Cash Register with Display Cases, possibly by Waddell

Cash Register with Display Cases, possibly by Waddell

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Description
This device consists of a wooden cash register between two wooden and glass display cases. Amounts are entered by dropping balls into holes for 1, 2, 5,10, 25, and 50 cents, and 1 and 5 dollars. Another hole is labeled "Ticket". From these holes at the back of the machine, the balls slide forward and accumulate in slots on top of the cash drawer. Pop-up numbers above the holes rise up when a ball is dropped. Neither these numbers nor for the slots have any cover.
This object resembles several devices manufactured in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Greenfield, Ohio. It is quite similar to a “cash indicator and register” patented by J. H Schnarrenberger of Greenfield in 1891 (U.S. patent 465732). These cash registers were manufactured by firms associated with John M. Waddel (also spelled John M. Waddell), whose primary business was in the building of display cases and other business furniture.
Compare to the description of the Waddel, Simplex, and Sun cash registers given in Crandall. Papers of the Waddell Company are at the Ohio Historical Society. By 1929, the Waddell Company was selling a combination of three adjacent display cases, with a money drawer under the shallower middle case. There was no cash register in this later item.
References:
Richard L. Crandall, The Incorruptible Cashier, Vestal, N.Y.: Vestal Press, 1988, vol. 1, pp. 133–147.
Waddell Company, Show Cases, Store Furniture Catalogue No. 109, Greenfield, OH: Waddell Co., Inc., 1929, pp. 10–11.
Location
Currently not on view
Object Name
cash register
date made
ca 1895
Physical Description
wood (overall material)
glass (overall material)
metal (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 28 cm x 132.5 cm x 56 cm; 11 1/32 in x 52 5/32 in x 22 1/16 in
ID Number
MA.325694
accession number
256655
catalog number
325694
Credit Line
Gift of Connie Eisinger
subject
Mathematics
Business
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Mathematics
Computers & Business Machines
Cash and Credit Registers
Data Source
National Museum of American History
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