Photographs

Dublin: Bad Ass Cafe

Portlaoise: Shaws

ATHLONE. Lesters (Lysters?), Pearse Street. Wire system. (Rubberlegs posting to Athlone.ie forum, 21 Jan. 05)

BALLYMENA, Co. Antrim. T.G.Alexanders (drapers). Rapid Wire and pneumatic tube system until closure a few years ago. (E.Beirne)

BALLYMERE, Co. Antrim. Stewarts (drapers). Still using Rapid Wire system in 1977. Daily Mirror, 21 July 1977, p.20

BELFAST. Arnotts, Bridge Street. Installed July 1885 and decribed in detail by the Belfast News-Letter.
• "The Lamson Cash Railway Company invite inspection of their system in Arnott's, Bridge Street". Belfast News-Letter, 4 Aug. 1885, p.4
• "With its elevators and pneumatic tube carrier system connecting the cash office with the shop floors, it was one of the most modern stores in the city." (Belfast Telegraph, 12 June 2004). The final sale was in August 1974.

BELFAST. Prices, East Belfast. "Prices the place to buy haberdash / Overhead wires conveyed the cash / Beautiful coats and hats and frocks / Shirts and ties and trousers and socks." (Memories of East Belfast)

BELFAST. Royal Irish Linen Warehouse, Robinson & Cleaver, 128A Donegall Square. "The Royal Irish Linen Warehouse, Belfast, has just been completed... There are also pumps for the patent pneumatic cash tubes." Belfast News-Letter, 13 Nov. 1888

CLIFDEN, Co. Galway. Tweed shop. Pneumatic tube system ca. 1960. "I was transfixed by the thing - the very concept of it, and the hissing noise, followed by the very satisfactory thud as the tube came back with the change in it. Terrific stuff for a 9-year old!" (Andrew Darwin)

CORK. Liptons, round the corner from Kyrls Quay and the Coal Quay. '"One thing that was very fascinating to a young child was the wire overhead cash delivery system along which containers seemed to whizz constantly." Denis Grant posting to IRL-CORK-CITY-L Archives, 17 Dec. 99

CORK. Monster Arcade, Patrick Street. Cash carrier. (Staff at Bad Ass Cafe)

CORK. Queens Old Castle, department store. Rapid Wire system. (Staff at Bad Ass Cafe)

DUBLIN. Burgess. Pneumatic tube system. Centurion posting to Athlone.ie forum, 23 Jan. 05

DUBLIN. William Case, grocers. Pneumatic tube system. Centurion posting to Athlone.ie forum, 23 Jan. 05

DUBLIN. Burlington Restaurant, St Andrew Street. "Mr Thomas Carless, proprietor of the Burlington Restaurant, St Andrew-street, was summoned at the suit of Inspector Talbot for having his premises open for sale at prohibited hours ... I do not think there is any payment made over the bar in the premises. It is all by the cash railway." Freeman's Journal, 19 Jan. 1889

DUBLIN 1 . Arnotts, Henry Street. A Lamson Cash Ball system was ordered for the temporary shop in following a fire in 1894. The new shop had a pneumatic tube system, worked off the same engines as the lift. A new pneumatic tube system was put in after the war but proved inadequate at busy times. (R.Nesbitt, 'At Arnotts of Dublin')

DUBLIN 1. Boyers, North Earl Street. Cash Ball system still in operation in 1960. (Nesbitt)

DUBLIN 1. Clerys department store, O'Connell Street. Lamson wire system - part now in Bad Ass Cafe (E.Beirne). Also pneumatic tube system (Centurion posting to Athlone.ie forum, 23 Jan. 05). Cleary's - does anyone remember the place years ago? The sale people put the cash in a cylinder and it went into a plastic tube over their head. It went to a cash office and you stood there and waited for your change." (Caroline in posting to Dublin Forum, 26/4/02)

DUBLIN 1. Guineys, North Earl Street. Wire system. (Staff at Bad Ass Cafe)

DUBLIN 1 . Todd Burns (drapers), Mary Street. See Pims above. Joyce's sister, Mary, worked there in 1907.

DUBLIN 2. Bad Ass Cafe, 9-11 Crown Alley. Lamson Rapid Wire system. Taken from Clerys department store. "The old-fashioned cash pulley thingie" (Virtual Tourist). When I visited in June 2003, some lines were in working order and could be used to carry customers' orders to the central cash desk.

