This is one of several pages relating to the history of the automatic totalizator, its invention in 1913, the inventor George Julius and the Australian company he founded in 1917 which became a monopoly ( later an oligopoly ) in this field. This page describes a shaft adder. This is a history only non commercial page. If you wish to start from the beginning then go to the index .
| The Shaft Adder |
An Electro Mechanical Shaft Adder circa 1926
The shaft adder in the image is one of many that have been restored and donated to museums and educational institutions. The adder weighs 26 Kg and was part of a win place totalisator system. There was one adder per runner in the race per pool. The complete system for a 24 runner field consisted of 50 adders 24 for the win pool 24 for the place pool and a grand total for win and place pools. The racks were constructed with 25 adders in a row for the win pool backing onto another row of 25 for the place pool. This made quite an impressive sight. The Place pool system shown below is more modern than the one to which the displayed shaft adder belonged.
This 2 shaft belt driven drum type adder was hand made by Automatic Totalisators in Sydney circa 1926. It was installed at the Mentone Race Club Victoria where it was used until closure.
Circa 1947 the adder was then used at the Ipswich Amateur Turf Club Queensland in conjunction with the custom made J6 and J7 model ticket issuing machines, until superseded in 1978 by a PDP11 digital computer based tote.
The adder registered either Win or Place bets on one horse only and could handle 4 units of different values on the rear shaft and 6 on the front shaft each controlled by a solenoid and an escapement wheel. e.g. 1 X 5 Pounds, 3 X 1 Pound, 2 X 10 shillings and 4 X 5 shillings.
The rate of sales, 72 per minute, was governed by variable speed rotary distributors, each with 16 TIMs ( Ticket Issuing Machines ) under its control and all on one particular value bank. Today these distributors would be called TDMs (Time Division Multiplexors).
A variable speed rotary distributor (scanner)
Selling on the 10 banks for the Win and 10 for the Place, or 20 bets registered at the same instant was no problem. Since there were 16 TIMs per scanner which sold Win or Place, this equates to 16 TIMs X 10 bets each X 72 RPM or 11,520 bets per minute per adder per pool.
Note - The computer staff are regularly reminded by the proponents of this technology that the computer totalisators cannot register multiple bets at the same instant. The computer systems record them sequentially albeit so fast that it appears to be instantaneous. The shaft adders could register multiple bets on a single horse at the same instant.
In the event of a drive failure such as a belt breaking, all adders were fitted with automatic cut outs to prevent loss of bet registrations. The configuration of the adders on a racetrack were back to back. One row of adders, one adder for each horse for the win pool, backing on to a similar row for the place pool. At the end of each row were the grand total adders with the associated winding gear for raising the vertical lift sliders on every horse adder.
The horizontal component was produced via the large chain sprocket wheel which let its slider out in accordance with the bets on that runner. This produced an angle between the vertical and the hypotenuse which was always related to perfect odds for that horse.
On this angle was a pulley arrangement which drove some cams operating a small motor which in turn powered the large barometer style odds ribbons situated on the face of the tote building.
An example of a barometer style indicator
Note - Neville Mitchell informs me that this indicator was in the paddock at Rosehill Sydney. The building is gone now, it was the main tote building with the machine room in the upstairs area.
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For remote locations such as the centre of the racetrack or a loft, odds transmissions were achieved by the use of a variable resistance, mounted at the important angle mentioned and utilising the Wheatstone bridge principles. The remote receiver sensed any out of balance transmitted by the adder unit and drove itself and the odds display until the bridge centre leg potential was once again null and therefore equalling the transmitted odds.
Rising inflation and hence larger values being required, plus the need for exotic betting such as Doubles, Quinellas and Trifectas etc. made this machinery obsolete.
In addition to the shaft adder in the image, larger capacity adders, of 5 shafts for large racetracks, to single shaft adders for smaller applications, along with a highly developed modern miniature unit used in the mobile totalisators which serviced country racetracks for many years, were produced.
