Computers & Business Machines

• National Cash Register, Eight-Drawer

  Description

  This machine has eight wooden cash drawers arranged in two columns of four. Atop them is the register, which has four columns of keys for numbers (red for dolars and tens of dollars, white for cents and tens of cents, and a red 5-cent key). A column of lettered keys has keys marked B, D, E, H, K, and M. The A, L, and N keys are missing and there is no place for C, F, G, or I keys.

  Right of the letter keys is a column of keyholes, several of which have keys in them. A lever is set on the operation to be carried out and a motor bar controls the motor. A paper tape is on the left and indicator numbers are at the top.The machine has both an electric cord and a crank. It has serial number 3613685.

  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

  1937

  maker

  National Cash Register Company

  ID Number

  MA.334910

  maker number

  3613685

  accession number

  314157

  catalog number

  334910

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• Documentation on the Development of SPOOL

  Description

  This is a collection of notes, office memos, budget estimates and the like associated with the development of SPOOL (Simultaneous Peripheral Operations On Line), a program developed at the Western Electric Columbus Works by David A. Studebaker and his colleagues in the period 1966-1967. A more detailed listing, using numbers introduced by the donor, is:

  01 – October 7 1966 – Memorandum for Record RE: SPOOL

  02 – notes on EMPS – handwritten

  03 - SPOOL INSTRUCTIONS – photocopies and handwritten

  04 – Project began – manuscript notes

  05 – Memorandum of Record – January 3 1967 – Emulator and Multi-Program Supervisor (EMPS) – with October 20, 1966 & October 24 1967 memos

  06 – SPOOL Programming System – November 3, 1967

  07 – Mr. D. R. Mikes – January 11, 1967 – questions and answers concerning memorandum of January 3, 1967

  08 – Printing and Punching 1401 System Output Tapes Employing SPOOL on the 360/40 System – Investigation Case Assignment – February 6, 1967

  09 - Printing and Punching 1401 System Output Tapes Employing SPOOL on the 360/40 System – Investigation Case Assignment – February 6, 1967 – another version

  10 – C-E-I-R Institute for Advanced Technology Certificate of Instruction in Computer Science – to David A. Studebaker for completing course in multi-programmed operating systems – April 7, 1967

  11 – Memorandum for Record RE: SPOOL, October 7, 1966 – some overlap with 01, 18

  12 – Western Electric 360/30 Installation Plan – 8/9/67 – photocopy

  13 – Questions – coding sheets, undated

  14 – Start SPOOL

  15 – EMPS coding sheets – 2/67

  16 – EMPS (PK SUBROUTINES) coding sheets – 1/67

  17 – SPOOL INSTRUCTIONS – photocopy

  18 – Memorandum for Record Re: SPOOL – October 7 1966 – compare 01, 11

  19 – backspace file, etc. – [operation instructions]

  20 – operation (of SPOOL) – handwritten

  21, 22 – Investigation Case Assignment – 2/6/67 – compare 08, 09

  23 – Bell System Program Routine – SPOOL

  24 – RESMON Spool – no date

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1966-1967

  maker

  Western Electric

  ID Number

  2014.3067.05

  nonaccession number

  2014.3067

  catalog number

  2014.3067.05

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• Ohmer Cash Register

  Description

  This cash register has a metal cash box and case. The wooden cash drawer has a flat black slab above it. The machine has four levers for setting amounts of money to $99.99. A mechanism sets the 2-digit department number, and a lever sets the identity of the clerk. The manually operated machine has an operating crank on the right side. It has no paper tape. The machine has indicator dials in a glass case at the top, with totals visible on both sides. On the left side is a window that shows a date of MAY 15. The cash drawer contains a key and a pill bottle.

  The machine is marked at the base of the front: OHMER REGISTER CO. (/) DAYTON, OHIO, U.S.A. It is also marked: CLASS 807 (4)R -D3 (/) Serial No. 6056. It is marked on the bottom of the cash drawer: GUARANTEE. . . . OHMER REGISTER COMPANY (/)(Signed) John F. Ohmer (/) President.

  Ohmer made the cases for early NCR cash registers. The Ohmer Car Register Company was founded in 1898 to make registers for streetcar, train and bus fares. The Ohmer Register Company was incorporated in 1931 as a distributing agency for the original firm. Cash registers seem to have been made under the Ohmer name from about that time until not long after the sale of the firm to Rockwell Manufacturing Company in 1946. John F. Ohmer died in 1938.

  Reference:

  “Ohmer, John F.,” National Cyclopedia of American Biography, vol. 33, p. 18.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1935

  maker

  Ohmer Register Company

  ID Number

  MA.336220

  maker number

  6056

  accession number

  312142

  catalog number

  336220

  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 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, 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

• 

  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, 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

• 

  National Cash Register, Model 313

  Description

  This 1913 National Cash Register Company cash register has an ornate brass exterior with a marble plate above the cash drawer. In addition to the wooden cash drawer and pop-up indicators at the top, the machine had two rows of keys. Keys in the top row are numbered 90, 70, 50, 35, 25, 15,and 5 (the rightmost key is missing a label). Keys in the bottom row are labeled $1, 80, 60, 40, 30, 20, 10 (the rightmost key is missing a label). Inside a locked compartment above the keys is a register that reads dollars and cents up to $9999.99, a four-digit customer counter, and a two-digit no sale counter. The machine has no mechanism to assist the clerk in adding up totals for individual sales and no paper tape to serve as a receipt. It has serial number 1265603.

