Moffett Register for Recording Alcohol Sales
date: label: date made
content: 1877
notes: label: Description
content: In the spring of 1877, to pay the interest on the public debt, the state of Virginia passed a law suggested by State Senator Samuel H. Moffett of Harrisonburg. Every liquor dealer and saloon in the state was to be equipped with a so-called Moffett register to record sales of liquor, allowing state tax collectors to know taxes due. This is an example of a Moffett register. Moffett and Otis Dean of Richmond received a patent for the device in 1877.
label: Description
content: The counter has a black iron frame with a glass window in the front and a brass crank in the back. Two holes in the base allow the register to be fixed to a counter. Under the window are six dials, each of which can read any digit from 0 to 9. The dials are marked according to the decimal place of the digit. Turning the crank at the back an entire turn rings a bell and increases the setting on the tens dial (the rightmost). On the back is a covered keyhole. The case is locked and there is no key.
label: Description
content: A mark inside the window above the dials reads: MOFFETT REGISTER. A mark on the outside of the front reads: ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS. Another mark there reads: No (/) 2872. The dials are labeled from left to right: 1 MILLION, 100 THOUSAND, 10 THOUSAND, 1 THOUSAND, 1 HUNDRED, TEN.
label: Description
content: By 1878, use of the Moffett register reportedly was in decline.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Samuel H. Moffett and Otis Dean, “Improvement in Alarm-registers for Use in Bar-rooms, &c.,” U.S. Patent 194,951, September 4, 1877.
label: Description
content: “Virginia,” <I>Appleton’s Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1877</I>, ns, vol. 2, New York: Appleton, 1890., pp. 758-762.
label: Description
content: “Virginia’s Novel Liquor Tax,” <I>New York Tribune</I>, September 15, 1877, p. 2.
label: Description
content: “Decline of the Moffett Register,” <I>Chicago Daily Tribune</I>, December 3, 1878, p. 6.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Virginia
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Spirits
label: Subject
content: Taxes
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Counters
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Transfer from Library of Congress
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.319732
label: catalog number
content: 319732
label: accession number
content: 235052
objectType: label: Object Name
content: counter
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 11 cm x 22.5 cm x 13 cm; 4 11/32 in x 8 27/32 in x 5 1/8 in