What James Ritty invented. What James Ritty invented while observing the propeller shaft revolution counter in the engine room of a steamship.

Modern trade impossible to imagine without using cash register equipment. Cash registers are with us everywhere: in supermarkets, cafes, gas stations and post offices. From July 1, 2017, cash registers must be used even when paying for goods in online stores. Who and when was the first to come up with the idea of ​​keeping track of financial receipts using a cash register? The entire history of commercial cash registers is in our material.

The emergence of new machines for accepting money has radically changed the idea of retail trade, which until the end of the 19th century was carried out according to a simplified scheme. Before the invention of the cash register, the buyer gave money to the seller, received a product (or service) in return, and the seller assumed all responsibilities for accounting for financial receipts. You don't have to be very astute to understand that such control of sales income was very conditional.

1871-1884: James Jacob Ritty's first box office

The decision came unexpectedly, during Ritty’s sea voyage from the USA to Europe. James went into the ship's engine room and saw a tachometer there - a round gauge that counted the number of revolutions of the propeller shaft. Looking at this sensor, James thought that it was possible to assemble a similar device that would count the money received from Pony House clients in the same way. Returning home, an inspired James designed a prototype cash register.

This device was completely different from the cash registers we were used to. A round dial was used to indicate the amount of income, which is why the device from afar could be mistaken for an ordinary watch in a wooden case. Moreover, the first cash register, like the clock, had hands: the long one (“minute”) showed cents, and the short one (“hourly”) displayed dollars. Under this dial there were buttons, each of which corresponded to the price of a particular product. For example, if a customer purchased a drink for 35 cents, the cashier would press a button with that value, after which the counter would adjust the position of the hands on the dial.

The first working model of a cash register

The first cash register model turned out to be imperfect. The cunning seller could only pretend to use the cash register, or press the button with a lower denomination. And when no one saw, he acted even simpler - he moved the arrows back. Therefore, James made changes to the design - wheels with numbers appeared at the cash register, and their movement was synchronized by a transmission mechanism. Thanks to the “adder”, the device learned to count total amount order, and also acquired a form that subsequently remained unchanged for many years.

To accustom visitors to the establishment to the cash register, Ritti hung a bell on the device, which would ring after the visitor had checked out. This model was nicknamed "Incorruptible Cashier Ritty."

However, in the second modification of the cash register, a significant flaw was discovered over time. Once a strong scandal broke out in the establishment - a dissatisfied visitor accused the bartender of shortchanging him. Of course, there was no evidence - the cash register showed the new amount of revenue, and nothing more. Then James decided to modify his brainchild, giving it a special paper tape on which every operation carried out by the cashier was recorded.

Thus, in the third modification of the cash register, all operations were accompanied by perforation of paper, through which the actions of the cashier could be tracked. Probably from that time on, the well-known expression “punch a check” appeared.

In addition, under the cash register there was now a mandatory drawer for money - at first the simplest pull-out one, divided into sections for different denominations. It also had pinch rollers for banknotes. Over time, a lock appeared in the box. Interestingly, the cash drawer has remained virtually unchanged for more than a hundred years.

After all the main disadvantages of the first modifications of the cash register were eliminated, James Ritty patented his invention. Then he tried to establish serial production, but quickly abandoned this idea and sold the patent, focusing on developing the restaurant business.

The First Box Offices of Our Time: John Patterson's National Box Office

In 1906, the first push-button electric motor-powered cash register was invented in NCR. It was created by one of NCR's most talented engineers, Charles Kettering, who in just five years of work at the company received more than twenty patents for various inventions. The NCR engineering team kept making new improvements to cash registers, and it was under the leadership of John Patterson that these devices became what we are used to seeing.

Classic cash register from The National Cash Register Company

When Patterson got into the cash register business, he had to go into debt and rely on his entrepreneurial instincts. But he firmly believed that cash registers were the future. It is interesting that Patterson did not force the cash registers themselves on customers, but worked to create the need for cash register receipts (that is, in fact, he sold not the product itself, but the benefits of using it). An entire manual was written for NCR salespeople, which they were required to memorize before going to potential clients. As a result, from 1884 to 1911, more than a million cash registers were sold worldwide, and by 1917, The National Cash Register Company controlled about 95% of the market.

