Computers & Business Machines
Imagine the loss, 100 years from now, if museums hadn't begun preserving the artifacts of the computer age. The last few decades offer proof positive of why museums must collect continuously—to document technological and social transformations already underway.
The museum's collections contain mainframes, minicomputers, microcomputers, and handheld devices. Computers range from the pioneering ENIAC to microcomputers like the Altair and the Apple I. A Cray2 supercomputer is part of the collections, along with one of the towers of IBM's Deep Blue, the computer that defeated reigning champion Garry Kasparov in a chess match in 1997. Computer components and peripherals, games, software, manuals, and other documents are part of the collections. Some of the instruments of business include adding machines, calculators, typewriters, dictating machines, fax machines, cash registers, and photocopiers
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Cash Register with Display Cases, possibly by Waddell
- 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
- date made
- ca 1895
- ID Number
- MA.325694
- accession number
- 256655
- catalog number
- 325694
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Burroughs Cash Register Model
- Description
- This manufacturer's model of a cash register has a metal case painted black and four columns of black and white digit keys. To the right of these is an operating bar and various function keys. At the left is a paper tape. At the top are indicator digits in an enclosed case. At the front are two rows of register wheels. A box below is in the shape of a cash drawer. The clearance key is on the right front.The machine has a black cord.
- This example is from the collection of the Patent Department of Burroughs Corporation. According to the accession file, it was an invention of Walter Pasinski. A patent case relating to it was abandoned March 5, 1953.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1950
- maker
- Burroughs Adding Machine Company
- ID Number
- 1982.0794.19
- catalog number
- 1982.0794.19
- accession number
- 1982.0794
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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St. Louis Cash Register
- Description
- This cash register has a wooden case with glass-covered pop-up indicator numbers at the back. A metal lever that moves laterally across the front of the machine points to multiples of 5 from 5 to 95. On the right is an auxiliary lever for indicating amounts from 0 cents to 4 cents. On the left is another auxiliary lever for indicating 0, 1, or 2 dollars, hence the cash register indicates amounts up to $2.99. When the pointer-lever is depressed, the dollar, multiple of 5 cents, and 0 cent to 4 cent amounts are indicated on separate indicators at the back of the machine.
- A window in the front of the machine is above the scale for the pointer. It is supposed to be covered with a shutter which can be opened only with a lock and key, keeping a secure record of transactions. No lock or key is evident.
- The wooden cash drawer has six compartments for coins and three for paper bills. A spring at the back of the drawer keeps it in place.
- The Model 106 is not listed in McCarthy in 1924, although other St. Louis cash registers are. The company is not mentioned in the 1928 edition of the book.
- References:
- Richard R. Crandell and Sam Robbins, The Incorruptible Cashier, vol. 2, Vestal, N.Y.: Vestal Press Ltd., 1990, pp. 80–84, 319, 320.
- James H. McCarthy, The American Digest of Business Machines, Chicago, 1924, pp.160–162, 585.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1915
- maker
- St. Louis Cash Register Company, Inc.
- ID Number
- 1982.0735.01
- catalog number
- 1982.0735.01
- accession number
- 1982.0735
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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RCA Automated Supermarket Checkstand
- Description
- By the late 1960s, minicomputers were sufficiently cheap to envision using them to automate much of the pricing and sale of groceries. RCA Corporation, working in conjunction with Kroger Company, developed a supermarket checkstand that linked to an RCA 6100 minicomputer. This is an example of the checkstand. It first operated at a Kroger’s store in Kenwood, Ohio, near Cincinnati, in July, 1972. The tests were quite successful, running for many weeks. However, the device relied on a different identification code than the Universal Product Code adopted the following year. RCA decided not to try to sell point-of-sale terminals.
- Reference:
- Stephen A. Brown, Revolution at the Checkout Counter:The Explosion of the Bar Code, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1970-1972
- maker
- RCA Corporation
- ID Number
- 1974.309503.01
- catalog number
- 309503.01
- accession number
- 309503
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Hough's Security Cash Recorder
- Description
- In the late 19th century, as American shopkeepers hired strangers to work in their stores, they showed a new concern for keeping track of retail transactions. Azel Clarence Hough (1859-1946), the son of a creamery owner in South Butler, New York, took out a range of patents for the design and improvement of cash drawers between 1892 and 1899 (U.S. patents 484501, 486107, D22024, 534795 and 618034). His ideas served as the basis of the products of the Hough Cash Recorder Company of Indian Orchard, Massachusetts.
