McCaskey Credit Register

Description:

The McCaskey Register Company of Alliance, Ohio, manufactured systems for keeping track of accounts and credit registers from its organization in 1903 until its purchase by Victor Adding Machine Company in 1953. The firm was started by Perry A. McCaskey, a grocer in Lisbon, Ohio, who took out a patent May 19, 1896, for a “bill and account file” (#560523). He also patented a more complex “credit-accounting appliance” on December 30, 1902 (#717247). McCaskey contiinued to assign patents to the McCaskey Register Company through 1907, although ownership of the firm passed to others and several other inventors contributed to the product.

This particular machine combines a system for keeping accounts with a cash drawer. It has a wooden base with a wooden roll-top cover. A slatted panel designed for holding credit slips fits over the cash drawer and a piece of glass that fits over the panel. A silver-colored metal compartment is on the front of the cash drawer, with five buttons at the top. A bell is at the back on the inside.

McCaskey patents describe a system of credit slips that fit on bill-holders in the back of the machine. This machine has no bill-holders or slips.

The donor dated this machine to 1893. However, it was made after the McCaskey Register Company was founded in 1903 and resembles McCaskey’s 1907 patent, hence the later date assigned.

References:

P. A. McCaskey, “Credit-Accounting Appliance,” U.S. Patent 717247, December 30, 1902.

Craig Bara and Lyle Crist, Alliance, Charleston, SC: Arcadia Press, 1998, 29.

Richard R. Crandall and Sam Robins, The Incorruptible Cashier, vol. 2, Vestal, N.Y.: Vestal Press, 1990, pp. 318–319.