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Progress, Volume III, Issue 9, 1 July 1908, Page 304

This machine is a cash register. It is more • it registers everything possible to be registered in connection with the business of a retail store. The remarkable thing, or rather one of the remarkable things about it, is that it was invented in the Dominion, and made in it. The whole thing, lock, stock, and barrel, is the product of Dominion brains and hands. Look at it ! Its metal case is finished with great taste, every working part is sound, easy, strong, compact. It would be absolutely impossible for any factory in any other country to turn out a more shapely, more handy, more reasonably priced article.

This is a thing to dwell on. This is " Local Industry Week " in the Dominion, or rather our date of issue is the first of the month after that very successful array of the products of local talent and local enterprise. Time was when the mention of the origin of a thing manufactured was enough either to make its fortune or to damn its chances. If the thing was foreign everybody was eager to see it, to gloat over it, to buy it, and to swear for evermore that the local people are altogether hopeless. Then followed the reasons, all of which went down with the sapient people who made public opinion in those days. The unhappy colonial had not any ideas, he was impertinent if he supposed he could ever have any. He had no capital to speak of, and the competition that gives vigour to invention was altogether wanting. Old methods, moreover, which had grown from generation to generation, being perfected by innumerable turns of invention suggested by experience, were not likely to be competed with by rash colonists who had leally no right to come in off the fields. It was lor them to recognise

that the primary works of agriculture and the pastoral industries were all the Colony could hope to devote itself to for centuries. In short, everything being against the colonial manufacturer, there ought not to be any colonial manufacturer at all. But the colonial manufacturer being a person of grit, one of the pioneers of this Dominion, in fact ; one that is to say of a sturdy race ; absolutely declined to allow any person, no matter how superior, to think for him. He went on manufacturing, therefore. It must be admitted, and it will be admitted by many who are old enough to remember the struggle between the imported article and the local, that the local was often inferior. Never -was it inferior in material — it was, indeed, always superior.

But its workmanship was often unable to submit to comparison with the better finished British or foreign product. When, for example, the local foundry turned out a pulley wheel, it was heavy, unsightly, lumbering, by the side of the wheels from over the water. If it was possible to be inelegant the colonial article achieved inelegance with the quickest promptitude and the most dolorous certainty. A colonial tweed we can recollect which had but one good point, namely its sound quality, and a thousand bad ones, all of which might have been summed up in a regret that the wretched thing would never wear out. In like mannei, the first ploughs and harrows of the local makers were fearful and wonderful things. But these early disabilities have now passed out of sight. The generation in possession knows them not , the generation that has a memory looks back with minds chastened by sympathy for the ccurage which undertook to face comparison with the best, and the persevering skill and improving quality which eventually reached the highest level, and occasionally surpassed

it. Take for instance the flax trade, which was started and kept going entirely by machinery of local invention and make. This truth was first borne in on the people of the Dominion at the Christchuich International Exhibition of 1883, run by Messrs. Joubert and Twopenny. There the imported article was displayed in great quantity beside the local, and judicious persons not swayed by prejudice admitted the equality oi much. In the year 1885, at Wellington, there was a display of local manufactures, and the products of the soil, the forest, and the mine, which undoubtedly astonished many by the excellence of the manufactures. Candles, •soap, iron .york, brass work, timber work, lurnilur.j, woollens of all kinds, especially

rugs, tweeds, blankets, boots, leathers, and phormium, rope and twine, proclaimed equality with anything in the world. An industrial exhibition at Christchurch told the same tale later on, and more exhibitions told it in the most convincing manner. A whole series of these in all parts of the Dominion conoboiated the story, all of which paid handsomely The climax was reached in the great Exposition at Christchurch the other clay, wheie the level of the manufacturing iudustiy of the Dominion was acknowledged by common consent of the many travelled people of the country to be equal to all and surpassed by none. It is a verdict acquiesced in by all the experts who saw and were astonished by that great show. That fact alone justified its great cost, and made that cost a comparative bagatelle. These are the things that are recalled by the sight of this locally made register. Therefore do we linger on them here. If you wish to understand the secret of the success of local manufacture, look at the register. There is nothing better, more solid, more beautifully finished, more durable and handy anywhere.