Some of the methods that John Patterson used in his business strategy were truly innovative (and are still used today). Thus, NCR often simply bought up its competitors. As soon as John saw a cash register model on sale with features that his own products lacked, he immediately did everything to buy out the manufacturer or force him to fold the business.

Secondly, the company meticulously studied competitors' cash registers in order to better understand their shortcomings. For example, it is reliably known that in February 1892 a circular with hacking instructions was distributed within the company cash drawer cash register of a competing brand - Simplex Cash Register.

This cash register worked quite unusually. It didn't have buttons, but it had holes for balls. Each hole corresponded to a certain amount. After placing the balls in the desired position, a flag with a price tag was raised in a small window. This way the buyer could see the invoice issued to him. Once inside the cash register, the balls accumulated, and at the end of the day the owner could compare the proceeds with the number of balls.

Alternative type of cash register from Simplex Cash Register

NCR salespeople received from management detailed instructions, explaining how easy it is to deceive this cash register and get cash from there. The instructions included a lead bullet and horsehair. The trick was simple - instead of a ball, you could insert a bullet into the hole, and by pulling the horsehair that had been placed in advance under the box, you could easily pull out the box and take money out of the cash register. Of course, after such a demonstration, many owners of such cash registers rushed to replace them with devices from NCR.

Unfortunately for Patterson's company, this instruction led to a lawsuit against NCR by the federal government, and the company was found guilty of deceptive sales practices under antitrust laws in 1913.

However, Patterson was not afraid of lawsuits and actively argued in court with his competitors. A funny incident happened in 1894. Paying attention to the growing popularity of cash registers, a certain Michael Heintz from Detroit created the Heintz Cash Register company, which released its own cash register. Distinctive feature This model was that instead of the usual ringing of a bell, the end of the operation was announced... by a cuckoo. Yes, yes, a mechanical cuckoo that stuck its head out of the cash register and crowed.

Patterson could not pass by this. He filed a lawsuit against Heinz Cash Register, accusing a competitor of copyright infringement. In court, representatives of the “cuckoo cash register” stated that they did it on principle New Product, replacing the classic bell with a bird. But John insisted that this was not so, and presented the text of the original patent as proof. And indeed, James Ritty’s patent did not specifically specify a bell - it indicated a “sound device for notification.” The court's decision ordered the cuckoo to be silenced forever. Although, it would probably be funny to hear at the checkout that your money is “peek-a-boo.”

Cash registers in the USSR

Moreover, there were no places in the country where damaged imported equipment could be repaired. In 1923, the only enterprise at that time for the repair of typewriters, counting and cash registers was opened - the Bureau of Precision Mechanics of the 1st Moscow State University.

The first more or less successful versions of domestically produced cash registers, such as the A1T or the line of CMM devices, appeared in the second half of the last century. Initially, these models were exclusively mechanical and operated by a rotary handle. Later, their design became electromechanical; they operated from a regular network. But even when electrified models appeared in department stores and grocery stores in the second half of the 70s, you could still see a “winding” handle on the side wall of the cash register, which was used in emergencies when there was no electricity.

Cash register KIM-2

When looking at the keyboard of Soviet cash registers, a modern person always has a question: why are so many repeating buttons needed?

Early models of Soviet cash registers had a limited set of registers. Each register was entered with its own set of numbers. For tens of rubles, the first vertical column of buttons from “1” to “9” was used, for units of rubles – the second vertical column, etc. There was no number “zero” at all; a cross was placed instead of it - this was a kind of protection against check forgery. There was also a short column of buttons on the keyboard - “1”, “2”, “3”, “4”. These were the numbers of the departments for which the goods were being released.

Another clever feature designed to protect against scammers is the letter code. To prevent a person from receiving goods using a fake check, the cashier had to regularly negotiate with the seller and change the control letter of the check. Thus, if a person hands a check to a seller and he does not see the “secret letter,” he knows that the check is a fake.

