A MECHANICAL CASHIER,

Grey River Argus, Volume XXIII, Issue 3610, 20 March 1880, Page 2

A MECHANICAL CASHIER,

In the last number of the European Mail is an account of a contrivance which will ba 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 ueed 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 thiuk. readily allow. Indeed, if there be any truth in the close relation proverbially said t© exist between necessity and invention, the fact that check tills of one kind and another are not altogether unknown at the Patent Office would 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 pratical value. In the "Mechanical Cashier," patented and manufactured by Mr Geldard. of Man" Chester, 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 ii likewise effeetsd' by this invention)

constitutes no inconsiderable reoommondation 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 a 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 coarse, we cannot reproduce, but it is worth any one's while to get, a copy of the Mail and examine it. Briefly, two strips of naper work at right angles to each oth^Jfe between them also works an inked ri£sn of silk. The entry, having been made on the upper one, is necessarily duplicated on the lower one. There is also a Bmall printing roller, with the address of the h'rm, 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 I ' the receipt after printing. The directions for using the cashier are simple in the extreme. All the salesman has to do ia to write down the amount of the sale, with his 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 foutfd 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 . Bystems now in use.