The story
Founded by John Henry Patterson in 1884, in Dayton.1
Early years
The company began as the National Manufacturing Company of Dayton, Ohio, and was established to manufacture and sell the first mechanical cash register invented in 1879 by James Ritty. In 1884, the company and patents were bought by John Henry Patterson and his brother Frank Jefferson Patterson, and the firm was renamed the National Cash Register Company. Patterson formed NCR into one of the first modern American companies by introducing new, aggressive sales methods and business techniques. He established the first sales training school in 1893 and introduced a comprehensive social welfare program for his factory workers.
In 1899, National Cash Register Company bought patents for improving cash register technology from the dissolving Rochester Cash Register Company, for which trucking executive George F. Roth had been an investor and board member.
Other significant figures in the early history of the company were Thomas J. Watson, Sr., Charles F. Kettering and Edward A. Deeds.
Watson—later fired by Patterson in 1914—eventually worked his way up to general sales manager. At an uninspiring sales meeting, Watson interrupted, saying "The trouble with every one of us is that we don't think enough. We don't get paid for working with our feet — we get paid for working with our heads". Watson then wrote THINK on the easel. Signs with this motto were later erected in NCR factory buildings, sales offices and club rooms during the mid-1890s. "THINK" later became a widely known symbol of IBM, which was created by Watson after he joined the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR).
Kettering designed the first cash register powered by an electric motor in 1906. Within a few years he developed the Class 1000 register which was in production for 40 years, and the O.K. Telephone Credit Authorization system for verifying credit in department stores.
Deeds and Kettering went on to found Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company which later became the Delco Electronics Division of General Motors.
In 1913, the company's market share was dominant and it was successfully prosecuted under the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. The ruling was appealed and executives avoided at least some of the court's strictures.
American Selling Force
When John H. Patterson and his brother took over the company, cash registers were expensive (US$50) and only about a dozen of "Ritty's Incorruptible Cashier" machines were in use. There was little demand for the expensive device, but Patterson believed the product would sell once shopkeepers understood it would drastically decrease theft by salesclerks. He created a sales team known as the "American Selling Force" which worked on commissions and followed a standard sales script, the "N.C.R. Primer." This was the first known sales training manual in existence. The philosophy was to sell a business function rather than just a piece of machinery. Sales demonstrations were set up in hotels (away from the distractions of the buyer's business) depicting a store interior complete with real merchandise and real cash. The sale prospect was described as the "P.P." or "Probable Purchaser." Once initial objections were swept aside and the P.P. admitted to internal theft losses, the product was demonstrated along with large business charts and diagrams. The deal was sealed with a 25 cent cigar.
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Patterson also invented the formal sales training academy, a summer event first set up in canvas tents and called "Sugar Camp." The first known form of direct mail advertising also came courtesy of Patterson, who sent mail pieces to a predetermined list of addresses about his products. Patterson's "Get a Receipt" campaign was one of the world's first advertising campaigns.
Welfare work
NCR undertook extensive welfare work and was referred to as "America's model factory." Some historians have referred to company owner John Patterson as the "father of industrial welfare." The company had its own welfare department and is considered a pioneer in America for this work.
Some of the company's welfare initiatives include safety devices, drinking fountains, baths, lockers, chairs and back support for machine operators, indoor bathrooms and a ventilation system to provide clean air. There were special provisions for female employees including restrooms, shorter work hours, high-back chairs, a women's dining room, and lessons in domestic science. In 1893, NCR constructed the first "daylight factory" buildings with floor-to-ceiling glass windows that let in light and could be opened to let in fresh air as well.
Expansion
NCR expanded quickly and became multi-national in 1888. Between 1893 and 1906 it acquired a number of smaller cash register companies.
By 1911 it had sold one million machines and had grown to almost 6,000 employees. Combined with rigorous legal attacks, Patterson's methods enabled the company to fight off bankruptcy, buy-out over 80 of its early competitors, and achieve control of 95% of the U.S. market.
