This page contains a photograph which is one of several belonging to the photo gallery pages which are part of several company and technology history pages relating to the invention of the world's first automatic totalizator in 1913 and Automatic Totalisators Ltd, the company founded to develop, manufacture and export these systems. This image shows the central processing system of the Longchamps Julius Tote and presents some newspaper clippings associated with this system as well as a description of the machinery in the image.

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The World's Biggest Tote 1927

The Longchamps Electro Mechanical Computer Room

This is an image of the adders in the machine room, or in contemporary terms what could be thought of as the computer room, of the Longchamps electro mechanical totalizator system. This system, being the subject of an article in a Paris newspaper was nicknamed The Insatiable Moloch. I suspect this name, is a reflection of the fact that, this is a system that can inflict a heavy penalty, stemming from its appetite for money that cannot be satisfied. People at the time had never seen a machine capable of extracting large amounts of money from the populace. Nowadays we call them computers.

More about the nickname The Insatiable Moloch later...

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Photo by KEYSTONE VIEW Co. 100 Rue Richelieu (le Journal) Paris

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First a quick look at the technical aspects then on to matters of more general historic interest and finally more on the nickname The Insatiable Moloch. The French order meant considerable design work, as now, for the first time, the Adders were to be divorced from the Indicators. The Adders had to have a capacity of a minimum of 273 Ticket Issuing Machines through a Distributor connected to one Escapement Wheel, over 35 Escapement Wheels where needed on each Adder. The Adder design was a feat of mechanical engineering, all values and transfers being mechanically linked. The Ticket Issuing Machine design also was a remarkable piece of engineering and saw the introduction of a machine to sell both Win & Place tickets from the one machine. This was a big step forward and proved to be one of the main features for many years to come. The equipment for Longchamp was manufactured in the factory at Alice Street, Newtown, N.S.W. except for the Ticket Issuing Machines, which were made in Paris under supervision. There is a chapter of this website that focuses on the Newtown Factory titled The first factory Alice St Newtown. To read this, scroll down to the bottom of this page and select the Go to the index button in the Navigation Bar and then select the title of the chapter mentioned in the Thirdly section of the index.

The adder on the left side of the image above, with two people looking at it, has the rear end visible between the two. This rear end houses the solenoids that receive impulses from the ticket issuing machines, which cause escapements to activate allowing the rotation of the adding shafts. The rotation of each escapement on an adding shaft is summed by the epicyclic gear train. The scanners shown in the fourth photo in the Longchamps section of the photo gallery multiplexes seven Ticket Issuing Machines onto each of these solenoids. Therefore these adders must support at least 39 escapement wheels to cater for the 273 terminals used at this racetrack. I have presented a reduced version of the scanner image below. The adder on the left hand side of the image above, but nearer the camera than the one just discussed shows a close up of this section of the adder. Unfortunately there are dust covers over the adding shafts in this section of the adder obscuring the escapements and epicyclic gear trains. It does however reveal the nearest bank of seven solenoids at the nearest corner of the adder. The long tubular rods extending to the left from each of the adding shafts are devices called storage screws. These are a mechanical form of memory which is written to in the form of angular displacement by the adding shafts and is read by the inertia limited parts of the system as they are able to catch up. In computer terminology the counterpart to this memory would be called a buffer memory.

Two of the Scanner Racks at Longchamps

The above image shows two of the Scanner Racks at Longchamps mentioned in the previous paragraph. These are part of the front end system and multiplex the ticket issuing machines onto the shaft adders. The scanners are the circular devices, six at the top of each rack. I am not going to start describing the other support equipment in these racks to avoid getting bogged down in technical matters which are covered in other pages on this website. To read more about the Longchamps system click on the image at the top of this page and select the other image thumbnails of Longchamps equipment.

The Largest Austral-French Commercial Transaction

1926 'TOTALISATOR FOR FRANCE.', Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954) , 22 March, p. 5, viewed 20 May, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article137516504
TOTALISATOR FOR FRANCE
Universal Automatic Totalisators, Limited, Sydney, has contracted to instal at Longchamps totalisator machines of the type used in Sydney.

