ACME CASH RAILWAY COMPANY. "The Acme Cash Railway is built by the E.A.Burgess estate, 67-69 Court Street, New Haven, Conn., and is so effective and withal so cheap that it is a serious question if any live shopkeeper can afford to be without it." One known location was the Siegel-Cooper store in New York. (Home Furnishing Review, vol. 12, 1897, p.331). There was also an advertisement on page 340: "Single Wheel Acme Cash Railway. Only $44 per station and satisfaction guaranteed. Send for illustrated catalogue covering our full line. Inventors' models made to order. L.A.Holmes, manager. "
AUSTRALIAN CASH RAILWAY COMPANY. A wire car with their transfer on the cup was recently sold on eBay. It was said to have come from a store near Wagga Wagga. The design is very similar to Lamson's Rapid Wire.
The Official Year Book of New South Wales, 1887, mentions the manufacture of cash railway systems "within the metropolis". This seems earlier than Lamson's presence, so might it be the Australian Cash Railway Company?
BILT-RITE MANUFACTURING COMPANY, Minneapolis, Minn. I know very little about this company except for these photographs I was sent of a car. It seems to run on a single wire and the pegs below the wheels presumably engage with the propulsion.
BOSTEDO PACKAGE & CASH CARRIER COMPANY,
47 Marine Building, Chicago, Illinois. In 1888, Horatio Thomas of Chicago
and Louis Gardner Bostedo of Atlantic, Iowa took out a patent assigned
to the Bostedo Package and Cash Carrier Company of Atlantic, Iowa. Louis
was the junior member of the department store firm, A.L.Bostedo and Son.
The patents were later sold to Lamson. (Iowa
Journal of History)
Mentioned in "The Railway Purchasing Agent's Directory" (Railway
Equipment & Finance Co.,1900) p.14 as a supplier of mail bags.
The date of the advertisement opposite is not known. Bostedo made both
wire and pneumatic tube systems and evidently had a New York office too.
The Bostedo Pneumatic Tube Company was involved in a patent
dispute with Stoetzel in the early years of the 20th century. There
is a statement by someone connected with the firm in US
Congressional Serial Set.
The company appointed Urbine Curtis Phillips as their London agent and a clerk from Lamsons, Mr Fenwick, left to join Phillips, taking copies of all their leases for systems. Mr Kelly of Lamsons went to Chicago and arranged for Louis Bostedo to visit England. An agreement was signed for in May 1908 for Lamson to acquire the overseas business of Bostedo with rights of manufacture in the UK. (F.Wagstaff)
CASTLE CHECK-BOOK COMPANY. This advertisement is in the "Drapers Record" of 16 March 1895, p.687. The illustration shows a two-wire system similar to Gipe's.
CONSOLIDATED STORE FIXTURE COMPANY. See Court cases
DENNIS CASH CARRIER COMPANY. Incorporated in Bangor, Maine, on 29 August 1882. The president in July 1883 was S.B.L(?)uffer. George B. Coram and John C. Coram took out patents in 1883.
FLAGG CASH CARRIER COMPANY. Mentioned in the Boston Directory (Sampson, Murdock) for 1885, at 28 Equitable Building. Joseph Walter Flagg of Worcester, Mass. assigned a patent to the company in Portland, Maine in 1884.
FULLER CASH CARRIER COMPANY, Meadville Pa. The illustration is from an envelope franked 30 December 1893. The carrier runs on a single wire propelled somehow by a cord with two handles (one for each direction?). The cup is permanently attached to the carriage and hinges down for inserting or removing money. The same illustration appeared in Scientific American (15 March 1890), p. 165.
"This car runs on a horizontal wire, between salesman and cashier. The cup to hold money is part of the car." Boston Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association. Exhibition (date unknown)
GILMAN CASH RAILWAY COMPANY. "To the Gilman Cash Railway Company belongs the credit of solving the problem of using any number of stations, from one to twenty, on a single wire or rail." Boston Daily Globe 31/1/1886. It was exhibited at 173 Devonshire street, Boston.
GROVER COMPANY. About the same time that Lamsons started to sell pneumatic tube systems, William and Clarence Grover founded a company in Woodburn, Michigan with activities including "the manufacture, sale and distribution of Pneumatic Tubes; Cash and Parcel Carriers; Store, Office and Factory Fixtures". It was later purchased by the Powers Regulator Company of Skokie, Illinois. (Dead Media Working Notes 36.5). The present descendent is Swisslog who manufacture TransLogic pneumatic tubes, mainly for hospitals.
The pneumatic tube system in Penney's, Brownsville, Texas was installed by Frank E.Ware, Texas representative of the Grover Company.
HENDERSON STORE RAILWAY LTD. I know of this only from the following advertisement: "The Henderson Store Railway Limited. - Representative for Ireland wanted to obtain orders for cash railways. Apply, by letter, to the office of the company, 163 West George Street, Glasgow." Belfast News-Letter, 15 June 1893
MARTIN & HILL CASH CARRIER COMPANY. Mentioned
in the Boston Directory for 1885 at 161 Devonshire. Joseph C. Martin took
out a patent in 1882 for "automatically-moving cash boxes" - see Patents
•"Joseph C.Martin of this city sold certain patents on the automatic cash box system to the Martin & Hill Cash Carrier company some years ago. Now the Martin & Hill company have brought suit to suppress the defendant from further patents on the machine." (Lowell Daily Sun, 2 Jun. 1894, p.21)
METEOR DESPATCH COMPANY.
David Law Proudfit was (first?) president in 1888 and the company was
based in New York (Virtual
American Biographies).
• Martin Barri assigned a patent for improvements in pneumatic cash carriers to the Meteor Despatch Company of Portland, Maine in 1888.
• "Pneumatic tube apparatus for the safe, rapid and certain carriage
of cash, papers or messages." Offices in Boston, New York and Chicago.
(Advertisement of 1892).
•"This is manifestly an improvement in these necessary appliances for the rapid
transaction of business, and a meritorious invention. Bronze medal".
(Boston Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association. Exhibition, date
unknown)
•A Lamson sales document
of around 1930 shows tubes labeled Meteor Despatch Co. Boston, Mass. so
they were presumably one of the many companies taken over by Lamson.
• [At least one example in UK!] "Meteor Cash Carrier; two stations; cost £30, good condition; open to offer. - R.Grant, Torquay. " Daily Mirror, 12 Aug. 1915, p.11
PETERSON MANUFACTURING CO. Advertisement in Janesville [Wis.] Daily Gazette, 31 Oct. 1921, p.5: "Cash carrier systems. Soft water service pumps. Phone Blue421, Evenings."
RAPID SERVICE STORE RAILWAY COMPANY of Detroit. Acquired by Lamson in 1887.
SKINNER.According to the Skinner Family Association website, David Skinner (1825-98) patented a parcel transmitter in 1883. It consisted of a metal basket which was propelled up a track to the ceiling by pulling a cord. There a spring propelled it along a cable to the cashier's office. Skinner sold his interest to Lamsons in 1887.
STARR CASH AND PACKAGE CAR COMPANY. The illustration is from Scientific American, 16 April 1892, p.243: "a new device for the conveyance of cash .. recently patented by Mr Joseph Starr, of New London, Ct. In the design of this machine, all superfluous attachments have been omitted, and it is reduced to the practical and useful... The car is propelled along the wire by the use of a steel bow spring, which, as will be readily understood, is superior to rubber bands and cord combinations." However, this superiority did not seem to result in its success over its Lamson rivals.
WHITING'S Cash railway system. Installed in Hudson's Bay store, Calgary. No more known about this manufacturer.