A MECHANICAL CASH ER.

Kumara Times, Issue 1086, 24 March 1880, Page 4

A MECHANICAL CASH ER.

In the last number of the European Mail is an account of a contrivance which will be found of immense benefit to large firms, it is called “ The Mechanical Cashier,” and its great simplicity is perhaps the most remarkable feature of the invention. The Mail says:—“That there exists a very pressing need for some contrivance which, while correctly recording the day’s receipts, shall also prevent the possibility of robbery on the part of assistant*, every shopkeeper in the world will, we think, readily allow. Indeed, if there be any truth in the close relation proverbially said to exist between necessity and invention, the* fact that check tills of one kind and another are not altogether unknown at the Patent Office wo'nld suffice to support the assertion. Hitherto, however, so far as our

experience goes,, man’s inventive powers have failed to produce an apparatus of any very pratioal value. In the “ Mechanical Cashier,” patented and manufactured by Mr Geldard, of Manchester, the difficulties and losses from which tradesmen have so long suffered seem to be admirably met and successfully overcome. By means of this ingenious invention all the elaborate systems now in vogue for rendering peculation impossible on the part of shop assistants are dispensed with, and cheap, expeditious, and absolutely accurate method substituted in their stead. The direct advantages to be secured by the use of this machine are both important and substantial. A cashier being no longer necessary, the salary of this official is saved, while the economy as regards time —only money in another form—which is likewise effected by this invention constitutes no inconsiderable recommendation in its favor. Passing over its chief merit as one too obvious to call for notice, we may be permitted to direct attention to some of the minor, though still very important features of this contrivance. Compared with the great expense of the book system at present used in drapers’ and other houses the cost of working by means of the mechanical cashier is

mere trifle.. At the same time the principle of the old system is preserved, a check or receipt being conveniently, instantaneously, and correctly produced for the customer, and a duplicate retained for the proprietor. Another advantage this patent possesses—and it is one which will recommend it to business men—is that instead of having to spend a considerable time each morning in re-writing the transactions of the previous day in order to get the total, the record is already in arithmetical form for addition.

Having said so much on the general character and uses of the mechine, the Mail proceeds to explain its mechanism and working. This is rendered clear by the aid of a woodcut. This, of course, we cannot reproduce, but it is worth anyone’s while to get a copy of the Mail and examine it. Briefly, two strips of paper work at right angles to each other ; between them also works an inked ribbon of silk. The entry, having been made on the upper one, is necessarily duplicated on the lower one. There is also a small printing roller, with the address of the firm, and other remarks of a nature calculated to give the customer a knowledge of what the assistants’ duties are ; an inking roller which supplies the type, and a small guillotine which severs the receipt after printing. The directions for using the cashier are simple in the extreme. All the salesman has to do is to write down the amount of the sale, with hia own initials, on the exposed portion of the upper band, then press the foot on the treadle as far as it will go, remove it, and the receipt will be found on the counter ready for the customer. When once tradesmen who carry on a cash business become acquainted with the advantages of the “Mechanical Casher,” we cannot think they will be slow in discarding the old expensive, laborious, and time-consuming systems now in use.