Hello to all ATHG members!

I am a PhD student who needs a bit of help. My topic is the social history
of cash registers in the US and Australia, 1880s to 1980s. Obviously I will
be dealing with the impact on retailing and consumption, amongst other
things, but I will also be talking about how cash registers changed and
were changed by the hospitality industry, especially the liquor trade.

As some of you may know, cash registers were invented by a saloon owner and
the market was established by NCR of Dayton Ohio - right in the heart of
temperance country, I believe (correct me if I am wrong). From the 1880s
until prohibition, saloons and bars were the best and easiest customers for
cash register
salesmen. But, because of public disapproval, such sales were almost always
euphemistically described in publications as having been made to "cafes" or
"restaurants". It was the embarrassment at being so closely associated with
the liquor trade that led NCR founder John Patterson to pull out all stops
in an effort to crack the retail market. This meant creating demand where
none existed, which entailed imaginative marketing campaigns and a major
transformation of the art of salesmanship. This took time and in the
meantime sales to saloons kept the company going - until Prohibition (I
don't suppose that speakeasy operators cared too much about keeping
accurate sales accounts!)

In Australia the situation was different in two ways. One - we did not have
prohibition, though one or two states came close. Two, we had bar maids.
Along with British barmaids, these would have been the first women workers
to have been using cash registers routinely, and they accepted them without
protest, even
though I have evidence to suggest that the machines successfully stopped
widespread practices of peculation (stealing from takings). In the US, male
bar attendants objected strenuously to the imposition of cash registers
(often promoted as "thief catchers"), going so far as to beat up salesmen,
sabotage the
machines, and form protective associations.

I have a lot of good primary sources dealing with the American situation
from the point of view of those working in the cash register industry.
These sources tend to reflect the interests of independent saloon owners
(and saloon managers answering to large brewing companies), but I need more
objective information about actual working conditions. Unfortunately, in
both countries, there seems to be a shortage of secondary sources on
hotels/bars/pubs/saloons/alehouses for the period I am most interested in -
1880s up to 1917. There is Perry Duis' excellent book on Chicago saloons,
then there is Diane Kirkby's book "Barmaids" (very helpful but a little
disappointing in its failure to mention technology) , and Madelon Powers
"Faces Along the Bar" (which I have not yet looked at). However, many of
the sources used by Duis and Powers would not be available to me here in
Australia, so I am wondering if there is any one on this list who is
steeped in knowledge about saloon life in the period I mentioned. Insights
into working conditions, pay, labour organisations, the importance of
gratuities, evidence of dishonesty, the culture of bar work, etc, would be
gratefully received and duly acknowledged!

Thanks for reading such a long first post!

Angela Cartland
Australian National University
Canberra