At first they will be operated by Australians to allow of a French staff being trained. This, together with the contract signed by Mr. Bethell on behalf of the same company last month to install totalisators at 16 French racecourses is the largest Austral-French commercial transaction yet effected.

The World's Biggest Tote 1927

1927 'World's Biggest Tote.', The Midlands Advertiser (Moora, WA : 1907 - 1930), 1 April, p. 4, viewed 21 May, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article156985282

World's Biggest Tote
AUSTRALIAN INVENTION
INSTALLATION AT LONGCHAMPS
To travel half way round the world to instal an Australian invention is an unusual undertaking, and reveals the confidence which the foreign contractor places on the Australian apparatus. It was interesting to learn from Mr G. A. Julius, managing director of Automatic Totalisators Ltd., a few days ago, that this firm had been successful in signing a contract for the establishment of the largest automatic totalisator in the world at Long champs, the biggest racecourse in Europe, let alone France.

Longchamps, as a racecourse, is noted throughout the world, for there among other races, the Grand Prix is run.

Under the contract the first section of the contract has to be working by September next, and already workmen are busy in Sydney in constructing the more intricate parts required, although probably for future installations the bulk of the work will be done in France by French engineers, after they have had an opportunity of inspecting the machine. It is estimated that the apparatus when completed will cost about £100.000.

The present contract is all the more interesting because it is the first time that an automatic totalisator has been installed to take the place of the 'parimutuel,' which has been in use in France since about 1870. The new totalisator will have no less than 260 selling windows and private tickets from five and 500 francs in value.

Bombay at present has the largest automatic totalisator in the world supplied by the Australian, firm and it is learned that the Longchamps one will be at least three times the size of Indian one. Next in point of size come Randwick and Auckland, Automatic Totalisators, Ltd, it is learned, have supplied 'totes' to all the big courses in Australia (excepting Victoria, of course, where the machine is not legalised) and to New Zealand, Colombo, Madras, Rangoon and Singapore, while recently a contract has been signed for an installation in Ipoh.

The Longchamps System's Successful Opening

The small huts necessary for the pari mutual will be replaced by buildings in perfect harmony with the grandstands. Crowds all day long in front of the different boards were astonished at the precision with which the machine made calculations, and also the rapid display of betting and placed horses. After the first race it took ten minutes to post up the figures but by the third race the figures were available as quickly as in Australia. Under the pari mutual system backers waited for more than half-an-hour to know the figures.

One and a Half Million Tickets sold at Grand Prix de Paris

In Sydney, with the denomination of the tickets ten shillings, that means 44,000 registrations. The French denomination is five francs, and, as a franc is worth only twopence, no fewer than a million and a half registrations were needed to put through the money invested on the Grand Prix. Everything is working smoothly with the recently-installed machine, and the celerity with which it announces dividends has caught the fancy of the volatile Frenchmen.

Chairman of Automatic Totalisators France Talks about sale of interests at Longchamps

Automatic Totalisators (France) Limited Prospectus

PROSPECTUS

The holders of preference shares shall have the right:--

1. To a fixed cumulative preferential dividend of ten per cent. per annum.
2. After provision for the payment of a dividend at the rate of not less than £10 per cent. per annum on the capital for the time being paid up on the ordinary shares to participate equally with the holders of ordinary shares, and, in proportion to the capital paid up thereon, in any further dividends which may be declared up to but not exceeding £15 per cent. per annum (including the 10 per cent. preference dividend).

The holders of preference shares shall have the right to elect annually from their number one Director to the Board of Directors, to attend all general meetings of the Company, to receive reports, balance sheets and all notices of meetings, to vote either in person or by proxy at any general meeting of the Company if such meeting is convened for the purpose of reducing the capital or winding up or sanctioning a sale of the undertaking or when the proposition to be submitted to the meeting directly affects the rights and privileges of the holders.

The Articles of Association of the Company shall also provide that none of the said preference shares shall be paid off unless such payment be approved by at least three-fourths in nominal value of such issued preference shares or is confirmed by an extraordinary resolution passed by the holders of such shares.

