Cash registers were first patented in 1877 by Henri Pottin, in England.  Two and a half years latter in 1879, the first practical cash register was invented in Dayton Ohio by brothers James and John Ritty.  They called this device a "Cash register and Indicator."  The Ritty brothers came up with the design in order to cut back on their employees "profit sharing plan,"  where the employees would pocket some sales and give some to the owner.  With a cash register every sale would be recorded and that dollar amount should be in the register, or the employee was obviously stealing from the owner.  Their cash register became known as the "incorruptible cashier."  

     In 1884 John Patterson purchased The National Manufacturing Company, who owned the rights to the Ritty Brothers cash register.  Patterson renamed the company The National Cash Register Company.  He also continued to improve upon the Ritty's invention, adding a bell when ever a sale was made, as well as a paper roll that recorded ever transaction.  By 1912, 95% of all cash registers in use were manufactured by National.  Today there are less than 40 different models known to exist that were made by companies other than National.

     The Antique Warehouse collection of cash registers is made up of 12 National registers.  The earliest cash register in the collection dates back to 1889, and the most recent from the 1930's era.  Click below on any of the images to be linked to the cash register page where you can view information and images from every cash register in the AW collection.

Crandall & Robins. The Incorruptible Cashier, 1990.