- This example of Hough’s Security Cash Recorder is a large oak box with an oak lid. At the front on the right is a lock for the cash drawer; the drawer is on the lower left front. On top is an opening that shows a roll of paper. Salesclerks were required to enter a total on this paper roll and advance it in order to open the cash drawer.
- This model is quite similar to the Hough Security Cash Register No. 70 shown in an advertisement reproduced in Crandall and Robins, p. 318. This machine sold for $15. Hough Cash Recorder Company advertised in Hardware Dealer’s magazine as late as June, 1906. However, its products were soon outpaced by the autographic registers sold by NCR.
- In the early 20th century, Hough became interested in the manufacture of wooden blinds, and took out several related patents. He first manufactured shades in South Butler, then in Worcester, Massachusetts, and then in Janesville, Wisconsin. The Hough Shade Corporation he formed survives under the name of Hufcor.
- References:
- Dorothy Wiggins, “Town of Butler Agricultural & Comprehensive Plan," South Butler Public Forum – September 15, 2008, pp. 1–2.
- American Lumberman, vol. 1, 1940, p. 58.
- Richard R. Crandall and Sam Robins, The Incorruptible Cashier, vol. 2, Vestal, N.Y.: Vestal Press, 1990, pp. 316–318.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1895
- maker
- Hough Cash Recorder Company
- ID Number
- 1983.0881.01
- accession number
- 1983.0881
- catalog number
- 1983.0881.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Check-A-Tron Electronic Cash Register
- Description
- This yellow-tinted electronic cash register sits atop an off-white cash drawer. It has black keyboard keys, a printer for receipts, and a red digital display. The key that opens the cash drawer is missing.
- A mark on the left front reads: CHECK-A-TRON. The machine has serial number 4500032. Stanley Hayman Business Machines stickers are on the front and the back.
- Check-A-Tron began selling an American-built electronic cash register in 1975. In 1977 it introduced the MICROS electronic cash register/point-of-sale terminal. The firm also distributed Sanyo cash registers made in Japan. According to a mark on this machine, it was assembled in the United States. By 1983 Check-A-Tron Corporation was out of the cash register business entirely.
- Reference:
- Creative Strategies Internaional, Retail Automation to 1983, San Jose: Creative Strategies International, 1980, esp. p. 116.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1975
- maker
- Check-A-Tron Corporation
- ID Number
- 2002.0281.03
- accession number
- 2002.0281
- catalog number
- 2002.0281.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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National Cash Register, Model 1852-E
- Description
- This large cash register has a wood and metal exterior painted black, and five columns of keys. The keys in the leftmost column indicate the type of transaction. Right of these keys are four columns of 9 keys, the leftmost for $90 down to $10, the next for $9 to $1, the next for 90 cents to 10 cents, and the last for 9 cents to 1 cent. Hence the machine can have purchases entered of up to $99.99. It is a National model 1852-E, made by National Cash Register Company of Dayton, Ohio. It has serial number 2925055 and dates from 1929.
- The paper tape for dispensing receipts is on the left. Above the keys are indicators showing the type of transaction and the amount. A wide cash drawer is at the bottom of the machine. The machine is electrically operated, but there is a place for an operating crank on the right side.
- According to the donor, the register was used at Mosely's Jewelry Store on U Street in Washington, D.C. It has an indentation from a 32-caliber bullet, produced in one of the many times the store was robbed. The base price for this machine new was $350.00 in 1927.
- References:
- Equipment Research Corporation, Business Machines and Equipment Digest, 1928, vol. 1, section 10–1, p. 18.
- Accession file.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1929
- maker
- National Cash Register Company
- ID Number
- 1986.0899.01
- catalog number
- 1986.0899.01
- accession number
- 1986.0899
- maker number
- 2925055
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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National Cash Register, Size 45
- Description
- The National Cash Register Company of Dayton, Ohio, expanded rapidly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It soon offered not only registers that kept digital records of transactions, but so-called autographic registers that simply allowed one to maintain written records of sales. This example consists of an oak box with a hinged lid, an opening in the lid that reveals a paper tape on which sales may be recorded, and a cash drawer. The decoration at the back of the register, the frame around the paper tape, and the handle on the door are of brass.
- The National Size 45 autographic register sold in 1908 for $20.00. For related documentation see 1987.0751.03 and 1987.0751.04.