DUBLIN 2 . Pims, Georges Street (later became Penneys dept store). "Cash & docket whooshed in wooden can on wire in Pims and Todd Burns shops, Dublin." (Michael O'Kelly in annotation to Finnegan's Wake p.232: posting to FWAKE-L list, 26/07/91.)

DUBLIN 6. Lees, Rathmines. "The Lees system was polished brass. I have memories of the carrier being sucked into the bowels of the building and then waiting patiently. Eventually, you could hear the system pressurise, and with a loud "schlop" the carrier would come flying out into the basket." 'Grandad ' from Headrambles site

DUBLIN 6W. Floods, Terenure. "Terenure was still a village then. The main grocery shop was Floods. That's long gone now... When the time came to pay, you gave him the money. He would put it, and the bill into a wooden jar that was then clipped into an overhead wire system. He would pull a handle, and the wooden jar would go flying across on its wire into the cash office which was high on the opposite wall." Head Rambles website

DUBLIN 7. Heathers, Arran Quay. "There was a very popular drapery shop on Arran Quay in the Twenties. The name was Heather's and it was quite a large shop. My mother went there quite often and I liked to go with her and watch the aerial boxes which were used to convey money from the counter to the cashier's office. The change caame back along the wire without much delay. Inside was also the receipt. It was always a mystery to me how these small circular boxes could speed along the wires. There were always chairs at the counters for the customers." Paddy Crosbie. "Your dinner's poured out!" Memoirs of a Dublin that has disappeared by a former teacher. Dublin: O'Brien, 1981, p.146. Photograph of exterior on p.147.

DUN LAOGHAIRE, Co. Dublin. Findlaters .. had a wonderful system of those whizzing overhead little money carriers. Tolo posting to Dublin People Forum, 30 Jul. 03

GALWAY. Alexander Moon. 8-station Cash Ball system, installed in November 1894. It was still running until 1965, when Lamsons acquired part of it. Two museums were said to be interested in displaying parts.(Lamson News)

KENMARE, Co. Kerry. Quills Woolen [sic] Market, Main Street. Wire system still there but not operating in June 2003. (R.Hennessy)

KINSALE, Co. Cork. J. Cronin & Co. Wire system still in use (E. Beirne). Some castings had KALAMAZOO stamped on. (Graham Ellis)

LARNE, Co. Antrim. Tweedy Acheson "where my mother used to take me to buy such things as socks, vests and liberty bodices... I particularly liked the little container which whizzed round the store to the cashier and brought the change back." (1950s). BBC Northern Ireland website

LIMERICK. Cannock & Co. "The 'Lamson cash railway' is now in full operation throughout our warehouse, and should be seen by everybody." Freeman's Journal, 4 Feb. 1886, p.8

LIMERICK. Spaights, Henry Street. "Pulley system" in 1940s-50s.. Limerick website

LIMERICK. Todds, O'Connell Street? "The cash for goods was sent to a central cash office via a suction system." There in 1940s-50s. Limerick website

LISTOWEL, Co. Kerry. McKennas (hardware), 3 Market Street. . "I can still hear the clack and whizz of the cash balls... It went quiet sometime in the 60s when the cash registers were brought in." (John McKenna)

NEWTOWNARDS, Co. Down. Warden's. Cash ball system. ("Platypus" in posting to uk.rec.motorcycles group, 14/12/04)

PORTLAOISE, Co. Laois. Shaws, Main Street. Lamson wire system. (Mr N. Shaw) When I visited in July 2003 there was one Lamson Pneu Art station carrying cash from the ground floor to the office on the floor above.

STRABANE, Co. Tyrone. Linton and Robinson, Abercorn Square. "The old pneumatic pulley system". Removed in 2004 when the shop was modernised. (BBC Your Place & Mine website)

TRALEE, Co. Kerry. Munster Cash Company. Cash railway installed in January 1887. (Kerry Centinel)

TULLAMORE, Co. Offaly. Patrick & Henry Egan, grocery and ironmongery depts, Bridge Street. "Neither pains nor expense has been spared in order to make the arrangements of the establishment as complete as possible, the cash railway system being adopted throughout."" (Dublin, Cork and South of Ireland. London:Stratten, 1892, p.113). "In the centre of the shop is situated a cash desk, which is connected by the Lamson system of wires with all the several departments of the house, for the immediate despatch of all cash receipts." Offaly Historical & Archaeological Society, quoting Kings Co. Independent, 1914.

indicates systems which are still there (as far as I know) though they may not be working.