MACHINE THAT THINKS

Southland Times, Issue 21100, 4 June 1930, Page 11

MACHINE THAT THINKS

COINS LN THE SLOT.

TICKETS AND CHANGE GIVEN. An automatic ticket machine just installed in London’s Underground Railway Station, at Victoria, accepts one’s money, counts it, throws out bad coins, gives a 3d ticket, and hands back the change. And one can watch it think. It is almost uncanny, writes a Daily Chronicle representative, who amused himself with it recently. He writes:— “You place, say, four half-pennies and one penny in the mouth of the machine. There is a click and a whirr, and out comes the ticket with the same certainty as if you had put in three pennies. Put in a shilling, and out comes the ticket with ninepence in change with the compliments of the management. If you put in 5d by mistake, this robot will deliver a 3<l ticket and a little dial politely notifies that there is a penny more to pay. This paid, you get a second ticket. There is no need to insert the coins one by one; just throw the coins into the hopper of the machine with a negligent air, in any order you like, and it is all added up to the correct amount. It cost me exactly 2s to catch the machine out, and that was only by a low trick. The machine invited me to try coins of any denomination up to threepence or a multiple of threepence. I tried four halfpennies and four farthings, and got what I deserved for trying to be facetious, for the machine stuck to the farthings and demanded another penny. Apart from that, the machine’s honesty was unimpeachable. A sixpenny piece brought forth the ticket and the change, but put in 7d and no amount of strength will return the odd

penny. The machine is entirely British, and the works are in a glass box for all to see. A handsome profit has already been made by the company from people who have taken 3d tickets just to see it at work. Similar machines of other ticket values may be put into commission shortly, as they save time and speed up traffic.”