The buttons were locked, and the check was punched - using the enter button - only when all the information had been typed. If the cashier made a mistake, he could make a “reset” by pressing the current key combination with a special button.

The first models of cash registers produced in the USSR were characterized by low reliability. However, the situation changed radically when the Oka model was made based on the Swedish prototype.

Since the early 80s of the last century, such a cash register was located in almost every Soviet store. It was loaded with two rolls of tape at once: one for the buyer, the second for maintaining a control protocol. The control tape was shown under the window on the panel next to the buttons, so the cashier could quickly see his mistake or view the history of actions.

A whole set of keys was included with the cash register. The first made it possible to turn on the cash register, the second was used to reset the sensors, and the third was used to take meter readings. A " business card The main feature of the domestic cash register was a cash drawer, which literally flew out of the main building at the end of the payment.

The first electronic cash registers appeared in the eighties. The most popular among them was Iskra-302A. It looked like a giant calculator and had built-in memory on magnetic cores. This type of cash register was often used in Sberbank and the post office.

Soviet cash register Iskra-302A

Nowadays

• case, inside of which there should be a real time clock.
• fiscal storage (FN) – a cryptographic means of protecting fiscal data, which records data in an uncorrectable form, stores it and transmits it to regulatory authorities. It is the transfer of accumulated data that distinguishes FN from EKLZ (electronic secure control tape), which was used in earlier versions of cash registers for the uncorrectable accumulation of information about all payment documents and shift closing reports issued on the device.
• check printing devices. However, in the era of online payments, printing a paper check is no longer necessary for some types of trade. Therefore, today there are already online cash registers that generate only an electronic receipt and do not print it on paper.

In order to understand the variety of modern cash registers, you can focus on the letter designations in the model names:

• “FS” – cash registers only for payments on the Internet (do not contain a printing device inside the case);
• “FA” – cash registers only for installation in automatic devices (vending, payment terminals);
• "FB" - automated systems BSO;
• “F” – all the others, which can be used in any of the options.

Modern online cash registers for retail outlets usually equipped with a built-in modem that provides online data transfer to the Federal Tax Service, a SIM card slot, a waterproof keyboard, and a Li-ion battery (in case of power outages).

Cash desk ATOL 90F

There are also portable cash registers designed specifically for couriers. They are lighter and more compact (sometimes weighing up to 300 grams), can work autonomously for a long time, and are equipped with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi data transfer interfaces.

But modern multifunctional POS terminals for appearance more reminiscent of a classic desktop than a cash register. In any POS terminal you can unmistakably recognize familiar components - the system unit, monitor, keyboard, printer. However, unlike a regular PC, the terminal, of course, is not used for games and web surfing, but is intended for use in various retail outlets.

Multifunctional POS terminal "ATOL Store near home"

Operating system and software it is already installed, all equipment from the kit is compatible and requires a minimum of time for assembly and configuration. Since such devices are created for continuous active use, the terminals are for the most part much more reliable than conventional desktops. As a rule, the terminal system unit does not have cooling fans. This not only means quiet operation, but also prevents dust from getting inside the case and, as a result, reduces the risk of electronic failure.

Eventually

The main user of such devices is an ordinary cashier, who often has a very vague idea of ​​how a cash register functions. Therefore, cash register manufacturers have always paid great attention to ease of use and made them resemble recognizable objects. At different times, the design of the cash register resembled a clock, typewriter, desktop calculator, etc. And the more complex the “stuffing” of cash register equipment became, the more important it was to make the device more friendly and reliable. And whatever form the device takes, it main function remains unchanged - to help a person maintain control records of monetary transactions. After all cash receipts- this is the only component of business, the essence of which has not changed over the past hundred years.

Sebastian had several patents for processing agricultural products, and John also made his mark in the same area by patenting a machine for cleaning and canning corn. In addition, John designed an unusual ventilation system for one of the cafes - fans made of palm leaves, installed on each table, were driven by water supplied through pipes. James was also a skilled mechanic, but in 1871 he decided to change his profession and became a restaurateur, opening a small saloon in Daytona. His establishment quickly gained popularity in the city, but instead of prosperity, it brought losses to the owner.

