This technology history page contains a photograph, which is one of several belonging to the photo gallery pages, which are part of several pages relating to the invention of the world's first automatic totalizator by George Julius in 1913 and Automatic Totalisators Limited, the Australian company founded by George Julius in 1917 to develop, manufacture and export these systems.
Electro-Mechanical Computing on an industrial scale
This is the Julius Tote Barometer Indicators at the Hialeah racetrack in Miami where the first Automatic Totalisators Limited system was installed in America in 1932. These indicators are not driven by an electronic computer system but an electro-mechanical totalizator computing system, long before the advent of computer based totalizator systems. In the Julius Tote Installations I have seen the Julius Tote machine room is almost always inside the upper storey of a two storey building, with a barometer odds indicator on each side. On the ground floor, underneath these Julius Tote machine rooms, there are tote selling windows, like the one in this image except that the ground floor part of the building is longer than the upper storey. This is not the case with the tote house in this image however, as there is no machine room behind this barometer indicator. The Julius Totalisators supported remote indicators and this is an example of one of them. I have seen an image of this Hialeah Tote House on the Internet, the photograph having been taken from a position sufficiently to the left of where this photo was taken, to provide a sufficient view of the left hand side of this building to see a small part of the metal framework securing this indicator board to the roof of the Tote House. Additionally a plank like walkway without a railing can be seen at the base of this indicator and from the image I saw on the Internet, there is a similar walkway on the rear side of this narrow indicator board. Finally looking at this walkway at the base of the indicator in this image, light can be seen shining through from the rear of the indicator and if there was an upper storey to this building, light would not shine through it. This indicator board consists of three odds indicators one for each of the Straight, Place and Show pools so the Hialeah Park Julius Tote Machine Room or rooms have to house three mainframes, one for each of the three pools and each mainframe drives its corresponding odds indicator. I doubt the machine room is in this building as I do not think the three Julius Tote Mainframes would have fit in this small tote house which already contains selling windows. The Show pool mainframe is shown in the first photograph of the Hialeah Racetrack in Miami 1932 section of the Photo Gallery. To view this, click on the image and scroll up and select the first image thumbnail. There are 11 windows in this tote building, the left hand group have signs indicating that they are Cashier windows and the right hand group are identified as Selling windows, where the Julius Tote Ticket Issuing Machines (TIMs) are installed. There is a punter purchasing a ticket at the 9th window from the left. There may be more selling positions at the rear of this building. Most of the TIMs are probably in the Stand shown in the second image in the Hialeah section of the Photo Gallery. It is probable that this stand houses the Julius Tote machine room. This system was installed with 110 TIMs. It looks like the photo of the Stand was taken from the top of the indicator in this image. There is what appears to be railings protruding slightly at the top of the indicator, behind the raised horizontal sections of the roof line each side of each of the clock like Grand Total displays and if that is what they are, there is probably ladder access up to this height for indicator maintenance purposes. If these railings secure maintenance platforms behind each of the Grand Total displays, then it is highly likely the photo of the stand was taken from one of these platforms.
There is a Trove newspaper archive article relating to the Hialeah Julius Tote included below the image.
Click on the image to go back to the Photo Gallery
Photo by Ray B. Dame
1932 'TOTE-GRAFT IS POISONING AMERICAN RACING', Referee (Sydney, NSW : 1886 - 1939), 22 June, p. 4. , viewed 19 Jan 2021, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article135328733
TOTE-GRAFT IS POISONING AMERICAN RACING
Clubs That Steal the Big Share of The Punters' Dividends
AN AUSTRALIAN MACHINE ON CHAIN OF COURSES TO SAVE THE SITUATION
(By C. J. GRAVES)
A sensational account of racing in America is brought back by Mr. L. L. Raymond, manager and secretary of Automatic Totalisator Ltd., who supervised the installation of an Australian Julius Machine at Miami, America's luxurious holiday resort in Florida.
Many race-club promotors, he found, will subjugate actual racing to the most evil depths to make their meetings pay.
It was because the Chairman of the New York Jockey Club wanted to set up a course where this influence would not reach that he established the track at Miami, and it is said that there are only three or four others that are run on straight lines instead of for the enrichment of the promotors.
RACING has come into bad odor with the better members of the sporting community, because of the things that are going on in connection with the pari-mutuels, as -the tote system is called.
The race club promoters, in their sole control of tote operations, do not hesitate to use the deepest graft in benefiting their own ends.
Frequently ten tickets have been rung up on a horse winning at an outside price 'for the Club.'
One club, finding towards the end of one of those long cycles of continuous racing that losses had mounted up, decided that there was only one way to get square -- at the expense of the tote.
