The Beckson ticket machine

[@stupossibleify]

Love the historical context and contemporary material you provide with these videos

[@jaapsch2]

Yes, this was a fun one. Unfortunately there is not always much to tell, but this one was great. Other neat ones were the OJ Adder, and Consul the Educated Monkey.

[@negenTango]

Als weekendchauffeur bij Centraal Nederland heb ik ca 1977-78 nog met Beckson kaartenmachines gewerkt op stads- en streekbussen in an rond Amsterdam. Aan het eind van de dag moesten we in de CN-kantine op de Weesperstraat aan de hand van carbondoorslagjes de verkochte kaartjes tot op de cent nauwkeurig afrekenen. Het zou leuk zijn als je toonde hoe je de carbondoorslagjes kun afrollen en lezen: dat deden we namelijk.

[@guldilo]

Thank You for this beautiful and interesting presentation!

Interesting history of the company, thanks for the video!

[@diksmolders3658]

De draaiknop wit/rood werd op rood gezet bij het printen van rittenkaarten. De nieuwe rittenkaart werd er bovenin ingeschoven (waar het klepje opengaat) en de riitenkaart werd geprint met de zones en de prijs. En er kwam dan geen biljet uit.

[@jaapsch2]

Ok, dat verklaart het. Bedankt!

[@DaveInBridport]

British Rail used these, or at least a very similar machine...

[@MattMcIrvin]

I recall London Transport buses in the 1980s having conductors on them who carried very similar machines.

[@DaveInBridport]

@@MattMcIrvin possibly electric Almex machines

[@r0bhumm]

Companies always seem to go downhill when the original founding family leave. In this case it seems the founding family left quite a legacy all over the place.

[@jaapsch2]

Yes, and I haven't even told the complete story. After I recorded the video I found out that in the 1830s Christopher Becker constructed a steam-powered car, and also what is considered to be the world's first electric car.

[@ChrisStaecker]

Nice- did you find a big batch of ticket machines?

[@jaapsch2]

They were part of the massive collection of calculating machines I bought two and a half years ago. I have just one more ticket machine somewhere, an Almex, which I'll get to eventually. Next time it is back to a classic adding machine.

[@yeen.7209]

did not expect to find you here, chris! you've got some fun videos on nice machines that i like watching too :D

[@ChrisStaecker]

@@yeen.7209 if I seem tall, it’s only because I stand on the shoulders of Jaap

[@robertlozyniak3661]

I wonder how the levers for the date and time were used in practice. Was the worker who printed the tickets supposed to look at the clock every single time they were going to print a ticket, and adjust the levers accordingly? Why not instead build a timekeeping mechanism into the ticket machine itself?

[@jaapsch2]

It's not much of a burden. Most of the time it would involve adjusting just a single lever. It is probably better to force the operator to check the time than to rely on a mechanism that, if it failed, would likely cause dozens of invalid tickets to be issued before it was noticed. Those passengers might even be unjustly fined if their tickets were checked.