In 1912 the company was found guilty of violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. Patterson, Deeds, Watson and 25 other NCR executives and managers were convicted of illegal anti-competitive sales practices and were sentenced to one year of imprisonment. Their convictions were unpopular with the public due to the efforts of Patterson and Watson to help those affected by the Dayton, Ohio, floods of 1913, but efforts to have them pardoned by President Woodrow Wilson were unsuccessful. However, their convictions were overturned on appeal in 1915 on the grounds that important defense evidence should have been admitted.
In 1918, the company signed a contract with the US Army to produce 100,000 M1911 pistols for use in World War I. The contract was canceled a few months later after the war ended, with no pistols having been delivered.
Two million cash register units were sold by 1922, the year John Patterson died. In January, 1926, NCR went public with an issue of $55 million in stock, at that time the largest public offering in United States history. During the first World War, NCR manufactured fuses and aircraft instrumentation, and during World War II built aero-engines, bomb sights and code-breaking machines, including the American bombe designed by Joseph Desch.
US Navy Bombe, code breaking machine
The US Navy Bombe was built by NCR for the United States Naval Computing Machine Laboratory to decrypt the Enigma machine that encrypted German military messages.
The NCR-made American bombes (decryption machines) were faster, and soon more available, than the British bombes at Bletchley Park and its outstations.
The American bombe was essentially the same as the English bombe, though it functioned better (six times faster) as they were not handicapped by having to make it, as Keen was forced to do owing to production difficulties, on the framework of a three-wheel machine. By late autumn 1943, new American machines were coming into action at the rate of about two a week, the ultimate total being in the region of 125.
Post-war
Building on its wartime experience with secret communication systems, high speed counters and cryptanalytic equipment, NCR became a major post-war force in developing new computing and communications technology.
In 1953, chemists Barrett K. Green and Lowell Schleicher of NCR in Dayton submitted a patent "Pressure responsive record materials" for a carbon-less copy paper. This became US Patent 2,730,457 and was commercialized as "NCR Paper."
In February 1953, the company acquired the Computer Research Corporation (CRC), after which it created a specialized electronics division. In 1956, NCR introduced its first electronic device, the Class 29 Post-Tronic, a bank machine using magnetic stripe technology. With the General Electric Company (now known as GE), the company manufactured its first transistor-based computer in 1957, the NCR 304. Also in the 1950s NCR introduced MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) and the NCR 3100 accounting machines.
In 1962, NCR introduced the NCR 315 Electronic Data Processing System which included the CRAM storage device, the first automated mass storage alternative to magnetic tape libraries accessed manually by computer operators. The NCR 390 and 500 computers were also offered to customers who did not need the full power of the 315. The NCR 390 accepted four types of input: magnetic ledger cards, punched cards, punched tape, and keyboard entry, with a tape read speed of 400 characters a second.
The company's first all-integrated circuit computer was the Century 100 of 1968. The Century 200 was added in 1970. The line was extended through the Century 300 in 1973. The Century series was followed by the Criterion series in 1976, NCR's first virtual machine system.
During this period, NCR also produced the 605 minicomputer for in-house use. It was the compute engine for the 399 and 499 accounting machines, several generations of in-store and in-bank controllers, and the 82xx/90xx IMOS COBOL systems. The 605 also powered peripheral controllers, including the 658 disk subsystem and the 721 communications processor.
In 1974, scanners and computers developed by NCR marked the first occasion where items with the Universal Product Code (UPC) was scanned at the checkout of a supermarket, Troy's Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, a few miles away from NCR's Dayton Headquarters. It was treated as a ceremonial occasion and involved a little bit of ritual. The night before, a team of Marsh's supermarket staff had moved in to put bar codes on hundreds of items in the store while NCR installed their scanners and computers.
In 1982, NCR's Peripheral Products Division in Wichita, Kansas, together with peripheral manufacturer, Shugart Associates, helped propel the computer industry into a new era of intelligent standardized peripheral communications with the development the Small Computer System Interface (SCSI). The SCSI standard enabled such diverse devices as disks, tapes, printers, and scanners to share a common interface to one or more computer systems in a way that was never before possible and a model for subsequent interfaces to follow. NCR developed the world's first SCSI interface chip, the NCR 5380, based on the SCSI interface standard collaboratively developed. In the third quarter of 1982, NCR announced the release of a 32-bit VLSI processor architecture and chipset called NCR/32. These devices were used in several of their 9x00 and System 10000 computer systems.