Any subscriber may with his application pay the whole amount on the shares applied for, in which case dividends will accrue from date of allotment.

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The remaining 50,000 preference shares will be held in reserve and if it is decided at any time to issue all or any part thereof they will be offered in the first instance to the holders of preference shares in proportion to their respective holdings.

EDWARD H. BUCHANAN. Architect, 26 O'Connell Street, Sydney.
FREDERICK A, THORPE, Company Manager, 339 Kent Street, Sydney.
GEORGE A. JULIUS, Consulting Engineer, 67 Castlereagh Street, Sydney.

One to be elected by the holders of preference shares at the first meeting of the Company.

Automatic Totalisators (France) Ltd. Will hold Sole Rights.

These rights include the full benefit of the patents in France which that Company is entitled to hold respecting Racecourse Totalisators and Machines for issuing tickets and for computing and indicating the totals thereof; also the full benefit of an agreement entered into on the 26th day of January, 1926, between that company and the Société d'Encouragement pour l'amélioration des Races de Chevaux en France-Society of Encouragement for the Betterment of Horse Racing in France- (the head office of which is in Paris) for the installation of a complete Automatic Totalisator system to handle the whole of the betting at Longchamp Racecourse, the largest in Paris. Webmaster's comment: Note the use of the word Computing in this paragraph, long before the invention of the world's first electronic digital computer, the type of machine that ultimately replaced these electromechanical Julius Totes. In the contention whether electromechanical computing existed here is an example of this system being attributed the function of computing in 1926, decades before it was applied to electronic computers.

The Longchamp Racecourse Stands

The above image, that is not part of the prospectus shows the stands at Longchamp racecourse, which the prospectus indicates above was the largest in Paris. The photograph was taken during the time of the Julius tote. The nearest building, housed the Julius tote machine room and the slot like windows in the side of the building contain the Julius tote's runner total investment displays.

The consideration for the acquisition as aforesaid is to be the sum of £120,000 to be paid by the allotment to the Company or its nominees of £100,000 fully paid up ordinary shares of £1 each and £20,000 in cash, of which amount, however, £5,000 is not to be paid until such time as the deposit of £5.000 hereinafter mentioned is refunded by the Comptoir National d'Escompte de Paris.

Totalisators Will Replace Obsolete Betting System.

The agreement also provides for payment of a commission of one per centum on the total investments recorded through the machines for a period of twenty years from the date of the official opening, during which time the Company is to provide for the technical management of the machines.

With the object of assuring the smooth running of the system, the Company is to undertake the complete operation of the Totalisator system for one year, for which services an extra one-half per centum commission on the total investments is to be paid, making the total commission payable for the first year one and a half per centum.

In this connection it might be pointed out that the turnover through the present Pari-Mutuel at the Longchamp Racecourse during the year 1925 was £2,120,654--almost equal to the investments made on the whole of the Sydney racecourses during the same year.

The agreement, also provides for the possible future installation of Premier Totalisators on the Société's; other two Racecourses at Chantilly and Deauville, investments at which last year were respectively £400,000 and £250.000--each greater than the turnover at any course in New South Wales outside of Randwick.

Permission has been given by the Société above mentioned to the formation of a subsidiary Company to carry out the terms of the agreement.

After exhaustive investigation of the Company's patents and machines, the French Government has officially approved of the machines and given the necessary authorisation for their installation at Longchamp.

Illustrious Personnel of French Turf Society.

At first progress was slow. The State gave small prizes and alone controlled the races. Little by little, however, sportsmen became so interested that Lord Henry Seymour, the Comte de Combis, the Duc de Guiche, M. Rieussee and the Comte Maxime Caccia decided, with the object of improving the breed of horses in France, to make horse racing popular by offering good prizes.

They began in the year 1833 by founding the Société d'Encouragement, which organised a Spring Meeting at the Champ de Mars on 11th November, 1834, where, until then, the Government races had been run. On 15th May, 1835, the Société opened the Chantilly racecourse, but did not give up control of the Champ de Mars (which, despite its uneven ground and lack of space, was very near the heart of Paris) until 23rd March, 1856, when it obtained from the City of Paris a concession of sixty-six hectares in the Longchamp plain for laying out a racecourse, and the opening of the Longchamp Racecourse took place a year later, on 26th April, 1857.