AND business qualities James had nothing to do with it - the cashiers were just constantly stealing, hiding part of the proceeds. The dismissal did not help: the dishonest cashiers were replaced by new ones who also could not resist the temptation. The constant turnover of staff almost bankrupted Ritti, and, to distract himself, he went on a cruise around Europe.

The first cash register was designed as an anti-theft device.

On the ship, James became interested in powerful marine machines and became friends with the chief mechanic. During a tour of the engine room, he looked fascinated at the automatic propeller shaft revolution counter, and suddenly the thought occurred to him: “If this mechanism can record the movements of the propeller, why can’t we do the same with money?” The idea captured Ritti so much that he significantly shortened his trip to Europe and soon returned home. There, James presented his idea to his brother John, and together they constructed a primitive machine for counting money: two rows of keys, each marking a certain amount, and a clock face with two hands (for dollars and cents). The brothers improved the second model by replacing the dials with classic discs, and it was for this design that US patent number 221360 was received on November 4, 1879. The third model, called “Ritty's Incorruptible Cashier,” was already able to show the buyer “punchable” the amount, and the fourth punched holes in the total on the paper tape. It was she who became the first serial cash register.

Despite the success, by 1881 Ritti realized that this was not his business and returned to his small cafe. He sold the patent to Jacob Eckert, who in 1884 transferred the company to John Patterson, one of the first buyers of cash registers. Patterson renamed the firm National Cash Register Company. It is now NCR Corporation, a multibillion-dollar hardware and software solutions for trade. Certainly, modern technology NCR has almost nothing in common with the first Ritti devices. Except for one quality: she is still incorruptible.

Sometimes on weekends we publish answers to various quizzes for you in a Question and Answer format. We have a variety of questions, both simple and quite complex. Quizzes are very interesting and quite popular, we just help you test your knowledge. And we have another question in the quiz - What did James Ritty invent while observing the propeller shaft revolution counter in the engine room of a steamship?

A: electric meter
B: gas station
C: cash machine
D: gaming machine

Correct answer: C – cash machine

James Ritty patented the world's first cash register
American James Ritty (1836–1918) from Dayton (Ohio) patented the world's first cash register. Ritti was the owner of a bar, and the constant cheating of the bartenders upset his health so much that he decided to unwind a little in Europe. On the way, on the ship, he became interested in a device that recorded the speed of rotation of the propeller shaft. Then he came up with the idea of ​​a cash register, which he implemented together with his brother John.

Three of his five sons - Sebastian, John and James - were born inventors. Sebastian had several patents for processing agricultural products, and John also noted in the same area, patenting a machine for cleaning and canning corn. In addition, John designed an unusual ventilation system for one of the cafes - fans made of palm leaves, installed on each table, were driven by water supplied through pipes.

The constant turnover of staff almost bankrupted Ritti, and, to distract himself, he went on a cruise around Europe. On the ship, James became interested in powerful marine machines and became friends with the chief mechanic. During a tour of the engine room, he looked fascinated at the automatic propeller shaft revolution counter, and suddenly the thought occurred to him: “If this mechanism can record the movements of the propeller, why can’t we do the same with money?”

The brothers improved the second model by replacing the dials with classic disks, and it was for this design that US patent number 221360 was received on November 4, 1879. The third model, called “Ritty's Incorruptible Cashier”, was already able to show the buyer the “punched” amount, and the fourth punched holes in the result on a paper tape. It was she who became the first serial cash register.

Despite the success, by 1881 Ritti realized that this was not his business and returned to his small cafe. He sold the patent to Jacob Eckert, who in 1884 transferred the company to John Patterson, one of the first buyers of cash registers. Patterson renamed the firm National Cash Register Company.

Now it is NCR Corporation, a multi-billion dollar company that produces hardware and software solutions for trading. Of course, modern NCR technology has almost nothing in common with the first Ritti devices. Except for one quality: she is still incorruptible.

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