- Reference: Richard R. Crandall and Sam Robins, The Incorruptible Cashier, vol. 2, Vestal, N.Y.: Vestal Press, 1990, pp. 304–315, esp. 312.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1913
- maker
- National Cash Register Company
- ID Number
- 1987.0751.01
- accession number
- 1987.0751
- catalog number
- 1987.0751.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
National Cash Register, Model 211 (1)
- Description
- This gray-green machine has metal exterior and mechanism, and a black plastic plate above the cash drawer, plastic keys and a plastic window. Four columns with nine digit keys each are on the right front and then five columns, each with nine keys, for entering amounts from hundreds of dollars down to cents. Right of these keys are keys indicating types of transactions, as well as TOTAL and SUBTOTAL keys. Right of these is a column of keys labeled with Roman numerals from I to VIII. Next to this are eight windows in a column. Right of these is the operating bar. Indicators are at the top. A space at the front may be meant for a paper tape. The machine has an electric cord, whose measurements are not included in the dimensions. The paper tape is missing.
- The machine was made by the National Cash Register Company of Dayton, Ohio in 1943. It is a size 211 (1) and has serial number 4060872. According to a label on the bottom of the cash drawer, it was made for the Mary Webb Beauty Salon on Orange Street in Wilmington, Delaware.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1943
- maker
- National Cash Register Company
- ID Number
- 1987.0734.01
- accession number
- 1987.0734
- catalog number
- 1987.0734.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Ritty Model 1 Cash Register, Possibly a Replica
- Description
- After the Civil War, as American cities and businesses grew, business owners increasingly hired strangers to assist customers. At the time, it was all too easy for clerks and barkeepers to keep part of the money they received. The cash register, invented by the Ritty brothers of Dayton, Ohio, had a large display to indicate the sums customers paid. It also had a locked compartment that tallied total receipts. This is the Rittys' first machine, or an early replica of it. It was the basis for a commercial product called "Ritty's Incorruptible Cashier."
- By 1884 the Rittys were out of business, but their patents were purchased by the National Cash Register Company. NCR made and sold much improved cash registers. By 1904, they were ready to convey the history of their company by showing this model at the St. Louis World's Fair. NCR went on to successfully make not only cash registers and accounting machines but electronic computers.
- date made
- ca 1904
- maker
- National Cash Register Company
- ID Number
- MA.316700
- accession number
- 225455
- catalog number
- 316700
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
National Cash Register, Class 51
- Description
- In the 1950s Americans increasingly bought groceries in supermarkets, which served large numbers of customers. Consumers selected their own goods, and took them to a clerk who rang up sales. To make transactions as efficient as possible, the National Cash Register Company introduced machines that dispensed coins automatically, avoiding time and errors associated with making change. This change-making cash register went on the market in 1954, with a new model in 1958. This example was given to the Smithsonian by NCR in 1959, on the occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the company.
- Reference:
- Accession file.
- date made
- 1959
- maker
- National Cash Register Company
- ID Number
- MA.316702
- accession number
- 225455
- catalog number
- 316702
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Mechanism from National Cash Register
- Description
- By 1959 the mechanism for accumulating totals on NCR cash registers had become relatively compact. This cash register component from that period has the counters needed to represent eight totals along one shaft. It is somewhat smaller than the mechanism for a single total used in 1894. This smaller mechanism was used in cash register MA.316702.
- Reference:
- Accession file.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1959
- maker
- National Cash Register Company
- ID Number
- MA.316704
- accession number
- 225455
- catalog number
- 316704
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
National Cash Register, Model 1544-(4D-1)
- Description
- This machine has four wooden drawers arranged in a single column in a wooden case. The register, in a brown metal case, sits atop the drawers. It has four columns of digit keys (red for dollars, black for cents, with a red five-cent key). Right of these is a column with keys marked A, B, D, E. Right of these is a lever now broken, a motor bar, and a section for the paper tape. The indicators are above the keys. The machine is electric. It has serial number 3672484 and model number 1544-(4D-1).
- The machine was used at the Lansburgh Department Store in downtown Washington, D.C. When City Stores Company purchased Lansburgh, they gave the machine to the Smithsonian.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1937
- maker
- National Cash Register Company
- ID Number
- MA.334907
- maker number
- 3672484
- accession number
- 314157
- catalog number
- 334907
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
National Cash Register, Eight-Drawer
- Description
- This machine has eight cash drawers, arranged in two columns of four drawers each. The register, with its brown metal case, sits atop these. It has four columns of digit keys (red for dollars, white for cents, and a red 5-cent key). Right of these are eight letter keys (A, B, D, E, H, K, L, and M) and a total key. Right of these is a lever which can be set at the desired operation, and a motor bar. The machine also has an operating handle. The paper tape is on the left and the glass-covered indicators are at the top.
