As orders increased, it became impossible to manage the Pony House bar and the factory at the same time. The Ritty brothers sold the factory to Jakob Eckert for 1,000 dollars. Jakob Eckert made his name in history as the founder of the National Manufacturing Company.
The cash register revolution continued. One of Colton’s residents, John Patterson, was the owner of a small store that sold goods to miners. When he heard about Ritti’s cash registers, he bought three at once and installed them in his store. In 1884, Petterson started to produce his own cash registers, he created a small workshop where at the beginning worked 13 people. Shortly thereafter, he founded the National Cash Register Company (NCR). John Petterson wanted to improve the functionality of cash registers so he added a cash box with a bell to the cash register. A bell rang every time the saleswoman opened the box. John Patterson’s new company upgraded the machine and later added a device that also printed the customer’s receipt.
In 1906, inventor Charles Kettering invented a cash register with a mechanical engine. Five years later, the number of cash registers sold by the company reached one million. In the period from 1888 to 1915, cash registers were introduced in almost all stores. The inventor of the worlds 1st cash register died in 1918, but the Pony House bar was converted into the grand-hotel Pony House, the Pony House restaurant and cafe.
The people of Colton say that the bell that once rang in the miners’ shop was heard by the whole world.