By 1986, the count of American mainframe computer manufacturers had dwindled from 8 (IBM and the "seven dwarfs," namely Burroughs, UNIVAC, NCR, Control Data, Honeywell, General Electric, and RCA) to 6 (IBM and the "BUNCH") and further reduced to 4 (IBM, Unisys, NCR, and Control Data Corporation).
The adoption of the name NCR Corporation occurred in 1974.
Small computers
In 1982, NCR became involved in open systems architecture. Its first such system was the UNIX-powered TOWER 16/32, the success of which (approximately 100,000 were sold) established NCR as a pioneer in bringing industry standards and open systems architecture to the computer market. These 5000-series systems were based on Motorola 68k CPUs and supported NCR's proprietary transaction processing system TMX, which was mainly used by financial institutions. This product line also saw the first time NCR had offered its products through other than its own direct sales channels since the early 1900s. Formally added to its company structure in March 1981, NCR's OEM System's Division spearheaded the design, sales revenue and market awareness and acceptance of NCR's Tower family. Part of the cause of this success was the decision by NCR senior management to hire reseller industry veterans for key positions within the fledgling operation and have that unit work with, but not answerable to, NCR's traditional management structure. The industry shift from proprietary minicomputers brought personnel with minicomputer and reseller backgrounds such as division heads Roger Nielsen (ex-Data General), Robert Hahn (ex-Data General), and Dan Kiegler (ex-Datapoint marketing), marketing manager and later Director of Field Sales, Dave Lang (ex-DEC reseller marketing director and salesperson) and other critical contributors at corporate levels; who then hired a complementary field sales organization primarily made up of proven people from DEC, Wang and other faltering minicomputer firms.
In the 1980s, NCR sold various PC compatible AT-class computers, like the small NCR-3390 (called an "intelligent terminal"). They proposed a customized version of MS-DOS named NCR-DOS, which for example offered support for switching the CPU between 6, 8 or 10 MHz speeds. The computers featured an improved CGA adapter, the NGA, which had a 640×400 text mode more suitable for business uses than the original 640×200 mode, with characters drawn using single-pixel-wide lines, giving an appearance similar to that of classic IBM 3270 terminals. The additional four-color 640×400 graphical mode was identical to CGA's 320×200 mode from a programming point of view.
NCR also manufactured two proprietary series of mini-to-midrange computers:
I-Series: 9010 (IDPS Operating System), 9020 and 9100 (IMOS Operating System), 9040 and 9050 (IRX Operating System), 9200 / 9300 / 9300IP / 9400 / 9400IP / 9500 / System 10000 models 35 / 55 / 65 / 75 (ITX Operating System). These were "I" (Interactive) computers allowing TTY terminals to be connected. Later models supported all industry-standard communication protocols.
V-Series: 8500 (VRX Operating System) and 9800 (VRX/E Operating System). These were "V" series, comparable to mainframes, supporting "Page mode" terminals. The hardware did have similarities with the I-Series while the operating system and user interface was totally different.
In 1990, NCR introduced the System 3000, a seven-level family of computers based on Intel's 386 and 486 CPUs. The majority of the System 3000 range utilised IBM's Micro Channel architecture rather than the more prevalent ISA architecture, and utilised SCSI peripherals as well as the more popular parallel and serial port interfaces, resulting in a premium product with premium pricing. The 3600, through NCR subsidiary Applied Digital Data Systems supported both the Pick Operating System and Prime Information.
The 1970s saw the widespread installations of the Model 770 in National Westminster and Barclays banks throughout the UK, but it was not until the Model 5070, developed at its Dundee plant in Scotland and introduced in 1983 that the company began to make more serious inroads into the ATM market. Subsequent models included the 5084, and 58xx (Personas) series. In early 2008, the company launched its new generation of ATMs—the 662x/663x SelfServ series. NCR currently commands over a third of the entire ATM market, with an estimated $18 trillion being withdrawn from NCR ATMs every year. In addition, NCR's expertise in this field led the company to contract with the U.S. military to support the Eagle Cash program with customized ATMs.
