Arizona republican., 1905-07-22
THE WILKES REGISTER
A PhOenIx Invention Which is Now
 Practically Complete.

The Republican some months ago printed a more or less elaborate de scription of the Wilkes automatic cash register and money changer. the invention of Thomas $. Wilkes, at that time a draftsman in the office of the surveyor general. MT. Wilkes had constructed d model of wood and brass and made application for patent.
 Up to that time, MT. Wilkes, who had begun the invention a year ago last April had carried the develop ment of 1t along at his own expense, and convinced himself and all who saw the model of the absolute practicabil- ity of it. After that a company was formed, called The American Patent Promotion company. A considerable part of the stock was sold, and, aside from that held by MT. Wilkes himself, at 8 a share. It is now about all gone. the later sales having been at par, $1O. After the organization of the com pany MT Wilkes resigned his position in the office of the surveyor general and devoted himself wholly to the per lection of the machine. He construct ed one of steel and brass. at the Ari- Zona Iron Works. Since then he has been engaged in the adjustment of it, and it may be said that it is now practically complete. It has already enlisted the interest of representatives of some of the big manufacturers of cash registers, for it is claimed for il, and those who have seen it believe the claim is well founded, that it will per form the offices of all existing cash registers and, in addition. two more important functions which no other will perform. IL affords, in the first place, absolute protection against the dishonesty or c2relessness of clerks. l The clerk can sec the com in the reg ister but he cannot touch il. The only money he can handle is that he receives from the purchaser and what. | if any. he returns to the purchaser in | change.
 Coins of the different denominations are kept in graduated glass tubes. By ! a system of keys, any kind of change
 desired will fall from the bottom of
 the tubes into a little trough in front. | There is no possibility of error. The
 money received from a purchase is put
 into a slot over the tube into which it
 is designed to fall. Obviously, a large
 piece of money cannot be put into a
 small slot, but if a small piece is put
 into a large slot by mistake it is di
 verted from the tube beneath and falls l uOWI III front or llle IlldCIllle
 At the time of the former descrip-
 ton of the machine it was arranged
 only for the handling of silver coins,
 nickels and pennies. The same prin- l ciple could easily be extended to handling of gold coins. That eXten- sion was so easy that MT. Wilkes
 passed it over for the time and de-
 voted himself to the more difficult
 business of arranging a compartment
 for bills. That has now been success
 fully worked out. though. in the case
 of bills, they are put by hand into the
 brass books" where they belong.
 Here the clerk has access to them, but
 a dishonest clerk would not steal a
 bill from a register; he would cOnfine
 his peculatiOns to the smaller pieces;
 besides, there would be against him a perfect recording arrangement.
 It is impossible in a newspaper ar lticle of reasonable length to describe
 the technicalities of a machine of this
 kind, simple as it is. It contains only
 140 moving pieces. More than forty
 of the devices it contains have been
 favorably passed upon by the patent office and are beyond contest. Nine
 were rejected, not because they were 1, in conflict, but because they came Un der the head of mpatentable devices. One notable peculiarity of the ma chine is the absence of springs or : counterpoises in it's makeup. There
 are no delicate or fragile parts, but
 on the other hand, every piece may be made durable and heavy Another
 thing is the absence of the rattle
 crash and grind of the ordinary form = of cash register, and its characteristic
 obviate all need of alarm bells, for tho S simple reason that one cannot gel 2 more money out of the machine thar a he puts into it without breaking it a This feature renders the individua a drawers and compartments for eacF Fl clerk unnecessary, for no clerk has ac- N cess to the money, and the machine Fl compels him to do his work right It. 4 simplicity of construction makes it 2 q practical machine for all the saIesmeT ss in a stora.
 a The invention is entirely the worl T of Thomas s. Wilkes no feature, de 5 tail or part of it's construction having Fl been devised or suggested by anyone a felse. It does not in any way resemble .5 or infringe upon any of the machines s now in use. It is a curious fact tha- 3 MT. Wilkes never saw the inside of s