DOES IT COME IN ANY OTHER COLOUR? From 1957 I worked for the National Cash Register Company who marketed the cash register shown. It was the 100 class and they were made in Dundee and sold all over the world. Dundee also manufactured the 21 range of electric cash registers and they were installed in the shops who embraced the new concept of ‘self service’ Incidently my uncle John opened the first independent self service shop in our area. I mention this as I have been remembering how Ford cars were available in any colour the customer wanted as long as it was black and the early telephones were also only available in the one colour and that was also black. The 100 class cash register shown was very popular as a replacement for the old brass machines that were resplendant in their design and so it was surprising that the 100 class was only sold in the colours shown. Anyone hazard a guess at what these colours were known as? Well the lighter colour was tan and the darker colour was the N word, and so the colour scheme was described as n***** and tan and we thought nothing of that description at the time.The National Cash Register Company was founded out of Dayton, Ohio in the USA but I have no idea if the colours were influenced by this. We did not have calculators to assist in adding up a column of figures and so we sold, in the same colour scheme, adding machines. The picture I have shown is an electric model but you could also get the same style but with a long handle on the right hand side and I can still see competent operators producing results quickly. The machines were noisy but to this day they had an advantage that is still missing from our present electronic devices, they produced a printed list of the numbers entered and this list was attached to the documents and was available to check the accuracy of the result. How are lists of figures verified today? We have become accustomed to the vast improvements in computing. The power of even a smart phone is way ahead of the accounting machines I worked with but I mention this as I am still enthralled how these mechanical beasts performed accounting functions. The large carriage moved noisely along stopping continually for actions to happen. These carriages would be about 4 to 5 feet in length and they were controlled by a metal bar of a similar length and this programme bar had a variety of stops attached, each one buit individually by a programmer. Each stop had a selection of thin plates and each plate had different teeth facing down and as the stop moved with the carriage it activated its designed task. The stops. I remember could make the carriage go forward or back and when it was time for the machine to print on a card, invoice or a statement it was able to print in red or black. This ability to print in red was unique to my company and I still remember a salesman deriding a prospect who was surprised at this function, he didn’t get the sale. These magnificent beasts were very expensive but yet again they were only available in the one livery N & T. The following picture shows a typical machine and another that shows the stops on the programme bar. This post is probably of little interest to my reader but I have found it a cathartic exercise, what ever that word means
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 11:53:24 +0000
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