Cash Machines
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Burroughs Typewriters Universal Adders Pike Adders Electronic Calculators Ten Key Adders Cash Machines Portable Adders Billing Machines Manual Calculators Bookkeeping Machines Low Keyboard Adders High Keyboard Adders

Cash Machines

Both Cash Registers and Cash Machines are included in this group. 

Burroughs first built a “cash machine” to leverage their successful adding machines and to compete with the vastly more expensive cash registers, most often built by National Cash Register Company.  The cash machines were a low-cost alternative to the cash register and were most often used in small stores and shops.

A common problem with the cash machine was money getting stuck in the back of the cash drawer mechanism.  It was located in a place that the operator generally did not know how to get to.  A standing order to all Burroughs Field Engineers was to always first check this location with the operator present, before starting to make repairs on the machine.  Many clerks were unfairly accused of being short on their register for the day, only later to be vindicated (sometimes too late) by the cash being found in the back of the drawer.

Burroughs did finally build a true cash register; but the success of the machine was limited by the strong market dominance of National Cash Register Company and others. Production of the true cash register machines stopped at the start of WWII, and like the Burroughs Typewriter, was not resumed after the war.  The cash machine, however, continued to be produced through the 1979s.

Cash Machines (Class 8, 9, 10, and Series P) – Full keyboard machines mounted on a Burroughs cash drawer

Date range -- 1931-1970

Original Price -- $300

Today’s Value -- $100-$300

Hand-operated, wide till, Cash Machine

Cash Registers – (Types 100, 200, 300) Actual registers like NCR type machines. Type 100 is the basic Cash Register, Type 200 are the same as the Type 100 with the addition of a mechanism to print on a tally role. Type 300 was the same as the 200 plus had the capability to print a customer receipt.  

Date range -- 1935-1942

Original price -- $?

Today’s Value -- $200-$400

Model 300, Cash Register