Other Mechanical Cash Registers

A selection of cash registers exemplifying their technological development from 1878 until 1970.

Although NCR dominated the market for cash registers, other firms offered their own forms of the machine. Some of these looked quite different from common images of a cash register. A few manufacturers, such as Brandt, competed successfully by making machines with a somewhat different function.

Search term: *:* Resource Type: coin changer Clear All

Brandt Automatic Cashier

By the late 19th century, many American workers were paid in cash. Putting together packets with precisely the right bills and coins was a tedious task. In the 1890s, Edward J.
Description
By the late 19th century, many American workers were paid in cash. Putting together packets with precisely the right bills and coins was a tedious task. In the 1890s, Edward J. Brandt, a cashier at the Bank of Watertown in Watertown, Wisconsin, invented a machine that could dispense change automatically.
The machine dispenses change in amounts between 1 cent and 99 cents. It has eight channels across the front, three for pennies, one for nickels, two for dimes, one for quarters and one for 50-cent pieces. Above and behind the channels is an array of 99 plastic keys, numbered from 1 to 99. Pressing another key, marked "5," releases five pennies. On the right are keys marked 10, 25, 25 and 100 that give change for these amounts. The entire coin holder can be removed from the mechanism for storage of coins. Pushing down a key moves a bar that pushes coins from a channel into a compartment with a trap door at its base. Pushing the trap door back releases change into the hand.
A mark on the front and the back of the machine reads reads: BRANDT AUTOMATIC CASHIER. A mark on a brass plate on the back of the machine reads: PATENTED (/) JULY 11, 1899. . . (/) DEC. 12, 1916 (/) 48184 93421 10014 PATENTS PENDING (/) T.M.Reg.U.S.Pat.Off. (/) Brandt Manufacturing Company (/) WATERTOWN, WISCONSIN. The serial number, marked on the right side at the front, is 22446.
Brandt’s machine received medals at the 1900 Universal Exposition in Paris and the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. This example dates from the 1920s.
References:
James H. McCarthy, The American Digest of Business Machines, Chicago, 1924, p. 196–197.
Charles J. Wallman, Edward J. Brandt, Inventor, Watertown, WI: Brandt, Inc., 1984.
Accession file.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1925
maker
Brandt Manufacturing Company
ID Number
2001.0011.01
accession number
2001.0011
catalog number
2001.0011.01

Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.

If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.