHILLICOTHE, Mo. The New York Store, 501 Locust. Overhead cash carriers. Shop had 60-odd departments. Livingstone County History website

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Ia. Beno's dept. store. "Everyone seems to remember the Lamson cash system which carried receipts and money to the balcony so change could be given. I spent one summer working in the balcony catching the 'cups'. Beno's opened in 1866 and closed in 1987 after a few years in Midlands Mall. The building at Pearl and Broadway was razed in 1989." (C.E.Beno posting to IAPOTTAW-L list, 17 Jul. 2000)

DALLAS, Tx. W.A.Green. Photograph in Lamson brochure shows central wrapping desk with 11 basket lines and a wire line elevator serving the counter directly below the balcony.

DAVENPORT, Ia. Harned & Von Maur, Harrison/Second Streets. "The fittings of the store are most modern and attractive, including a pneumatic cash system and every convenience and facility for the conduct of a first-class department store." Site was purchased 1899. (Harry E. Downer. History of Davenport and Scott County Vol. II. Chicago:Clarke, 1910)

DE LEON, Tx. Texas Street. Higginbothams store, Texas Street. Building was constructed in 1881 and business closed in 1999. Basket system. "It featured a modern, overhead delivery system in which all sales people sent the money via a pulley and wire basket to a single cashier at the back of the store... A clerk would place the sales ticket and money in the basket, raise it to the ceiling, then pull a rope that would send it up the inclined wire to the cashier." Abeline Reporter-News website

DES MOINES, Ia. New Utica. "The New Utica department store downtown had pneumatic tubes rising from each cash register. The cash from your purchase was placed in a cylinder, then inserted in the tubes and noisily fired - like a torpedo - to a central collection point, such was the urgency to get the money counted and back into the economy. A visit to the New Utica was like a trip to a future century." (Bill Bryson. The life and times of the thunderbolt kid. London: Black Swan, 2007, p.44)

EDINBURG, Tx. Penneys. Pneumatic tube system. (Posting to bit.listserv.words-l, 5 Sep. 1994)

EPWORTH, Ia. Silkers. "Silker's sold groceries and dry goods and there were overhead cables on whih little boxes with bills and change flew to and from the cashier." Ann E. Berthoff: Too late for the frontier: a family chronicle (Philadelphia?:Xlibris, 2004) p.144

FAIRFIELD, Ia. J.C.Penney. Wire system. Journal-Standard (Freeport, IL) 12/10/08

FARGO, N.Dak. De Lendrecie's (dept. store). "It was a relic of the 19th century, even in 1966 - the two-story atrium with the mezzanine, the pneumatic tubes whizzing metal pills through tubes, landing in the basket with a whoosh and a plonk." The Bleat website, 1997. Built in 1889 and now offices. "The hiss and thump of a message arriving via pneumatic tube." James Lileks, A rich boyhood in the plain void. American Enterprise, July/Aug. 2004, p.31. Air tubes installed in 1930. Sold to Mercantile Stores Co. in 1955 and moved in 1972. In-Forum website

FARGO, N.Dak. Moodys, Broadway. "I remember the little cages that carried the money on wires up to the business office for change. I recall the clicking quite clearly." The business moved to the Front Street location at the foot of Broadway in 1884. Moody sold the business in 1940 and in 1961 it became Sgutt-Moodys. The building was razed in 1966. In-Forum 7 Aug. 2004.

FORT WORTH, Tx. Montgomery Ward, cultural district. Opened in 1928. Building is now "mixed use". Photograph of menswear floor shows pneumatic tube system. "Atomic Glee" posting to The Fedora Lounge, 19/6/06

GALVESTON, Tx. Levys. "Levy's, officially E.S.Levy & Co., will celebrate its 100th anniversary with a special celebration .. at the retail store, 2227 Central Plaza, its location since 1917... Each sale made in the 1920s required some response from the office. Communication from the selling floor to the office functioned by a basket and rope system... About 1940, a system of pneumatic tubes was installed. Paperwork and money for cash and charge sales could be whooshed to the office in a container through the tube. And whooshed back.
When the pneumatic tubes were installed at Levy's, the technological advance was noticed. It was 'as big a deal as air conditioning', Levy Jr. recalled.
Eventually, the store converted to the present system of cash registers at the point of sale." Galveston Daily News, 6 Mar. 1977, p.13