  By this time, aggressive sales tactics, numerous acquisitions, and frequent lawsuits had won NCR dominance in the cash register market. The firm also trained numerous young executives, including Thomas J. Watson. When the U.S. government found NCR in violation of antitrust law, several of these executives, including Watson, were fired. Watson was soon hired by the Computing Tabulating Machine Company of Endicott, New York, becoming the president of a firm that soon was known as IBM.

  References:

  Cortada, James. Before the Computer: IBM, NCR, Burroughs, and Remington Rand and the Industry They Created. 1865-1956, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.

  Crandall, Robert L. and Sam Robins. The Incorruptible Cashier, vol. II, Vestal, N.Y.: The Vestal Press, 1990.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1913

  maker

  National Cash Register Company

  ID Number

  MA.333754

  accession number

  302254

  catalog number

  333754

  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

• 

  Omar Electronic Backgammon Game

  Description

  The Ohio firm of Tryom, Inc., introduced this electronic game at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, held in early 1979. It is an electronic version of the game of backgammon, named for the actor and backgammon player Omar Sharif.

  The flat screen keyboard includes twelve keys numbered from 1 to 12, as well as twelve playing keys and an on/off switch. Behind these is an LCD display. Text behind this reads: OMAR. A power jack is on the right side.

  At the top of the back is a compartment for four AA batteries. Below this a sticker gives instructions. It reads toward the bottom: TRYOM INC. (/) Cleveland, Ohio 44122 (/) MADE IN U.S.A. It also reads Serial # 61508 (/) U.S. & Foreign Patents Pending (/) P113 REV.2.

  The mark OMAR indicates that the term is trademarked. According to records of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the firm of Tryom, Inc., applied for trademark protection for the term as used to refer to “equipment for playing a hand-held computerized backgammon game” in November 1980, receiving registration in December 1981. They had first used the term "Omar" in commerce in the summer of 1979.

  References:

  [Advertisement], Lost Angeles Times, November 15, 1979. Ad for Omar 1, not Omar V.

  [Advertisement], Washington Post, December 5, 1979, p. A10. Omar V, which looks like this object, selling for $69.95. With backgammon set it costs $79.95.

  [Advertisement], Los Angeles Times, December 28, 1979, p. E7. Omar 1, with an LED display and a backgammon set included on sale for $49.95. Omar V, with an LCD display, $59.95 all by itself.

  [Advertisement], Washington Post, February 1, 1980, p. A22. Omar V, which looks like this object, selling for $69.95. With backgammon set it costs $79.95.

  [Advertisment], Los Angeles Times, April 9, 1980, p. G10. Omar 1, with an LED display and a backgammon set included on sale for $49.95. Omar V, with an LCD display, $59.95 all by itself (same advertisement as above).

  [Advertisement], Chicago Tribune, December 21, 1980, p. B15. Clearance sale includes an Omar III backgammon game, selling for $59.87, regularly $77.62.

  “Tyrom Introduces Backgammon Player at Consumer Electronics Show,” The Intelligent Machines Journal, February 28, 1979, p. 3. Versions 1, II, and III of Omar mentioned.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1981

  maker

  Tyrom

  ID Number

  1986.0988.079

  catalog number

  1986.0988.079

  accession number

  1986.0988

  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

• 

  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

• 

  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, 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

• 

  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

• 

  The Milometer slide rule computer

  Description

  One inscription on this celluloid rule reads “COPYRIGHT G. P. WILHELM 1917 / MFR. AND DISTRIBUTOR EDWARD C. MCKAY / CLEVELAND, OHIO / PATENT APPLIED FOR.” Another reads “THE MILOMETER.” Glenn Perrin Wilhelm (1889-1941) was an officer in the U.S. Army, and an authority on ballistics. He devised this slide rule-like computer for forward observers, to help them direct the indirect fire of machine guns and small arms.

  Ref: Glenn P. Wilhelm, Machine Gun Fire Control (Cleveland: Edward C. McKay, 1917).

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1917

  ID Number

  2006.0098.1569

  catalog number

  2006.0098.1569

  accession number

  2006.0098

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  McCaskey Credit Register

  Description

  The McCaskey Credit Register Company of Alliance, Ohio, was in business from 1903 until its acquisition by the Victor Adding Machine Company in 1953. It manufactured a variety of devices to assist in accounting, including this one for keeping track of the accounts of customers.

  The instrument is made of ferrous metal, painted black. The outside frame holds eight panels or leaves that rest vertically but may be opened out horizontally. The back of the front leaf and the front of the second are divided to allow an alphabetic index of the later leaves, with small paper slips giving the names of customers and a number for each name. The back of the second leaf, the front and back of the third through seventh leaves, and the front of the eighth leaf are divided into compartments, each of which has a clamp to hold the sales slips in place. These compartments are numbered from 1 to 200. Patent dates listed on the front of the machine range from October 10, 1899, to February 4, 1913.

  A mark on the front of the machine reads: The McCASKEY (/) McCASKEY SYSTEMS (/) THE McCASKEY REGISTER CO. (/) ALLIANCE, OHIO. A mark on a metal tab on the borrom of the inside of the front reads: 110831. A mark on a small slip on the first panel reads: 68 - York Springs Fire Co. A mark on a small slip on the second panel reads: Huntington Township. York Springs is a town in Adams County (near Gettysburg), Pennsylvania. The town of Huntington is the county seat of Huntington County, Pennsylvania.

  Reference:

  Rand-McNally Library Atlas, 1912.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1913

  maker

  McCaskey Register Company

  ID Number

  1989.0186.01

  accession number

  1989.0186

  catalog number

  1989.0186.01

  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

• 

  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

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