Applicant Drops Coin in Slot, Writes His
Name Through an Opening, and
Then Gets the Document.
Do nothing by human labor that can be done by machinery--that is the
business maxim of the twentieth century.
No man is sure of his job once an inventor gets on his trail.
Twenty years ago it was said that nothing on earth, with less intelligence
than a human being, could set type, play the piano, add figures, or tie a
knot in a piece of binding-twine.
The inventors said, "We can make machines of wood and steel--machines that
have no brains and no feeling, that can do these things, and do them
better than a man."
The world haw-hawed at the silly inventors, but the inventors have made
good. In England, to-day, there are showing us a machine that can hand out
an insurance policy, properly stamped and signed.
The machine, which defies fraud, looks like a clock. When the applicant
drops his coin into the slot he pulls forward a handle, when out drops a
pencil, already sharpened, and an opening is disclosed through which the
signature is made. Then the client pushes back the handle and
simultaneously the space closes and an insurance policy is issued through
another slot.
Against the signature inside the machine is printed the exact date and the
time to the very minute when the policy was issued. If the insured meets
with an accident within seven days he applies to the insurance company for
his weekly allowance, and if his name is on the register retained by the
machine the policy is paid.