The cash register was invented in 1879 by James Ritty, an Ohio bar owner who was trying to keep employee theft down. He sold two of his "Incorruptible Cashier" machines to a man named John H. Patterson.
Ritty sold his rights to the cash register to a third man, who ultimately sold them to Patterson for $6,500 in 1884. So began National Cash Register, better known now as NCR, the namesake of this impressive building.