Brandt Automatic Cashier
date: label: date made
content: ca 1925
name: label: maker
content: Brandt Manufacturing Company
notes: label: Description
content: By the late 19th century, many American workers were paid in cash. Putting together packets with precisely the right bills and coins was a tedious task. In the 1890s, Edward J. Brandt, a cashier at the Bank of Watertown in Watertown, Wisconsin, invented a machine that could dispense change automatically.
label: Description
content: The machine dispenses change in amounts between 1 cent and 99 cents. It has eight channels across the front, three for pennies, one for nickels, two for dimes, one for quarters and one for 50-cent pieces. Above and behind the channels is an array of 99 plastic keys, numbered from 1 to 99. Pressing another key, marked "5," releases five pennies. On the right are keys marked 10, 25, 25 and 100 that give change for these amounts. The entire coin holder can be removed from the mechanism for storage of coins. Pushing down a key moves a bar that pushes coins from a channel into a compartment with a trap door at its base. Pushing the trap door back releases change into the hand.
label: Description
content: A mark on the front and the back of the machine reads reads: BRANDT AUTOMATIC CASHIER. A mark on a brass plate on the back of the machine reads: PATENTED (/) JULY 11, 1899. . . (/) DEC. 12, 1916 (/) 48184 93421 10014 PATENTS PENDING (/) T.M.Reg.U.S.Pat.Off. (/) Brandt Manufacturing Company (/) WATERTOWN, WISCONSIN. The serial number, marked on the right side at the front, is 22446.
label: Description
content: Brandt’s machine received medals at the 1900 Universal Exposition in Paris and the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. This example dates from the 1920s.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: James H. McCarthy, <I>The American Digest of Business Machines</I>, Chicago, 1924, p. 196–197.
label: Description
content: Charles J. Wallman, <I>Edward J. Brandt, Inventor</I>, Watertown, WI: Brandt, Inc., 1984.
label: Description
content: Accession file.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Business
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Computers & Business Machines
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content: Cash and Credit Registers
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Wittenbach Business Systems
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2001.0011.01
label: accession number
content: 2001.0011
label: catalog number
content: 2001.0011.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: coin changer
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: nickel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: rubber (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 28.3 cm x 23.5 cm x 36 cm; 11 5/32 in x 9 1/4 in x 14 3/16 in