The basis of this revolutionary invention was the epicyclic bevel gear train designed by Sir George Julius. Such was the craftsmanship in manufacture that even after all those years of service 1926 - 1978, wear was minimal.
Load a full screen image of a 3 Shaft Adder viewed from the escapement end. This adder had a capacity of up to 240 ticket issuing machines.
The tote houses on display in the images above and below, contained the machine rooms, which housed the frames, like the one in the second image on this page, which contained the shaft adders and other tote equipment, like the indicator display system. The ticket issuing machines were installed at the windows visible in these images. The two AJC notices that follow relate the operational procedures of 1917, being utilised on the newly installed Randwick Julius tote, inside the building shown in the image below. These procedures were in action and would have been on display inside this building at the time this photograph was taken. The system shown in the image below predates the invention of the odds calculating system used to drive the barometer indicators shown above. Instead the system below had the investments for each runner on display in the central section below the tower.
The Old Main Tote at Randwick 1917
First see that ticket paper is correctly placed in the machine. Try one or more test tickets, noting that race number is correct and that sufficient ink is on machine (reserve all test tickets for manager). Close up all horse numbers on machine when window is closed. Await the hoisting of board showing final scratchings, then open up horse numbers shown. Be ready to issue tickets immediately window is opened.
Do not issue any tickets until instructed to do so by the ticket seller. Pay no attention to numbers called for by investors, the ticket seller will ask you for tickets required.
Should a ticket be issued through any cause and not sold, it must be handed to the Telephone Operator immediately the window is closed, with an explanation showing why it was issued, or otherwise the Ticket Issuer Operator will be held responsible.
Immediately the window is closed, remove paper from issuer, leaving two partly printed tickets on roll, and put on new paper for next race. Change race number and proceed as before.
Should issuer get out of order from any cause, turn switch off at once; the window should be closed immediately and signal given for Mechanic. On no account try to rectify same yourself; do not try to issue any more tickets until Mechanic has left cubicle.
BY ORDER OF THE COMMITTEE
Get cash from bank before first race. Get cash afterwards from banker or selling clerk as directed, giving I.O.U. for same.
When dividend is posted, work out dividends up to ten times and check same with next paying clerk, getting him to initial sheet, you initialling his.
Open up window when signal to pay is given, and keep it open until it is clear; on no account close the window too soon. Fill in list of tickets paid, and return all notes (retaining silver), tickets paid and list to banker, who will give receipt for same. Each ticket must be cancelled as it is paid. Carefully scrutinise ticket and check same with sample ticket given you before paying same, so as to avoid paying out on wrong tickets; as paying clerks will be held responsible for any mistakes made.
Should a legitimate doubt exist about tickets, ask the person tendering same to go to commission room or manager's room.
Should any ticket be presented which appears to be forgery or has been altered (use great discretion in doing this), obtain posession of same and ring the bell under counter, which will immediately bring a detective; then hand ticket to the detective, pointing out person who tendered same.
Should paying clerks be running short of change, pull out the sign for runner. Do not wait until change is exhausted; signal in time to prevent any stoppage in paying out.
BY ORDER OF THE COMMITTEE
This website is an observation of technological change. The tote was transformed after half a century of electro-mechanical computing to a digital computer application. Many other transformations have also taken place during this transition.
In the early 1990s the totalisator history saga was being preserved by cleaning up shaft adders like the one in the image at the top of this page and donating them to museums and educational institutions. These donations were being arranged by writing and reading letters (snail mail). By the late 1990s the story was being told by this website and related communication was by Email. The following paragraph is an extract from an article written for a Tabcorp company magazine called On Track in January 2007.
