In 1879 the Ritty brothers filed a patent application for the first cash register in the USA. Businessman John H. Patterson acquired the rights to manufacture cash registers in 1884 and founded the National Cash Register Company in Dayton, Ohio. The NCR 400 series models were among the standard cash registers in use at the time. They were favoured by retail outlets because of their robust nature. Model 422 has five rows of keys and features 42 keys in all. The indicators are in English and show sums of pounds and pence. Photo: Jan Braun, HNF