Cash Register Invented

November 2, 2008

You may Listen or download this story in .mp3 format. or as a .wav file

Profile America — Sunday, November 2nd. A sound that was familiar to many generations of Americans was first heard this week in 1879. That’s when James Ritty, a saloon keeper in Dayton, Ohio, invented the cash register. The invention soon replaced the open cash drawer, which gave business owners no record of their sales and the tempting money often disappeared without a trace. For a hundred years or more, retail transactions across the nation were rung up by a cash register — at first, cranked by hand, then electrically powered, with dollar and cents figures popping up mechanically in a window, so customers could see what they owed. Today, ornate brass cash registers are a hot item in antique stores, and bar code scanners now ring up America’s retail sales of $3.7 trillion a year. You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.

Sources: 440 International Calendar of Events (11/04)
Statistical Abstract of the United States 2008, t. 1019
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2008edition.html