- The machine has serial number 390234. It also is marked: X 094(4) RS-8C.
- This cash register was used at the Lansburgh department store in downtown Washington, D.C. When City Stores Company purchased Lansburgh, they gave the machine to the Smithsonian.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1939
- maker
- National Cash Register Company
- ID Number
- MA.334909
- maker number
- 3848004
- accession number
- 314157
- catalog number
- 334909
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
National Cash Register, Eight-Drawer
- Description
- This machine has a metal case painted brown, and sits on top of eight cash drawers arranged in two columns of four drawers. It has four columns of plastic keys for registering dollars and cents ($10 to $90, $1 to $9, 10 cents to 90 cents, and 1cent to 9 cents). A column right of the number keys keys lettered A, B, D, E, H, K, L and M. A keyhole is right of each of the lettered keys. Right of these is a lever for setting the operation to be carried out and the motor bar.
- Left of the keyboard are registers marked with the same letters as those in the column of lettered keys. Left of this is the space for the paper tape. The machine has serial number 390234. It also is marked: X 094(4) RS-8C.
- This particular cash register was used at Lansburgh Department Store in downtown Washington, D.C. When City Stores Company purchased Lansburgh, they gave the machine to the Smithsonian.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1940
- maker
- National Cash Register Company
- ID Number
- MA.334908
- maker number
- 3905234
- accession number
- 314157
- catalog number
- 334908
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
National Cash Register, Model 1544 (4D-1)
- Description
- This NCR cash register has four drawers in two columns. It has four columns of plastic digit keys, white for dollars, tens of dollars, and 5 cents, and black for cents. A column of four keys right of the number keys has keys labeled A1, 6, B2 and B2. Right of these is a lever, which can be set on the operation desired, and a motor bar. The paper tape holder is on the right side, the indicators are above the keyboard, and the electric cord is at the back. The serial number is 4931871, the model number 1544 (4D-1).
- The machine was used at Lansburgh department store in downtown Washington, D.C. When City Stores Company purchased Lansburgh, they gave the machine to the Smithsonian.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1952
- maker
- National Cash Register Company
- ID Number
- MA.334906
- maker number
- 4931871
- accession number
- 314157
- catalog number
- 334906
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Mechanism from National Cash Register, Model 79
- Description
- By 1894, when this device was made, the National Cash Register Company had developed an adding mechanism in which digits were indicated on the rim of rotating wheels. This is such a mechanism. The three wheels could rotate to show totals as high as $9.99. Four other wheels on the left side each have the digits from 0 to 9 around the edge. The mechanism is mounted on a white wooden display board.
- A mechanism of this type was used in the NCR Model 79 cash register (see object MA.316701). NCR went on to develop a more compact mechanism that could represent eight totals, rather than just one, on a single shaft. See object MA.316704.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1894
- maker
- National Cash Register Company
- ID Number
- MA.316703
- accession number
- 225455
- catalog number
- 316703
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
National Cash Register, Model 1054X-6
- Description
- This cash register has a wooden frame covered with brass and a metal mechanism. It has four columns of keys for entering amounts, an operating button, five function keys, a paper tape, a cash drawer, and pop-up indicators.
- Above the keys is a locked door. Lifting it reveals counters for numbers of customers and amounts spent. This is National Cash Register Company’s model 1054X-6, with serial number 1703570. It dates from 1919.
- date made
- 1919
- maker
- National Cash Register Company
- ID Number
- MA.319500
- accession number
- 238759
- catalog number
- 319500
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
National Cash Register, Model 79
- Description
- This large, nickel-plated, manually operated cash register is an NCR Model 79. It has three columns of keys for entering numbers, and a fourth column of function keys. The operating crank is on the right side, the cash drawer is below, and a receipt dispenser on the left side. Pop-up indicators above the keys indicate the total purchase. The Model 79 was introduced by NCR in 1892, this example dates from 1894. Principles introduced with this cash register would prove important on numerous later NCR cash registers. For a model of part of the mechanism of this machine, see MA.316703.
- Reference:
- Richard R. Crandall and Sam Robins, The Incorruptible Cashier, vol. 2, Vestal, N.Y.: Vestal Press (1990), pp. 157–169.
- date made
- 1894
- maker
- National Cash Register Company
- ID Number
- MA.316701
- accession number
- 225455
- catalog number
- 316701
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1910
- maker
- McCaskey Register Company
- ID Number
- MA.336597
- accession number
- 1977.0174
- catalog number
- 336597
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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