Disneyland for Workers

Big Business is attracting lots of attention, and beginning to realize the benefits of what we know today as 'sales promotion.' There's a lot to promote, including this spanking new industrial facility in Dayton, Ohio.

The National Cash Register Company begins life in 1879 as a rather typical manufacturing company, but soon starts focusing efforts on its flagship product, the cash register. At the time, it's almost unknown.

The company's aggressive promotion includes a nationwide sales team, and America's first sales training manual. Pitching the machine as a business enhancer, the 'product' is the elimination of theft by salesclerks.

This first attempt at product promotion is so successful that the company is able to build a new, state-of-the-art facility. Photographers are invited, and go home with lots of beautifully staged publicity photos. Nice touch.
National Cash Register, 1910

  Nice Place to Work
The National Cash Register Company expands very rapidly, buying out 80 early competitors to corner the market. With 6,000 employees, it sells a million machines in the first 15 years. The new manufacturing facility contains innovations designed to create a healthy, harmonious working environment. It features huge windows, allowing lots of fresh air to circulate. Amazingly, there are separate rest rooms for women, comfortable high-back chairs, a women's dining room, and very attractive company housing. It's a worker's dream.

Machine operators, 1910

  Making a Product
Making a successful product involves a surprising number of separate operations. The first task is usually cutting out and shaping all the individual parts required. A cash register is somewhat similar to a typewriter, requiring many individual keys and linkages. Some perform the mathematical addition of prices for each item, while others display the result in pop-up numbers at the top of the register. Some parts, like the ornate housing, might require additional operations, such as polishing or plating.


Manufacturing assembly, 1910

  It Comes Together Here
Final assembly is the last manufacturing step, before inspection, packing and shipping. The cash register is the most sophisticated non-industrial product ever manufactured in America on a mass scale.


Manufacturing support services, 1910

  Support Operations
Once the product is complete, additional functions are required to keep the company operating smoothly. This includes a room full of typists, and a complete state-of-the-art printing shop, for sales materials.


NCR employee amenities, 1910

  Refined Life
When the workday is over, employees return to living quarters just a stroll away that would arouse jealousy anywhere else in America. Not since the first days of the textile mills, almost a century earlier, have workers been offered such comfortable digs.


National Cash Register managers, 1910

  Keeping Managers Happy
Happy employees are productive employees, and the same applies to management. Silicon Valley today may offer more benefits, but the officer's club shown above sets something of a benchmark for the period. The power station is also state-of-the-art.