Iconic Soviet cash register gets a new life! OKA-4401 in action.
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 มิ.ย. 2024
- Greetings from Ukraine! Today's hero is not a computer, but a very iconic Chornobyl computing machine. These cash registers you can still find across the neglected shops in Pripyat in a destroyed condition. This one, however, is up and running, and moreover, as we love - it was never used since it was produced! It was interesting to take a hand on it, as the last time I've seen them in action was in ±1992.
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We will try to make a few typical operations and discuss its historical user cases. What you will find in this episode:
00:00 - Intro
00:33 - OKA cash registers in Pripyat today
01:30 - The machine we found
01:40 - What you will find in the Patreon version
02:01 - They are not really Soviet!
02:53 - Operator's keyboard design
03:41 - Selling practices back then
04:31 - Modifications that existed
05:04 - Subtotal / Order total / Change controls
05:53 - Selling practices back then
06:54 - What if an item was VERY expensive?
07:35 - Cash box and a hidden feature
08:03 - Some currency bills were really rare
08:34 - Let's look INSIDE the machine
10:00 - It's cat time!
10:46 - Typical cashier's operations
10:54 - A simple operation with no change
11:59 - Calculating a customer's change
12:46 - The most complex scenario
14:12 - Outro - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
I can remember mechanical cash registers back in the 80's and the beginning of the 90's when I was a kid and living in Romania. I don't remember if they were russian made or Romanian made. I still remember that the form factor was almost identical to the OKA, only difference being that the Romanian ones had a curved, convex, keyboard. I tried to look for some pictures online, but couldn't find any that are clear enough. The department stores were organized exactly like you described the ones in Ukraine. Thank you for the content! Слава Україні!
Thank you for such an insight! Героям слава!
Try googling for "А1Т-4-400-2". Perhaps it is the cash register from your childhood? It was made at the same factory.
Such an impressive piece of engineering 🙂
It really is incredible what can be achieved mechanical without a microcontroller in sight!
I expected smth like that inside, but must say, it exceeded my expectations. AFAIK, there were even more complex OKAs
Well, I'm not from Sweden, I'm from Yugoslavia, and have very similar memories of being in lines for food in the beginning of the 90s, but also of very similar mechanical cache registers. There were of course many digital ones around at that time, but the mechanical models had the advantage of having that hand crank, which enabled their operators to keep having nothing to sell during power outages.
Thank you for the story! Well, that kind of crank very much helped us, as due to factory fault (looks so), it is not possible to start it in electric mode.
Almost I did ask if is someone from the ex-Yu and remembers this mechanical cash registers....
What an amazing machine! And in such good condition. Well done, guys!
Thank you! There were a few older types (KIM-1) in Pripyat, but never had a chance to see them intact.
New cash registers still have the drawer "eject" trigger at the bottom, at least some Olivetti models, although the drawer also has a key lock on the front so you need the key or some violence to open it.
It is common to see in surveillance videos how thieves take cash registers without checking if they contain any money so "experienced" shopkeepers leave the drawers open to avoid losing more expensive cash registers.
A few days ago here some volunteers were cleaning a river from some invasive plant, apart from the common garbage they also recovered (at least) one cash register from the bottom of the river, I saw it on the news on a pile of trash but it looked like it had been hit with a hammer because some chunks of the plastic housing were missing.
Thank you for an interesting story! It is descriptive that officially there were no cash robberies in the USSR back then, I "wonder" why ;)
All these History is so awesome to see, thanks so much for repairing and documenting these finds!
Glad you enjoyed it! Stay tuned!
As a young man I worked in several places where mechanical registers were the norm. I rather liked them despite the complicated learning curve. It may seem strange but I find the engineering of electro-mechanical machines more elegant than modern electronics. Perhaps I'm just too old. Thanks for showing us, I enjoyed this very much.
You are warmly welcome! Well, I agree with you - mechanical engineering perhaps gives more challenges and requires often very complex practices.
The shy cat is very awesome. :) He brings happiness, and is a good cat.
We picked him as a kitten straight on the street in winter, so he is very happy now :)
I cannot go past without also saying that is a very cute cat
I’m thinking back to the tanks that were American analog cash registers from my youth in the early 1970s, and the one you have looks thoroughly modern and typical of Swedish SWEDA machines produced since the late 1960s, they were what British retailers imported from Sweden in bulk for their Decimal Day changeover in 1971. I saw a few like yours while I lived in Italy in the mid to late 1980s, the manual ones were popular with Mediterranean and Adriatic beach-based businesses which didn’t have electricity.