This machine is the invention of Mr. F. H. Trevellian, and is the product of a close study of the requirements of the merchant shop-keeper. Three years ago the inventor produced his first model, and since then he has been busily engaged with the manufacturing details of the register. Being in close touch with the register business for many years, and an enthus-

iastic believer in the advantages of cash registers, the patentee recognised the need for something that would do more than register the amounts of cash and credit sales. He saw how much more necessary it was to record the actual goods sold ; thereby providing the shop-keeper with that information so absolutely essential to a correct statement of his daily transactions with his customers. With that end in view the subject ot this article \\a<= evolved. This machine is entirely manufactured in the Dominion, the only imported thing being the paper in bulk used in the manufacture of the register supplies. It is a distinct advance on cash registers hitherto used, inasmuch as it shows not only the cash and credit sales to the firm, but also all the transactions in deta : l, in the day's

the assistant and book-keeper). It registers cash, payments for the whole amount of the sale note. It delivers bills, and " books up " credit sales, issues receipts, and records any accounts paid by customers, and keeps a correct tally of amounts and the details of cash paid out by the firm. When a sale is made the assistant makes the necessary entry upon the sale note. The machine then does the rest — on the

turning of a handle the sale note is ejected from the register (a unique device automatically ensures the correct length of sale note), a copy comes into viewbeneath a glass indicator, the previous copy disappearing, the cash drawer is unlocked and thrown forward, a bell is rung announcing the opening of the drawer, a summarised detail strip is brought forward beneath a glass plate where it remains visible, and the whole mechanism is then automatically locked until the cash drawer is closed, when the operation can be again repeated. When cash is paid out the register takes a receipt from the payee and files it away in a compartment designed for that purpose. It cheques, notes, etc.. are cashed for customers it records the particulars and tells the proprietor which assistant p;ave the c'aaige.

work of-the'store. It gives a " sale note "to the customer, and retains under lock and key a copy for the proprietor (where a bookkeeper is employed it will also issue a " duplicate " for the book-keeper, retaining a " triplicate " thereby providing a double check over

Where " cash" coupons" are given away by the storekeeper a coupon attachment is provided, which is supplied with the register. At the end of the day there is a complete daybook record of the day's transactions,

while the summarised detail strip shows the amount of cash, that should be in the cash drawer. Should a customer dispute an account, and have lost the sale note, the copies are at hand for immediate reference. Clerical errors are rectified with automatic effect, and with absolute certainty. It is a system at once simple and effective. The feeding and supply rollers and rolls are ingeniously constructed, and the recording rolls work with perfect truth and are wound as tight as drums. For dissecting the various records from the recording rolls, there is supplied a cutting machine which can cut off 500 records in two and a half minutes, a performance as astonishing as it is unerring. In appearance and design the machine is as finished a piece of work as is turned out in any part of the world, and in this respect much credit is due to the factory manager, Mr. C. Bristow, and his efficient and welltrained staff of mechanics. One of the most important features of the business is the manufacture of the record rolls. These rolls are printed to suit customers' requirements. Therefore each time

an order for rolls is received, a complete change of programme is necessary. These rolls are cut, printed, and rewound by a machine designed by the patentee in conjunction with the factory staff, and constructed in the Christchurch factory. This machine is capable of turning out 50,000 printed dockets daily. To obtain this result many months of experimenting were required, as such a machine was not procurable in the world's markets. This " Record Roll " Making machine is working to its full capacity each day, and the company now find it necessary to work the machine two " shifts " per day to keep pace with the demand. vSeveral models, including multiple drawer machines, are being manufactured for various trades. The Imperial Cash Register and Sales Recorder is a most creditable product of New Zealand brains and enterprise, and promises to revolutionise business ways in the direction of accuracy, dispatch, and simplicity, especially in the matter of book keeping. We understand a company is about to be formed to take over the New Zealand patent rights, and to push the sale of the machine in the Dominion. The head office of the company is in Grey street, Wellington, and they have show rooms in Auckland (Queen street), Wellington (Panama street), Christchurch (Hereford street) , and Dunedin (Crawford street) . The factory is located in Mr. William Wiggins' establishment, Christchurch.