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totalisator history an Australian achievement



Dear STAMA member
 
I thought you may be interested in a little known Australian technological achievement documented at the following URL.

http://www.ozemail.com.au/~bconlon

It relates the history of the invention of the world's
first automatic totalisator in Australia in 1913 by George Julius.
This system was installed at Ellerslie with 30 terminals and started
operation that same year. George Julius ( later Sir George Julius )
went on to found the Australian company Automatic Totalisators in 1917
which became a world monopoly in this field. A system was installed at the AJC in 1917 with 150 terminals. The largest electro mechanical system I am aware of was installed in Longchamps France in 1928 with 273 terminals. See the timelines section in the web page. An electro mechanical system was tested in Sydney capable of recording 250,000 transactions per minute!  These early electro mechanical systems represent the technology that inspired the birth of the electronic computer. The Computer Conservation Society consider these old systems to be
Large scale, multi terminal, real time computer syetms
and these existed long before the electronic computer
was thought of.
 
The first Automatic Totalisator's system in America was installed at Hialeah Miami in 1932.
 
Automatic Totalisators went on to develop the world's first computer based
totalisator for the New York Racing Association.
 
The last electro mechanical system ceased operation at Harringay London in 1987
 
George Julius was a past president of The Institution of Engineers Australia. He was also the first chairman of the CSIRO.

This is a non commercial, history only site.
 
Regards
Brian Conlon
bconlon@ozemail.com.au
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~bconlon