The big cash register manufacturer in the USA for over a century was the National Cash Register Corporation, which had (though not today) a near monopoly on the business here, effectively relegating SWEDA and others smaller companies here to second class status. Your till is truly in pristine condition for its age. Now they’re just a networked computer attached to a cash drawer, keyboard, optical scanner, and printer. Those began to be installed in many USA businesses with the IBM 4680/4690 series in 1985, though IBM had already brought a specialized electronic till into use with the IBM 3660 Supermarket System of 1973.
I really enjoy your videos! Thank you for all of them-and please keep your family safe in these dangerous times for your country. We in the USA stand with you and your fellow Ukrainians in your fight for freedom. Слава Україні!
Thank you for sharing all this! And thank you for all your support! Glory to Heroes!
Interesting to consider that this machine also regulates a complex psycho-social pattern of experience among the shoppers, which Alex describes when explaining the routine that shoppers had to go through when buying items from different departments. Contrast this hyper-complex social-machine with the "frictionless" concept of the Amazon stores where the shopper walks in, takes what they want and leaves "without paying" or waiting in any lines whatsoever.
You are SO right. A shopping experience in the soviet reality was a phenomenon by itself with all related psychological consequences.
In large stores existed a several cash register stations with several cashiers, each station worked with certain department or departments.
Yes, one of the options. I recall this from my childhood.
I remember these OKA cash registers from my childhood in the late eighties and early nineties. It was always interesting about all those colorful buttons. Greetings from Poland.
Same story here :)
Ah! I thought I recognized the thing! SWEDA... All stores had them back in the days. That was a looong time ago. Here's some history! Oh! They were electric but the crank remained in case of loss of power.
"The imported cash registers of the National [ed. note - probably American NCR - National Cash Register] brand in the 1930s led the Cooperative Association [ed. note - Kooperativa Föreningen, KF - Swedish coop] to take the initiative to develop Swedish cash registers within Hugin [ed. note - Hugin manufactured vacuum cleaners among other things. Hugin was a KF company.]. The cooperation's need for devices was limited, which is why inventor Birger Högfors, after constructing a simple device for Hugin, sought support from LM Ericsson [ed. note - Nowadays Ericson (three sausages)], who started LM Ericsson's cash register. This was sold and the new company was first named Svenska Kassaregister AB, later Svenska Dataregister, Sweda."
digitaltmuseum.se/021026361724/kassaregister
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCR_Corporation
Sooo cool to see this! ;)
Woooow! This is an AMAZING story, thank you!
@@ChernobylFamily You're welcome and keep up the good work! So many interesting things you document.
@@icekube9493 And there will be much more..)
I would say that this type of cash register was common in Sweden when I was a child in the 70s. Especially in the small shops that were still quite common at the time.
Thank you for this detail!
@@ChernobylFamily I live in Sweden and have a similar cash register, but from the Sweda brand. The year of manufacture on it is probably 1969.
Are there any differences apart from the brand tag?
This was really cool! I remember them too, but the slightly earlier and even more heavy original, in Sweden they where more popular in orange read when i was a little kid. :-)
Wow! Thank you for sharing such memories!
Fúzik sounds slovakian, am I correct? Anyway, nice video as usual and You got my thumbs up.
Yes, you got the point! He is waving greetings with his paw!
I'm from the UK and I remember these from my childhood in the 1970s. Before you mentioned they were a clone of Sweda machines, I thought they looked "strangely familiar". ;)
So you had Swedas even in the UK? We did not know that!
@@ChernobylFamily Yes. I knew the name "Sweda" before I'd even heard of "Sweden" ;)
I remember these, and very similar East German electromechanical cash registers even in early 1993-1994 in some small shops of Slovakia as a kid ^^
Thank you for sharing!
I've never seen an entirely mechanical cash register, pretty interesting. Please stay safe, and keep these videos coming!
Thank you! We're right now with no energy, if it will appear we will upload a new video today:)
@@ChernobylFamily No need to rush. Your safety is more important in these hard times.
Привет из Рязани. К сожалению, от САМа остались только корпуса, хотя раньше, помимо кассовых аппаратов, на предприятии изготовливались компьютеры, и под конец своего существования - дверные замки́.
These cash registers were originally designed and built specifically for Spanish built seafood chain stores "Ocean" throughout entire union. Later leadership of union's trade ministery decided to exchange all older models of cash registers in every store in the country by this model or earlier/later models.
