Cathode Ray Dude's Own Wiki - User contributions [en]

File:Junk image file.png

2025-11-09T21:52:35Z

Crudwiki:

Nada

Early cash registers

2025-11-09T21:42:18Z

Crudwiki:

[[File:Mislabeled Ritty dial machine.png|thumb|A replica of Ritty's 1879 "dial" register, mislabeled (as is common) with the name of his later invention, The Incorruptible Cashier.]]
The cash register is broadly regarded to have been invented in 1879 by James Ritty. Most retellings of this story are misleading for a multitude of reasons.

* Multiple registers had been invented before his, at least three years earlier.
* The machine that he initially invented, now referred to as the "dial", was never sold and has no real place in the lineage of the technology
* The model that came after it, "The Incorruptible Cashier" (IC for short) is much closer to the machines that would catch on and establish the industry.
* However, many sources misidentify the dial as the Incorruptible Cashier
* Furthermore, all photos of the dial are replicas built by NCR which do not work.

All the same, the IC ''did'' come out in '79 and is unquestionably the progenitor of all practical cash registers, especially because he sold it to John Patterson, who used it to found NCR and built many machines on it's pattern. Practically speaking the story is true, but the details are widely misunderstood.

The best source of info on this topic I'm aware of is Richard Crandall's book, ''The Incorruptible Cashier (1988)''. Note that it is primarily intended as a resource for collectors, and that there are two volumes, the former containing the most useful history in its front half.

=== Predecessor: Cash Recording Machine ===
<gallery>
File:Cash Recording Machine drawing.jpg|The 1878 version of the Cash Recording Machine, as illustrated in Scientific American
File:Photo of Cash Recording Machine.jpg|An actual specimen of the 1876 original version of the Cash Recording Machine, from Richard Crandall's ebay listing.
</gallery>Much information about this machine comes from the patents, of which there are two: [[:File:US188310.pdf|US188310]] and [[:File:US209827.pdf|US209827]]. Some also comes from Richard Crandall's book.

The Cash Recording Machine was patented in 1876, then a second version patented in 1878. They seem pretty similar. Both require the cashier to enter the total amount of the sale as separate digits rather than by pressing buttons for total amounts and both print the total amount of the sale on an internal sales journal. I need to revisit this subject to confirm the rest.

Dubiously, I believe that the 1878 version prints customer receipts, by inserting a slip below the overhang on top, then squeezing the handles together, simultaneously printing customer slip and sales journal entry. There is no bell, and I don't believe there is a counter to accumulate the total amount; the storekeeper is expected to add up the entries on the journal manually.

The photo above is of a specimen Crandall bought from NCR and is currently selling on eBay for several thousand dollars, reasonable given its incredible rarity and significance.

This is probably the first cash register ever invented; Crandall allowed for it to not be the first in his book, but he calls it the first in his eBay listing, with the benefit of another 37 years of research time, so I think we will take it as given that nobody made a meaningful stab at the problem before this.

=== Ritty "Dial" ===

=== The Incorruptible Cashier ===

File:US188310.pdf

2025-11-09T21:35:28Z

Crudwiki: US patent 188310 for the 1876 Cash Recording Machine

== Summary ==
US patent 188310 for the 1876 Cash Recording Machine

File:US209827.pdf

2025-11-09T21:35:15Z

Crudwiki: US patent 209827 for the 1878 Cash Recording Machine

== Summary ==
US patent 209827 for the 1878 Cash Recording Machine

Early cash registers

2025-11-09T21:32:01Z

Crudwiki: Created page with "A replica of Ritty's 1879 "dial" register, mislabeled (as is common) with the name of his later invention, The Incorruptible Cashier. The cash register is broadly regarded to have been invented in 1879 by James Ritty. Most retellings of this story are misleading for a multitude of reasons. * Multiple registers had been invented before his, at least three years earlier. * The machine that he initially invented, now referre..."

File:Photo of Cash Recording Machine.jpg

2025-11-09T21:30:13Z

Crudwiki:

Actual specimen of the 1876 Cash Recording Machine as listed on eBay by Richard Crandall

File:Cash recording machine scientific american 1878.jpg

2025-11-09T21:29:39Z

Crudwiki:

Scanned page from Scientific American discussing 1878 edition of the Cash Recording Machine

File:Cash Recording Machine drawing.jpg

2025-11-09T21:28:03Z

Crudwiki:

An engraving of the Cash Recording Machine (1878 version) as published in Scientific American in 1878

File:Mislabeled Ritty dial machine.png

2025-11-09T21:22:08Z

Crudwiki:

A replica of Ritty's 1879 "dial" register, mislabeled (as is common) with the name of his later invention, The Incorruptible Cashier.

Main Page

2025-11-09T21:20:23Z

Crudwiki:

Hi there. I'm Gravis, proprietor of the [https://www.youtube.com/CathodeRayDude Cathode Ray Dude] youtube channel, through which I publish essays about old technology.

This wiki is a tool I've decided to start using to organize my research data. I claw through an enormous amount of Stuff on my way to reaching conclusions, and it's gotten hard to keep track of what I've found and how it relates to everything else. I hope to use this to make more sense of it all, and I figure I might as well make the results public.

== Topics ==

=== Gadgets ===

==== Cash registers / point of sale ====
[[Early cash registers]]