The Société owns a magnificent five-storey building, recently constructed in the Rue du Cirque, Paris, at a cost of 13,000,000 francs, for their offices and administration quarters, and also a very well laid out Ticket Printing Factory in the Longchamp locality.

The membership of the Société is much coveted and is limited to forty members. The present members of the Société are as follows :-

The rest of this list has been omitted.

Pari-Mutuel Must Give Way To Totalisators.

Sales of these tickets are made from booths situated in various places on the course, and when a race starts an army of accountants collects particulars of the sales on each horse from each booth. This information is collected in a central office and from the totals so ascertained the pool is declared and dividends payable calculated.

A selling booth in one of the Longchamp stands

The image above is not part of the Prospectus. It shows a selling booth in a stand at Longchamps, as mentioned above. The metalwork protruding upwards from the bench, in front of the seller, on the other side of the bench, is the lid of a J5 TIM (Ticket Issuing Machine). The Longchamps system ended up with 273 TIMs.

It can be readily understood that the working of "pari-mutuelles" as compared with the Automatic Totalisator is very unsatisfactory.

From reports received from France we find that the results are invariably not known until about twenty minutes after the race is run, and frequently dividends arc not paid until forty or forty- five minutes after the finish of a race.

The inconvenience caused to the public is obvious, and complaints are many, but so far the public is apparently unaware that there is a means of overcoming the trouble.

It is anticipated that when the Premier Automatic Totalisator is installed at Longchamp, public feeling will force the other racing organisations to follow suit, and a few years should see the Premier Machines installed on all the principal courses in France.

Further Contracts Do Not Mean More Capital

Further contracts will not require fresh capital, as other Clubs installing machines will be expected to pay costs of manufacture and installation.

The obtaining of the contract by Automatic Totalisators Limited from the Société d'Encouragement pour l'amélioration des Races de Cheveaux en France for the installation of Premier Automatic Totalisators at Longchamp represents a notable achievement. It has already been mentioned that negotiations in connection with France have extended over and been active during a period of no less than six years.

The great difficulty was the lack of knowledge of the French people as to actually what an Automatic Totalisator was and the manner in which its functions could be performed. It is confidently anticipated that its installation at Longchamp will immediately revolutionise the ideas of the French racing public as to Totalisator betting, and the Directors of Automatic Totalisators Limited are more than confident that large and important installations in France will inevitably and quickly follow the introduction of these machines at France's premier racecourse.

One Automatic Totalisator always means more.

The first installation, outside Australia was that at Colombo, Ceylon. An indication of its success is amply evidenced by the important installations at Madras and Bombay in India, also at Rangoon, British Burmah and Singapore in the Straits Settlements.

The installation at Bombay, which was used for the first time in December, 1925, proved such a success that a further order for two similar machines has been received, and these machines are now being installed at the racecourse at Bombay.

As the result of the installation of the two Premier Totalisators at Colombo in 1922, the Totalisator business has grown to such dimensions that the Club has just placed an order for two more much larger machines, which will be installed for their 1927 racing season.

One of the most important cogs in the wheel of racing is the Totalisator, the machine which is continually fed by punters but always remains famished. The public attempts to sate the monster's appetite by betting more and more each year, but the efforts are in vain.

Where did this "gobbling creation" come from, and what has been its effect on racing throughout the world?

It is difficult to imagine a time when totalisators were not used in racing and, as stated in a booklet produced by Automatic Totalisators Limited (ATL), it would be "like a car without wheels".

The wheels of the totalisator system began to roll more than 55 years ago when the brilliant Australian engineer George Julius created the world's first Automatic Totalisator System in the form of a strange and ungainly mechanical unit. This machine, a conglomeration of wheels and cogs, was set loose upon an unsuspecting racing public at Ellerslie Racecourse in new Zealand in 1913.

