The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1917-03-29
THE CASH REGISTER.
How Universal Store Convenience
Came Into Being.

There were no cash registers when
John Henry Patterson was born
December IS, 1914. His forebears
we're Scotch-Irish, the first to come
to America (about i12S) being his
sreat-grandfather whose son fought
as a colonel in the Revolutionary
| war. founded the city of Lexington,
Ky, became one of the three original
owners of the land now covered by
Cincinnati, and finally located on a
1000 acre farm near Dayton. Here
John Henry was born, almost on the
spot now occupied by the National
Cash Register company. AS a lad,
one of eight children, he had to work
hard on the farm. He received a
good education, first in the Dayton
schools and later at Miami university
and Dartmouth college, where he
graduated B. A. in 1857, having pre-
viously served in the Civil war as
hundred day man although then only
a STRIPPING.
Farm labor did not appeal to the
bachelor Of arts. Commerce appeal
ed to him most, but he could not pick
and choose jobs. Collecting tolls on
the Miami & Erie canal, on duty
night and day, Sundays and holidays,
was the best he was able to land.
This, however, was not commerce.
He wanted to buy and sell things.
Having saved little money, he sue
ceeded in borrowing a little more
and set up as a retail coal dealer in
Dayton. From selling coal he gravi-
tated to mining coal and iron ore, in
partnership with his brother, Frank,
in Jackson county, some so miles
from Dayton.
To enable their miners to obtain
supplies, the Pattersons, in conjunc-
ton with two other mining concerns,
opened a store. Business was plenti-
full but profits were nil. At the end
of two years the store had not netted
a cent Notwithstanding that all goods
were supposed to be sold on a reason
able margin of profit. Something was
wrong; there was leak somewhere.
| Hearing that a merchant in Dayton
had invented a contrivance to keep
record of all sales, Mr.. Patterson
Immediately telegraphed for two of
the novel machines. The idea of the
cash register had taken birth in
1879, in the brain of Jacob Ritty, a
Dayton merchant, who, suffering
from breakdown due to overWork
and worry in attempting to keep tabs
on the details of his business, had
started on a voyage to Europe.
While in the engine room of the ship
one day, he noticed a device that re-
corded the number of revolutions of
the propeller shaft. Why not con-
struct a machine that would record
each coin put in the till? Hurrying
back, he set to work with his brother,
skilled mechanic, and evolved the
first cash register.
Mr.. Patterson's was the first order
filled. Crude and clumsy though it
was, the machine Immediately turned
the stores loss into a substantial
profit. Mr.. Patterson's commercial
instinct told him that the new inven-
ton had unlimited possibilities.
What is good for our store is good
for every store in the world,' he told
himself. At the first opportunity he
went to Dayton, investigated the sit
uation thoroughly and, although only
few machines had been turned out,
he was so certain of the outlook that
in 1884, he bought out the Ritty busi-
ness and changed the name from the
National Manufacturing company to
the National Cash Register COM
pany.-B. C.. Forbes, in Leslie's.