Did you know that Ohio has a long history of inventions? Many have become known around the world, and while some were planned, others were created by accident. Here are a few inventions you might not know originated in the Buckeye State:
Cash Register
When Dayton saloon owner James Ritty grew tired of his employees stealing funds in 1879, he envisioned a machine that could record cash transactions. His brother helped him build the first cash register using brass, wires, and gears, and it became known as the “Incorruptible Cashier.” At the time, it was simply mechanical without receipts.
Ritty opened a small factory in Dayton to produce the machines but found himself overwhelmed. He sold his interests in his cash register business to a company that would eventually become owned by John H. Patterson. He’s credited with adding paper rolls to record sales transactions.
Portable Electric Vacuum Cleaner
In the early 1900s, a Canton janitor named James Murray Spangler invented an improved carpet sweeper. He fastened “an old fan motor to a soapbox stapled to a broom handle and used a pillowcase as the dust collector.”