NCR 5xxx series
The NCR 5xxx-series is the range of (ATMs) produced by NCR from the early 1980s. Most models were designed and initially manufactured at its Dundee factory in Scotland, but later produced at several other locations around the world.
There have been several distinct generations:
50xx-series; The initial models introduced in 1983 were the 5070 (interior vestibule) and 5080 (Through The Wall or TTW) introduced a number of features which have become standard among ATMs. Most notably, the individual functions of the ATM are divided among discrete modules which can be easily removed and replaced for repair or replenishment. The 5080 featured the standard anti-vandal smoked perspex screen which covered the keypad and screen until the cardholder inserted their card. The enhanced 5084 TTW model appeared in 1987, and had an improved anti-vandal fascia and was the first ATM to dispense with the need for the retracting perspex screen. The 5085 offered the first crude deposit function; with the machine supplying the deposit envelopes which were subsequently stored in the machine's safe for subsequent back office processing.
56xx-series; produced from 1991 to 1997. Enhanced functions such as color displays and improved security and usability functions became available. The introduction of Media Entry Indicators (MEI) which highlight the card entry slot to the customer was also a part of this series. Some 56xx machines produced between 1994 and 1996 were badged as "AT&T" rather than "NCR", mirroring the company's brief ownership under the telecoms giant in the mid-1990s. 56xx models have included the 5670 (interior lobby cash dispense only), 5675 (interior lobby multifunction—dispense & deposit), 5684 (exterior TTW dispense only), 5688 (exterior TTW drive-up multifunction) and 5685 (exterior TTW multifunction).
58xx-series marketed as Personas from 1998 until 2008. These models were characterised by the gradual move towards greater ATM functionality including intelligent, envelopeless deposit by means of automated check recognition modules, coin dispense, and electronic cash recognition functions which allows bank customers to deposit cash and checks with instant processing of the transaction. The 58xx series has also been characterised by the gradual introduction of liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) instead of the traditional CRT monitor. Models have included the 5870 (compact interior lobby dispense only), 5873 (interior lobby with cash accept & deposit only), 5874 (Exterior TTW cash dispense), 5875 (Multifunction TTW). The latest TTW versions of the Personas line, introduced in 2000 and marketed as M-Series added functions such as cash recycling, coin dispense, barcode reading, a larger 12" LCD with touchscreen option, and for the first time, a common wall footprint for both the Multifunction (5886) or single function (5887). Owing to the growth of drive-through bank traffic, a custom 5890 drive-up ATM was also released, designed to be installed outside with no need for a bunker. This unit had a dual safe design that could house both a currency dispenser and note acceptor in the larger left-hand safe, and a cheque acceptor or envelope depositor in the smaller right-hand safe.
NCR 66XX series
NCR's 6th generation of ATMs have been noted for the further move towards intelligent deposit and the expansion of secondary functions such as barcode reading.
667x-series marketed under the Personas M-Series brand were sold from 2005 to 2010. These models consist of the 6676 (interior lobby multifunction) and 6674 (through-the-wall multifunction). The design language is very different from the original Personas model; for example, on the front-access 6676s, the entire front cover is opened upwards in a clamshell design, which was designed to save space both for installation and servicing.
NCR Self-Serv 20 and 30 series
NCR's latest ATM services, introduced in 2008.
This series is a complete redesign of both outlook and technological contents. It is also a cost down product.
Self-Serv 20 series are single-function (e.g. cash-out) ATMs, while Self-Serv 30 series are full-function (cash-out and intelligent deposit) machines.
NCR Atleos 668x / 20xx machines
Starting in 2015, the SelfServ series was updated with new design language (called MFR or Multi-Function Refresh), modernizing the look of the product line. This corresponded with a change in class numbers, from the 20/30 series to the 80 Series (6681 kiosk model, 6682 lobby model, 6684 through-the-wall model, and 6688 island / drive-through model).
Next-generation dispensers, depositors, high-resolution display panels and anti-skimming technology are all standard with the MFR units.
From Wikipedia’s article on NCR Voyix, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7