GILBERT, Minn. Kraker Mercantile Co. Pneumatic tube system between the main floor and the mezzanine office. Kraker/Livergood Emporium website

GOODLAND, Ks. J.C.Penney. Opened 1 August 1929. "She remembers when the store cashier used a trolley system. A cup was attached to a pulley and was pulled up to a cashier in the upstairs office... It helped with the bookkeeping with only one person doing it for the whole store." Goodland Daily News, 30 Apr. 2002, p.1

GOODLAND, Ks. Wolffs and McCarrolls clothing store, 1024 Main. "The building featured an upper mezzanine in the shape of a horseshoe. The mezzanine housed displays and the bookkeeping department. The bookkeeping system consisted of a canister, in which clerks would put money and send it up to the bookkeeping department. The bookkeepers would make change and send it back down to the clerk." Sherman County Historical Society website

HILLSBORO, Tx. "A store.. in the 1950's ... They had a basket that they hoisted up to the second floor where change was made and the purchase was wrapped for you. There was a small leather can that held your money going up and your change coming down. I am old enough to remember those pneumatic tubes but the basket system is even lower tech." Stanley L.Moore in posting to rec.arts.mystery, 2/1/06

KANSAS CITY, Mo. Bullene, Moore, Emery & Co. "dry goods palace", 11th, Grand Avenue and Walnut Street. "This store threw open its doors to the public this morning... Undoubtedly the most most novel feature in the fixtures of the store is the pneumatic tube system used for conveying the cash from one department to the central station... There are thirty-five stations in the building, one for each department. The clerk puts the cash ticket and the money in a little brass cup which fits the tube, and placing the cup in the mouth of the tube it is sucked up through the opening and almost before she can wink the money drops out of the other end, at the central station, where the necessary change is made, put back in the cup and again whisked through the tube to the station from which it came. This all can be done in less than a minute of time from any part of any floor to the central station." Kansas City Star, 22 Sept. 1890. The store closed in 1968.
• In 2007, two Baldwin Flyer propulsions and a car from the "old Emery Bird Thayer department store in downtown Kansas City" were offered for sale on eBay. I'm not sure if this is the same store and how it relates to the above.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. Jones. "Mrs Noland worked at the Jones Store in Kansas City as a cashier in the Pneumatic Tube Room." Holton Recorder website

KANSAS CITY, Mo. George B. Peck Dry Goods Co., Main Street. Until 1901 was Doggett Store Co. "Before the store installed overhead wires carrying baskets with purchase and money, young boys and girls were employed to run with these items to a central cashier." Store closed 1964. Kansas City Times, 12 Sep. 1970

KANSAS CITY, Mo. John Taylor's Dry Goods Co. Overhead wire basket system. Taylors was founded in 1881 and taken over by Macys in 1947. Kansas City Times, 24 March 1978. Postcard showing silk department at Kansas City Library website.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. Weavers. "From the pneumatic tube system it uses to process transactions to the chief executive who goes by Joe, everything in Weaver's 140-year history speaks of traditional, high-quality customer service." Kansas City Star, 8 Sep. 1998, p. D1

LAWRENCE, Kan. J.C.Penney. Lamson Air-Line system in 1940s-60s until store moved to a new location. (Harlan Miller)

LAWRENCE, Kan. Weaver's Department Store, 901 Massachusetts Street. "This small old-fashioned department store ... still uses pneumatic tubes to transport money up to the accounts department and back down with change and receipts." Lawrence Chamber of Commerce website. Still in use in 2007. Made by Airmatic Systems Company of Saddle Brook, NJ and installed around 1935. Twelve stations on four floors. (Harlan Miller)

LINCOLN, Neb. Famous (?) "For sale - Three station air line, cash and package carrier at the Famous corner 13th and O." Nebraska State Journal, 16 Nov. 1910, p.11

LITCHFIELD, Minn. Sibley Antiques, 100 N Sibley Avenue. Air Line system. Intact but not in operation. (Wes Anderson). Photograph