Automatic Totalisators Limited was founded in 1917 and specialised in the manufacturing and installation of these strange machines. The company's task was facilitated somewhat during its foundation year with the introduction of electricity, thus resulting in the Automatic Electro-mechanical Totalisator.

The seeds were sown. ATL's motto became "progression" and during the last 50 years it has endeavoured to discover new methods by which to cater for the betting demands of the public. Its machines were hungry, and the public was willing to feed them.

In 1920 seven Australian racecourses had introduced the Electro-mechanical system, and some of them are still operating at full capacity today. This fact can either be a tribute to the manufacturing company for creating such hardy machines, or indicative of how some race clubs have failed to retain the same level of progression as the company.

One of ATL's greatest triumphs was the introduction of the Totalisator to the picturesque French racecourse, Longchamps, (emphasis added) in Paris. It was installed in 1928, a time in which the knowledge of mechanical calculating systems was very limited. Yet, not so short of 50 years of service, the Longchamps punters are still battling against those same machines in an effort to take away a dream from the racecourse.

Automatic Totalisators Limited has installed the same service on more than 200 racecourses in 30 countries throughout the world. There are some countries which Australian punters would not even consider conducted race meetings, and perhaps they would not have done so had they not been able to provide the public with a complete service.

These countries include the Philippines, India, Sweden, Ghana, Eire, Iraq, Spain, Brazil, Burma, Ceylon, France, Canada, Nigeria, Jamaica, Pakistan, England, Trinidad, Rhodesia, Malaysia, Columbia, Thailand, Scotland, Indonesia, Singapore, Venezuela, Hong Kong, New Zealand, United States of America, South Africa and of course Australia.

The betting demands of all of these countries are catered for by ATL.

One of these countries which has the greatest demand in the world is the United States of America, particularly in New York. One day in May, 1965, 73,435 people poured more than six million dollars through the Aqueduct system. Aqueduct and its sister courses, Belmont Park and Saratoga (all three controlled by the New York Racing Association) cater for, in a single season, an attendance equal to the total population of Australia. The turnover is $700 million, a nice total of money in anybody's language.

In 1966 it was decided to streamline the betting accommodation and for this season the NYRA called upon Automatic Totalisators Limited to provide its courses with the most modern Electronic Totalisator available. In such a way, the world's first Electronic Totalisator System was born.

The Aqueduct equipment is portable and can, therefore, be used at the NYRA's other racecourses, Belmont Park and Saratoga. This means that the equipment is in use 234 days of the year, and its durability has led to the installation of similar equipment on other racecourses throughout the world.

Happy Valley, in Hong Kong, is Asia's busiest racecourse and also uses the Electronic Totalisator System, although on a more compact basis than that which is used by the New York Racing Association; whilst Djakarta uses the system on both its racecourse and greyhound tracks. The latter was installed in 1970.

Australia is served by the same system, at both Harold Park Paceway and Wentworth Park. The race clubs as of yet have not followed suit.

Perhaps one of the most important results of research at ATL has been the creation of the Mobile Computer Totalisator, an amazing creation.
The article goes on to describe the ATL mobile computer totalisators and describes the Victorian mobile system. It ends with the following paragraph:

All in all, ATL has provided punters throughout the world with a progressive service and, now that the computers are here (if only in mobile form in some quarters) we have an even more rapid method by which we can "do our dough".

• Thanks to Peter Collier for giving me a copy of the French Prospectus.
• The extract from an article The Galloping Gourmets by Graeme Clark November 1974 is Courtesy of Racetrack Magazine.
• Thanks to Chris Robertson for sending me a copy of The Galloping Gourmets.
• Thanks to Andrew from Racetrack Magazine for providing approval to reproduce extracts from The Galloping Gourmets.

Comments and suggestions welcome to totehis@hotmail.com

The Next page in this website is the first of three relating to the White City London system, the next Julius totalisator to hold the title The Largest Automatic Totalisator in the World
The Previous page in this website looks at the Bombay Julius Tote, the previous Julius totalisator to hold the title The Largest Automatic Totalisator in the World

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