Posted by Sigismund on January 19, 2008, at 16:44:53
In reply to Luddite » Dinah, posted by Sigismund on January 19, 2008, at 16:27:26
One gadget I liked was in our town as I was growing up. This was before there were cash registers for the shop assistants to use. The shop assistant, a tall lean grave man, would find some shoes to fit you or fold some clothes, so very slowly in the dim light, and then he would take your money and fill out a receipt, and put both in a little capsule suspended on a wire. Having screwed it on he would pull a cord and the whole thing would shoot across the ceiling of the shop to a person sitting in a cage like structure in the corner of the shop. That person would do the cash register thing, and send the receipt and change back on the same wire with a lovely noise. The wonderful thing about this was that you could see it happening, see how it worked, and all the people and functions were joined together with wires.
poster:Sigismund
thread:807685
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20080104/msgs/807742.html