CASH-REGISTERS are a form of calculating ma chine in general use in retail stores, whose chief functions are to make a record of money received from sales of merchandise in a retail store, as the money is placed in the cash-drawer, and to add automatically this sum to the total pre viously placed in the drawer; it also indicates to the customers the record which has been made. The more contplex cash-registers have been fur ther developed so that it is possible to include an automatic record of other transactions which take place in a retail store, including credit sales and the separate sales of individual clerks or of particular lines of goods, so that they may be referred to at the close of the day's business.
The first practical cash-register was invented by James Ritty, of Dayton, Ohio, who secured his patent in 1879. In this first register the rec ord was made on adding wheels and displayed by hands on a dial. but in later inventions the rec ord is sometimes made by puncturing printed rolls of paper and is shown by indicators which rise and fail as the mechanism is operated, a number equal to the amount of the purchase ris ing as the cash paid is deposited in the drawer, the same operation causing the number which records the previous purchase to fall. In the 'detail adders,' manufactured by the National Cash Register Company, the mechanism is oper ated by pressing the proper registering key. A single pressure of the finger unlocks and throws open the cash-drawer, rings a bell, drops the in dicator showing the last transaction, raises an indicator showing the amount of the new t•ans action, and at the saline time records it on the adding wheels inside the register. Each regis tering key is connected with a corresponding adding wheel inside the register, which shows the total amount of registrations made on that key. For example, if the '5-eent' key be pressed five times its corresponding adding wheel shows a total of 25 cents. Thus the total amount of the
day's sales can be ascertained at any time by adding together the total amounts shown by the adding wheels. These registers can be arranged to keep separate record of 'charge' reccived on account.' and 'paid nut' transactions, or to show separately the receipts from different classes of goods. A cannot be opened without mak ing both an indication to the customer and an inside record under lock and key.
ELEA-flue TABULATING _MACHINES., such as the one devised by Ibillerith for recording and sic rizing the United States census returns, maybe classed under calculating machines. This apparatus is in time parts. The first operation is to punch holes in a card, eorresponding to the facts to be recorded for each individual, the punches being operated from a keyboard of 241) characters. After the cards are punched they are fed into a machine, which, by means of the holes and certain electric devices, adds one to the total record for the fact indicated by each hole, such as sex, color, or age. Next the cards are placed in sorting boxes. in order to secure a combination of facts, such as the number of black persons who are married, and by means of electric con nections which are acted upon only by cards hay ing holes corresponding to the facts to be tabu lated, the record is made.
For descriptions of calculating machines. con sult: Mehmke. "Numerisehes Rechnen." in En cykloptidie der nzatheniatischen Wissenschaften, Vol. I. (Leipzig, 1901), containing numerous figures; "Einigc dd itions ascii nen," A bhandlungen ar Gesehichte der Mathentatik, Vol. 1X. (Leipzig, 1599) ; Shaw, "Theory of Continuous Calculating Machines." in Phil. Transactions of Royal Society, Vol. CLXXVI. (London. 1SS5).