Object Details
- National Cash Register Company
- Description
- After the Civil War, as American cities and businesses grew, business owners increasingly hired strangers to assist customers. At the time, it was all too easy for clerks and barkeepers to keep part of the money they received. The cash register, invented by the Ritty brothers of Dayton, Ohio, had a large display to indicate the sums customers paid. It also had a locked compartment that tallied total receipts. This is the Rittys' first machine, or an early replica of it. It was the basis for a commercial product called "Ritty's Incorruptible Cashier."
- By 1884 the Rittys were out of business, but their patents were purchased by the National Cash Register Company. NCR made and sold much improved cash registers. By 1904, they were ready to convey the history of their company by showing this model at the St. Louis World's Fair. NCR went on to successfully make not only cash registers and accounting machines but electronic computers.
- Credit Line
- Gift of National Cash Register Company
- ca 1904
- ID Number
- MA.316700
- accession number
- 225455
- catalog number
- 316700
- Object Name
- cash register
- Physical Description
- wood (overall material)
- glass (overall material)
- metal (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 50.5 cm x 55.5 cm x 36 cm; 19 7/8 in x 21 7/8 in x 14 3/16 in
- place made
- United States: Ohio, Dayton
- Related Publication
- Kidwell, Peggy A. and Cerruzi, Paul E.. Landmarks in Digital Computing: A Smithsonian Pictorial History
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Computers & Business Machines
- American Enterprise
- Cash and Credit Registers
- Exhibition
- American Enterprise
- Exhibition Location
- National Museum of American History
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Mathematics
- Business
- related event
- Louisiana Purchase Exposition
- Record ID
- nmah_694231
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-3702-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
