In the UK shoppers will talk about going to the ’till’ to pay for their purchases. But anyone from outside the UK hearing that expression will be a little mystified. But all becomes clear when they realise that ’till’ means cash register!

Quite why the word ’till’ has evolved is a bit of a mystery though it is widely supposed (at least by those people who take the time to think of these things) that the expression became used because a ’till’ is a compartment used to separate items within a box or chest. So, because the draw of a cash register has several compartments for separating different notes and coins the word ‘Till’ became common usage in the UK.

Stores and businesses use cash registers to perform the dual actions of recording purchases and issuing receipts. But few people realise the cash register was first invented to deter thieves by a bar owner in the United States.

John Ritter, the owner of bar in Ohio, was eager to find away of deterring his bar staff from taking their pick of the day’s takings. By 1879 he had produced his first cash register, an idea which he patented four years later with his brother John.

Apparently Ritter based his invention on a device used on steam ships to count the number of revolutions made by the propeller. But, the inventor can’t have been too proud of his invention as he quickly sold his new cash register company. Within twelve months the business was sold again and this time the new owners were the National Cash Register Company who are now known as NCR and turnover billions of dollars in revenue every year.

The National Cash Register Company, or NCRC ,took Ritter’s original cash register and over the years refined it until it became the type of machine millions of shoppers see around the world today. By then of the 19th century a paper roll to keep a record of transactions and the ability to issue receipts had been added to the cash register.

A major advance in the development of the cash register came in 1906 when Charles Kettering built a machine that could be powered by a small motor. This led to huge developments for NCRC and by 1911 their workforce had mushroomed to over 6,000. Kettering was to leave NCRC to found a company which eventually became General Motors. This goes to show the abundance of entrepreneurial talent among the early developers of the cash register.

Whether the machine is referred to as a cash register or a till; it is doubtful that James Ritter foresaw the impact his machine would make when he invented the cash register way back in 1879.