Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
wooden balls of change
English answer:
wooden \'ball-shaped\' containers containing payments
English term
wooden balls of change
"You know the atmosphere of a draper’s shop. It’s something peculiarly feminine. There’s a hushed feeling, a subdued light, a cool smell of cloth, and a faint whirring from the wooden balls of change rolling to and fro."
I don't know what to make of these "balls of change rolling to and fro". I assume it's something else than batches of cloth on wooden rods?
| 5 +5 | wooden 'ball-shaped' containers containing payments |
Tony M
|
PRO (2): BrigitteHilgner, AllegroTrans
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Responses
wooden 'ball-shaped' containers containing payments
In the olden days, before electronic cash registers, many shops (notably particularly drapers, in my own experience, but also department stores and butchers) had a central cashier, and an often highly complex system for getting money and sales chits sent to the cash desk, where the official bill would be prepared, and put back in the container with the change, which would then be sent back to the sales-person to give to the customer.
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Note added at 9 minutes (2015-01-20 22:14:31 GMT)
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Lots of different systems were used, including a pneumatic tube system (a modenr version of which is still in use in some supermarkets), and a sprung system that literally catapulted the little wooden pots across the ceiling, making a very characteristic wwhizzing sound.
I'm not familiar with the system described here, but it douns like a less violent system, presumably using a 'ball' roling between two rails, and sensibly powered by gravity. Hence the noise, in what would otherwise at that time have been the rather hushed, discreet atmosphere of the shop.
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Note added at 10 minutes (2015-01-20 22:15:47 GMT)
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Here's a Wiki article that gives a fuller description and has a picture:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_carrier
| I'm a bit too young for that, I'm afraid, yes:) All I remember from my earliest shopping memories is the pre-digital cash registers, and your account is so illuminating, thanks! |
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