On January 30 James Ritty and John Birch received U.S. Patent No. 271,363 on a Cash Register

James Ritty was a saloon keeper concerned that some of his some of his employees were skimming customers’ money meant to pay for food and drink. On a cruise he noticed a machine that counted rotations of the ship’s propeller, and thought something similar could be used to track cash transactions back at his saloon.

James enlisted the help of his brother John, a skilled mechanic, and the brothers began working on a design for such a device. After several failed prototypes, they created their third design, operated by pressing a key that represented a specific amount of money. There was no cash drawer. James and John Ritty patented the design on November 4, 1879, as “Ritty’s Incorruptible Cashier”:

The Rittys opened a small factory to make cash registers while continuing to operate the saloon. The company was not prospering and James Ritty his interest in the cash register business to a group of investors who formed the National Manufacturing Company, which was eventually renamed the National Cash register Company.