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| Ticket Machine Accurate Check Taker Limited England, 1902 The Victoria & Albert Museum |
This is an interesting thing. Built in 1902, this machine was installed at the Alhambra Theatre in Leicester Square in London. It was designed to issue two differently-shaped tokens made of zinc or aluminum-oxide. The tokens would serve as tickets to the theatre’s pit or stalls. Tokens and machine were made by the firm Accurate Check Taker Limited of Covent Garden and Soho from 1902 until 1944.
When a person paid for admission, the handle on the machine was turned in one direction for tickets to the pit and another direction for tickets to the stalls. Each token would be deposited from the vertical columns into the receptacle at the base.
As the individual went to his seat, he would hand his token to the usher. Sometimes the tokens were collected on a rod or a string. The used tokens would be returned to the box office where they were compared against the machine’s counter. The machine itself is made of oak with metal compartments, brass cylinders and flaps. The storage for each type of ticket is marked—PIT and STALLS.
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