Thomas Edmondson's original railway ticket printing and numbering machine, patented in 1840. Before Thomas Edmondson patented this machine, tickets were cut out by hand. With the new method, a skilled operator could print 200 per minute. The machines’ success saw them used around the world and by the 1870s Britain printed more than 500 million tickets in just one year. The last Edmondson press was switched off in 1988, and the use of Edmondson tickets ended a year later.