MANNING, Ia. Manning Mercantile Company. September 16, 1898 the Lawrence Block was completed and this and the south half of Union Block was occupied by the Manning Mercantile Company... Among their modern improvements are: a cash carrier system. Manning website

MANNING, Ia. Rober-Wehrmann Co. department store. "A money exchange system ran from the central cashier's office, by means of overhead conveyance wires that carried tubes containing the change or receipts to the various customer stations." Built in 1917. Company went out of business in Feb. 1939. Manning Centenial Book p. 166

MARSHALLTOWN, Ia. J.C.Pennys. "My grandmother got to keep them [pneumatic tube carriers] when they moved the J C Penney store to the mall." (Description on eBay, 24/7/06)

MEXICO, Mo. "The store downtown that had the track system in it that you put your money into a small carrier and it took it by track to the upstairs office, and your change was sent back to you the same way." Audrain County Historical Society website

MOUND VALLEY, Ks. Wise Brothers. "One side of the store is devoted to the sale of dry goods and clothing and the other side to groceries and shoes... A cash-carrier system is used, thus requiring the constant attention of a cashier. Five people are employed as clerks." History of Labette County, Kansas and its representative citizens, ed. Hon. Nelson Case (Chicago: Biographical Pub. Co., 1901)

NACOGDOCHES. Tx. "Local hardware store here in Nacogdoches has a complete cable and basket system in storage, removed only recently (apparently mid-1970s)." Clyde Howard in posting to Dallas History Message Board, 20/4/05

NEW BRAUNFELS, Tx. Henne Hardware, 246 W San Antonio St. "The 'money trolley' - in the old days the cash was sent by this overhead wire from the front to the back immediately. Any change would be shipped to the front." Stanford website. The photo is not very clear - it may be a basket system or non-Lamson.

NEW ORLEANS, La. Krauss department store, Canal Street. "Had them [pneumatic tubes] until they closed about 5 years ago." (Posting to alt.religion.kibology, 3 Nov. 2001). Also "RedPop4" in posting to The Fedora Lounge, 20/6/06.

OMAHA, Neb. Brandeis. "One of my earliest memories is shopping with my mother at the alrge Brandeis department store in Omaha, Nebraska, and watching that money get put in a tube and whooshed away to some place out of sight. We would wait with our cashier until the carrier reappeared with our receipt and change." Old Stuff website

OSAGE, Ia. Daylight Store, Main Street. Now Terri Lynns (antiques). "Four money chutes.. that went from the main floor up to the office." Replaced by cash registers in 1953. Mitchell County Press - News Online, 18 Jul. 2006

PALESTINE, Tx. Penneys. Cash carrier. (Posting to bit.listserv.words-l, 5 Sep. 1994)

PIPESTONE, Minn. Wilson & Evans Brothers. "The dry goods department of the store of Wilson and Evans Brothers now presents a very citified appearance. A complete system of parcel and cash carriers have been installed. However, the system has only been put on trial, and the proprietors of the store are uncertain about retaining it." Pipestone County Star 25 Nov. 1904

POMONA, Kan. Mindlin Store. "John Krause will soon begin work on an addition to the Mindlin store building... When completed, it will give Mr. Mindlin the finest store room in any county town in Kansas. It is the intention to fit it up with cash carriers, department counters, a resr room for the ladies..." Annals of Pomona, Kansas, 1901

SAN ANTONIO, Tx. Big Store. "While in San Antonio we want you to visit this Big Store... The largest and best store between the Mississippi and the Pacific Coast... Directory of the store ... Economy basement... Pneumatic tube station." San Antonio Light and Gazette, 9 Nov. 1909, p.14

SAN ANTONIO, Tx. Frost Brothers. Pneumatic tube system. (Posting to bit.listserv.words-l, 5 Sep. 1994)

SAN ANTONIO, Tx. J.C.Penneys. "Penney's, and some of the other major department stores at that time, used an overhead tube for taking payments for merchandise and making change. The floor clerk made out the bill, took the money from the customer, and put them in a cone or carrier like the ones used in banks by outside tellers. Then she placed the carrier in the overhead tube, and air pressure, or something, caused it to fly across the ceiling upward through the tube to the office cashier. The cashier made change and the carrier was "shot" back via the tube to the floor clerk who completed the transaction by counting out the change to the customer and handing him his purchase. No currency was kept on the floors with the merchandise. The noisy process took extra time and prompted a certain amount of otherwise unnecessary waiting: when I was a child I found the procedure intriguing, but when I was older, I found it tiresome to wait until it came to my turn for the elevated cashier to make change. Mary E. Livingston: San Antonio in the 1920s and 1930s (Charleston SC: Arcadia, 2000) p.113.

