British Automatic Company Ltd

[arrgee]

I read with interest the article regarding the Mystery Metal Label Stamper in the October edition of Mechanical Memories Magazine. I well remember as a boy, one of these standing on the platform of Swindon Station.

I can also remember a ticket machine, this too was in pillar box red and I have attached a couple of photos of this and guess what - it is also by the British Automatic Company Ltd. As will be seen it is labelled G.W.R. PLATFORM TICKETS 1D

There is an enamelled label on the front printed with the words

PATENT No 2131 of 1910

MANUFACTURED AND SUPPLIED BY:-
THE BRITISH AUTOMATIC COMPANY LIMITED
APPOLD STREET
LONDON EC.

So if we believe the label, the company were manufacturing these machines presumably from early 1910s to ?
Can anyone shed any further light on these machines.

[JC]

I mentioned in the November issue of the magazine that I thought BAC may have been a fairly major player. Well, as it turns out, they were huge!
Anyway, all will be revealed in the December mag.

Jerry

[pennymachines]

Added to British Machine Company platform ticket machines in the Museum.

[badpenny]

A couple of previous lives ago I worked for a division of British Rail that amongst other things dealt with the disposal of redundant equipment. As much as I'd have loved a Deltic or even a class 49 for the back garden, the one that slipped through my fingers was an ancient platform ticket machine as per the above that I knew was residing in a store cupboard of a Midland Main Line station in Derbyshire.

Typically it come up for tender along with a load of old tat during my annual leave, I imagine it went for scrap value and as a consequence was weighed in.
Badpenny

[alan_stanton]

Travelling to Uxbridge I was delighted to find they had an old BAC penny weighing machine on the platform. I posted photo on Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alanstanton/9360974162/
Martin Deutsch has posted a comment suggesting that the typeface suggests the "clockface" is a reproduction. Martin's previous comments on my photos have always been accurate. Is he right this time?
Alan Stanton

[youngerap]

How times have changed..... 'Maximum capacity 20 stones'!

[gameswat]

Looks period correct and original to me.

[bob]

It certainly looks original and authentic to me. The B A and C on the dial are in the typeface that they used for their name and was very distinctive. On the other hand the other lettering does not look like Lucida sans. Just compare the C for example on the Lucida sans that is on every version of Microsoft Office.

[coin-op]

The seller has asked me to mention that a BAC stamper is on ebay 112496854336

[pennymachines]

It sold for £1,839.