Today in the era of mobile phones, when people are in contact all the time, it seems archaic to envisage a time when there were no mobile phones let alone contemplate having no phone at all. This was the case when the new computer system started, in the late 1970s, as it was illegal to have any telephone on course. I recall many occasions of having to leave Eagle Farm racetrack, one of 5 this system serviced, and walk down Racecourse Road to a public phone box to make a phone call. This phone box started out as one of the red wooden types, not unlike Dr Who’s TARDIS, then was upgraded to an aluminium and glass one and then like Dr Who’s TARDIS totally disappeared only to reappear transformed again in another location and time. When we used to be at the racetrack late at night, trying to rectify an end of session procedure which had gone wrong, or repairing a system so it would be available to run the next meeting, it was not possible to quickly ring home to say that we were still alive and well. As we were locked inside the tracks and we were not entrusted with keys, entering and exiting the tracks required climbing fences so it was easier not to call. One night the wife of one of our technicians had enough of the anxious waiting for him to come home and rang the police. They arrived at the trotting track and awoke the racecourse manager there. This caused a significant political issue between ATL and the Club management. ATL management took a dim view of the phone call however I felt that she had made a good point. This sort of thing evidently was nothing new. Charlie Barton who was the Chief Engineer of the electromechanical systems in Brisbane, had a term for wives of tote engineers, he called them tote widows.
As mentioned elsewhere on this website relating to the Brisbane Project the electro-mechanical Julius tote systems were replaced by digital computer based totalisators manufactured by Automatic Totalisators, the same company that manufactured the Julius totes. When the Brisbane Project, which developed the PDP11 based tote systems to replace the electromechanical Julius totes in Brisbane, entered the installation phase, there was a permanent contingent of the Systems Dapartment on site at the tracks in Brisbane. As this project was running behind time development work continued on this system in Brisbane. Massive amounts of overtime were being worked and finally the members on site decided they needed a week end off. The following is an extract from an article I wrote for a company magazine called On Track in May 2006.
The project team about to leave Rockhampton
The on-site project team came to me one day, prior to the commencement of operations of the new system and asked if I would fly them to Rockhampton and Keppel Island, for a well deserved week end off. After ascertaining the availability of a suitable aircraft I replied in the affirmative. When the Project Manager was informed he replied that a weekend off for everyone was out of the question. The team insisted that they desperately needed a break and eventually convinced him that the increased productivity resulting from the break would be worthwhile. So it was that we found ourselves on a Friday night on a left downwind to runway 15 in an Aztec F admiring the lights of Rockhampton below. The time on the beach at Great Keppel Island was truly therapeutic. The project manager mentioned above left Automatic Totalisators after this project and joined the Victorian TAB as Computer Systems Development Manager. He later became a Vice President of United Tote. He is an excellent totalisator historian.
Cirrus on final, Runway 28R Archerfield
To put technological change into perspective it is hard to believe that my grandparents could remember a time without any radio or aeroplanes. There is quite dramatic evidence of this change in aviation. In the two photographs above, the Aztec had the classic mechanical instrumentation found in all aircraft of its time. The Cirrus, a new generation aircraft, on the other hand has a "glass cockpit" where the traditional mechanical instruments are replaced by CRT or LCD screens which resemble a video game. The engine page of the MFD (Multi Function Display) is visible in the centre of the picture. The PFD (Primary Flight Display) is on the left and hidden by myself and the seat back. The mechanical instruments on the right are backup instruments. These impart a warm fuzzy feeling inside to those pilots familiar with the way it was and those skeptical of the reliability of electronics and those who have nightmares about losing a whole category of instrumentation in a single failure.
What does this have to do with totalisator history I perceive you ask? Well apart from the Automatic Totalisators on-site crew going on a flying week end and an observation of another significant technological change, George Julius, the inventor of the world's first automatic totalisator, was interested in Aviation. George was the Chairman of the Australian Council for Aeronautics. George's son Roderick was a pilot. Recently I was informed that Churchill Julius, Geroge's father had his first flight with Francis Chichester. I was sent a copy of a photograph titled Archbishop Julius and Ada made their first flights with Mr Francis C. Chichester (later Sir Francis) at Wigram Aerodrome in May 1930. Francis Chichester was the first pilot to land at Lord Howe and Norfolk islands, two locations I have many fond memories flying to. I have exchanged many emails on the subject of aviation with Dermot Elworthy, George's great nephew who is a retired pilot.
| Acknowledgements |
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