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The fiscal cash register was invented in 1879 by James Ritty, a saloonkeeper in Dayton, Ohio. He patented a machine with a mechanism similar to one he had seen count the revolutions of an ocean liner's propeller in its engine room. His "Incorruptible Cashier" (left) used metal taps with denominations pressed into them to indicate the amount of the sale. There was a bell to "ring up" sales. It also had a total adder that summed all the cash values of the key presses during a day. Ritty's invention caught the eye of John H. Patterson when he purchased several machines for use in his retail store. Patterson bought the rights to Ritty's invention (from Jacob H. Eckert, who had purchased the rights from James Ritty) for $6,500 in 1884 and put it into production under the auspices of his newly formed company, National fiscal cash register, better known now as NCR.
Patterson, eccentric and aggressive, made NCR a successful business. Eighty-four companies sold cash registers between 1888 and 1895; only three (the St. Louis, Ideal and Michigan) survived for any length of time. Patterson set up an inventions department to create bigger, better and more thief proof fiscal cash register. He began a training program for his salespeople, often terrifying the novices by auditioning their sales pitches himself.
Why John Patterson Needed a fiscal cash register
John Patterson, founding president of the National Cash Register Company, the first manufacturer of cash registers, had previously owned a grocery and general store in Ohio. He tells the story as to why cash registers became a necessity for his business:
"We were obliged to be away from the store most of the time so we employed a superintendent. At the end of three years, although we had sold annually about $50,000 worth of goods on which there was a large margin, we found ourselves worse off than nothing. We were in debt, and we could not account for it, because we lost nothing by bad debt and no goods had been stolen. But one day I found several bread tickets lying around loose, and discovered that our oldest clerk was favoring his friends by selling below the regular prices. Another day I noticed a certain credit customer buying groceries. At night, on looking over the blotter, I found that the clerk had forgotten to make any entry of it. This set me to thinking that the goods might often go out of the store in this way-without our ever getting a cent for them. One day we received a circular from someone in Dayton Ohio, advertising a machine which recorded money and sales in retail stores. The price was $ 100. We telegraphed for two of them, and when we saw them we were astonished at the cost. They were made mostly of wood, had no cash drawer, and were very crude (Ritty's Incorruptible Cashier). But we put them in the store, and, in spite of their deficiencies, at the end of twelve months we cleared $6,000." |