Allowed under statute to take 10 percent from the machine, this club took just what it wanted to bring the venture out of its losses. The pools were robbed right and left, and, of course, the dividends that should have been paid to the public suffered accordingly.
American racing doesn't attract big crowds. Only the rich can travel the long distances to such meets as Miami and Agua Caliente, and 10,000 is reckoned a big attendance.
Admissions are not high, so it is necessary to get money out of other sources, and heavy betting is encouraged on the totalisators, a large percentage of which is retained by the promoters of the race clubs.
When even this percentage does not prove sufficient for the avaricious tastes of the organisers, then some form of graft is practised, to increase the revenue. The figures are faked, and the public suffers. Tickling the tote they call it. And backers thus get a very poor deal in their machine investments.
Mr. Raymond says it was for the purpose of setting up a chain of clubs with courses where a fair deal would be met with that Mr. Widener, Chairman of the New York Jockey Club, decided to establish a new track at Miami, and here the Australian Julius machine was installed.
Hialeah Park the course is called, and a miracle of rapid construction was unfolded beneath Mr. Raymond's gaze on arrival at Miami. The site had been an old race track, but it had fallen back to its original wild state. In five months, however, this desert patch was transformed into a garden course, with stands, race-tracks, totes, club house, and courts for other games complete. Palms 150 years old flourished in the breeze, and huge trees that must have taken 50 years to develop cast a grateful shade. They had been brought from the bushland miles away, and some of the better palms cost 400 dollars apiece. Mr. Widener had 200 of these transplanted.
The whole cost two million dollars, but the stands or other appointments are not to be compared with Randwick or Flemington, for they are made to accommodate only some 6000 people, that being the record attendance for a local race meeting.
The course completed, the club set out on a 30-days' race meeting, spread over 6½ weeks, and racing six days a week. Sundays were the only blank days.
Such continuous racing is the reason for dirt tracks in America. Turf won't stand such cotinuous wear and tear.
The meeting proved a success, and even a greater success was the Julius totalisator. It handled 6,500,000 dollars during the 39 days, and the club, the public, and the papers expressed delight with the operation of the machine. It showed the odds as is done at Flemington, Caulfleld, and other Victorian courses, and the public were pleased with this innovation.
Under Mr. Widener's influence, as President of the N.Y. Jockey Club, Australian industry is likely to receive a notable boost, for it is probable that with the re-establisliment of racing prosperity in other quarters, the Julius machine will be installed.
Mr. Raymond toured France and England inspecting the Julius machine operations in both countries, and had satisfactory reports.
He learned, however, that the Board of Control, which inaugurated the use of the totalisator on English courses, had not been successful in popularising machine betting to the extent expected, and, from what he learned, drastic reforms would be necessary to bring about that result.
Julius machines on the dog courses at eight different centres had been found highly popular, and as much as £4000 a night, largely in 2/- wagers, went through at some places, proving the efficacy of the machine for rapidly handling big amounts.
Dermot Elworthy, George Julius' great nephew, who I have become good friends with, sent me an email on 22/8/2014 in which he mentioned the following after reading this page:
Seeing the photo of the barometer indicators at Miami reminded me that for many years, I used to live not far from Hialeah and once, at a party, met a chap who was employed on the tote machine in some maintenance capacity. This had been removed long before my time.
I find it coincidental that Dermot should move to a location so far from home, that is close to one of the milestone installations, being the first in the United States, of his ancestor's Australian company. After reading the above new entry in this website, Dermot Elworthy wrote to me again, this time on 2/2/2021, adding the following comment:
I remember the racecourse well but took little interest in it. Regrettably, I was unaware of the existence of the Toteblog in those days - otherwise I would have quizzed the chap at the party for more detailed information. Life sometimes seems a catalogue of missed opportunities.
The Toteblog Dermot refers to is this website. I suspect this website did not exist when Dermot lived near Hialeah.
There is an interesting Miami Herald article by Jack Bell about the Hialeah Julius Tote installation in the Automatic Totalisators in America chapter of this website. To read this article, click on the image above then scroll to the bottom of the loaded page and select Go to the index navigation bar option. Next select the Automatic Totalisators in America Chapter in the Secondly section of the index. The article appears under the heading Hialeah Park's Australian totalizator.
There is a video clip titled "Opening Day Hialeah Park 1932" in the Video Clips chapter of this website, which has short segments showing the Julius Tote at Hialeah in operation. To see this video clip, click on the image above then scroll to the bottom of the loaded page and select Go to the index navigation bar option. Next select the Video clips of a working Julius tote Chapter in the Thirdly section of the index. The video clip thumbnail is titled hialeah1932.wmv (18.3Mb)Opening Day Hialeah Park 1932. The Tote House building and odds indicator in the image above can be seen in this video.