ST LOUIS, Mo. Schroeter Bros. (hardware). Wire line carrier used to a cash desk on the balcony. (Lamson brochure)

ST LOUIS, Mo. Scruggs Vandervoort & Barney. "Lamson brass pneumatic tube from the store Scruggs Vandervoort & Barney ... Once privately owned, they were absorbed into the Denver Dry Goods Company. DDG was merged into and became part of the Foley's nameplate after a May Company Conversion." (Caption in Retail Memories blog)

TAYLOR, Tx. A department store. See AUSTIN - Penneys.

TEMPLE, Tx. Cheeves Bros. dry goods store. Cash carrier. (Posting to bit.listserv.words-l, 5 Sep. 1994)

WACO, Tx. Coxs, Austin Street. "I seem to recall the downtown .. Cox's in Waco used the baskets and cables, while Goldstein-Miguel (slightly upscale compared to Cox's) had pneumatic tubes." Clyde Howard posting to Dallas History Message Board, 20 Apr. 2005

WACO, Tx. Goldstein-Miguel. See WACO - Coxs above.

WATERLOO, Ia. Hannasch Shoe Co. "For sale - shoe store equipment, cash carrier system". Waterloo Daily Courier, 14 Aug. 1930, p.19

WAVERLY, Ia. Penney's clothing store, 1123 East Bremer Avenue. Opened September 1913. "Lamson Electric Continuous Cash Carriers were installed when the building was new." Waverley Area Development Group website

WEEPING WATER, Neb. Eugene L. Reed's, corner of I and Randolph Streets. "Mr Reed was the first merchant in Weeping Water to have a cash carrier placed in his store, and which for some time was regarded with a great deal of curiosity, being quite an innovation upon the old system." Building was erected in 1868. Portrait and biographical album of Otoe and Cass Counties, Nebraska (Chicago: Chapman Bros, 1889) p.910

WICHITA, Kan. Henrys Inc. Lamson pneumatic tube system. (Lamson brochure, 1952)

WINFIELD, Kan. J.B.Lynn's. "A unique feature of Mr Lynn's splendid store is the elevated cash railway, the most convenient cashier system ever invented." Winfield Courier, 1 Jan. 1885.
• J.B.Lynn has had a railroad smash up and all trains are stopped, causing much inconvenience. The stove pipe did it. It fell on the elevated cash railway and broke its back-bone. The patentee's manipulator will be on in a day or so to repair it." Winfield Courier, 25 June 1885
• "When a payment was made, a clerk would put the cash and a sales slip into a cup and send it to the cashier's station in the balcony. (Bill Bottorff's website)

WINONA, Minn. Choate. "Modernization of the H.Choate & Co. store has brought many conveniences to shoppers, but customers will miss the cash railway system and the swivel chairs. Seventy-eight years ago the store installed the latest thing in cash handling - a series of lines snaking up walls and across ceilings. When a customer made a purchase the clerk put the cash in a small cash box, like a miniature railway car, which was sent on a seemingly endless journey to the main office upstairs. The railway system has been replaced by cash registers in each department." Winona Daily News 30 Sept. 1961, p.24

YORK, Neb. Brown McDonald dept. store. "Where the York State Bank is now, used to be the Brown McDonald Department store. They had .. pneumatic tubes to put customers money in, then it would 'whiz' to the office, and the office would send the change back to the clerk." (Floridagal posting to York News forum, 8/2/05)

Museums

ADRIAN, Mo. Western Missouri Antique Tractor and Machinery Association. Air-Line system from Levys shop in Butler re-erected in old general store. Photos

VALLEY CITY, N.Dak. Barnes County Historical Society, 315 Central Avenue N. Air Line system. A few missing parts have been remanufactured. (Wes Anderson). Photos