One thing guaranteed to baffle people outside of the British Isles is the British people’s use of the word “till” when they go shopping. Of course, the British mean the pay point, where they pay for their goods and receive a receipt. To the rest of the world all that takes place at the cash register.

How the term “till” became the term for the pay point in a shop or store is a bit of a mystery – at least to people interested in such matters. One theory is that the term refers to the till being a compartment in a storage container, where items are kept separate from one another. That is similar to the typical cash register where the differing denomination of notes and coins are kept in different sections. So this is one theory why the term “till” is used in Great Britain.

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.

James Ritter was the owner of a saloon in Ohio and came up with the idea of a cash register as a way to stop his employees helping themselves to the takings. In 1879 Ritter produced his first cash register and filed a patent to protect his invention in 1883 along with his brother, John.

In an added twist to the story, Ritter based his first cash register on an instrument is steam ships which counted the number of revolutions in the water made by the ship’s propeller. Just how impressed Ritter was with his new invention is hard to say as he soon sold his cash register company. Within a year the cash register company was in new hands again, this time being bought by the National Cash register Company – now known as NCR. NCR have since become a worldwide brand with a turnover of billions of dollars per annum.

The National Cash Register Company (NVRC) further developed and refined Ritter’s original invention. Various components were added until it eventually became the product we know today. By the late 1800′s the cash register was able to record all transactions and issue receipts following the addition of a paper roll.

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.

No matter what you call his invention, cash register or till, John Ritter could never in his wildest dreams have foreseen the impact of his invention when he first introduced it all those years back in 1879.