Ocean... so dark story there is about this chain, I think you know about its head who was executed.
About "designed"... i'd better say "licensed for", because after all it is pure Sweda.
@@ChernobylFamily That company Sweda did give an official permission to copy its product? Usually soviets never reveal a whole truth behind and always declared their product engineered by soviet designers and has 100% of domestic components, etc.
@@jacobsandler438 yes, this is the rare case of an official cloning :)
@@ChernobylFamily Ocean chain used to sell a kits in nice cardboard boxes with a few canned fish or seafood items in each box. Once in the kits appeared an ordinary cans with sprats in tomato sauce, but instead of sprats customers found a sturgeon caviar in the cans and that chain became a superpopular because the price for caviar was very low and affordable for even low income people.
I'm trying to remember what cash registers were commonly like here in Arizona in 1986, but other than "big", I just can't remember. I have the impression that they were not (commonly) mechanical, but I really cannot say this many years later (and due to being a small child at the time!). I do recall that one or two used book stores here in our town intentionally used very elaborately-decorated, early 20th century mechanical cash registers just to add a touch of the unusual to their tiny stores, though.
I can only imagine that the savings on maintenance for all of those electro-mechanical parts must have been a major motivating factor for stores to move to all-electronic models (around the world, I mean). So many points must need adjustment and / or lubrication to keep them running smoothly through day after day of heavy use! They sure are impressive pieces of engineering to see, though.
Thank you for sharing the story!
Thanks for the explanation! I'll be repairing one of these cash registers RealSoon, I'm looking for documentation, teardown & reverse engineering videos. It may not be as complex as IBM Selectric typewriters, but getting it to work and aligning it is gonna take a lot of effort.
Sweet kitty :)
Meow!
@@ChernobylFamily Koko says meow too (Mewtwo?) and I'm trying to write it with him getting on my laptop :)
Someone should let Tech Tangents about this!
:)
the cat is awesome indeed
Mnau!
That is a really cool bit of vintage kit. Its looks as though its in really good condition. I rememeber in the uk they had a similar shaped machines and similiar look in thr 70's but without the handle. I think that kind of machine goes back decades as its mechanical. Really cool to see it. Do you have any electronics.
Well, check our channel - we do have some electronics :)
Wonderful to do this kind of restoration.
Thank you!
Thanks for the thorough demo. Even regardless of this particular cash register's provenance, I always wondered how exactly you operated these machines and what all of those "extra" buttons did.
Thank you! Had a same wish when I was a child and saw these in action. Looked insanely complex for a child :)
It *is* a computer, a mechanical one.
We'd say more a calculator
He’s a beautiful cat 🐱 my one is the same colour ❤
Meow! Purrrrrrrrrrr! 🐾🐾🐾🐾🐈🐈🐈
I do see - and hear - a lot of commonality with Sweda machines, often used ages ago in USA at Sears Roebuck and Thrifty Drug. The receipt tape even comes out in reverse order, with the total at the top!
Wow, did not know Sveda has been used in the U.S.! Thank you!
Very cool and interesting. And very awesome cat.
Meow!
@@ChernobylFamily 😽
Cat: priceless.
)))))))
Commenting because of the cat. He's very cute!
Meow!
Regards to interesting channel! Guys, I've got a question about of printing paper size. Visually, it appears for me that the same size of paper used with accounting calculators and with cash registers, though the size of the paper roll might be different: larger for cash registers and smaller for accounting calculators. I can recall the paper quality of those receipts by its texture. On feeling that was the same texture as a wrapping paper, but just a little thinner. Better quality was an import paper from MEA socialistic countries and western imports from West Germany and Finland.
Thank you! I checked the manual, there is written: for receipts, paper must be 40±0.25 mm, light toned or whitened, with density not less than 70g/m2. For control tape, it must be a printing paper with a better quality but the same parameters.
@@ChernobylFamilyBasis weight in g/m2 UOM. I think that store cashiers used in cash registers the same control paper rolls size as for accounting calculators. I'd recall that almost all of customer's receipts had a barely seeable printed data, but they used to end up on a sharp rod stand at the department anyway.
Does anyone know why 5 kopek button is white? Still bugs me since childhood.
I guess to make it immediately visible and this way to split buttons to two sub-groups, as that row of buttons was the most used.
Similar to Gross (UK)
Thank you!
It very looks like a non-soviet cash register from this era. Actually, soviet stuff are just like non soviet ones,but with Cyrillic characters.
Yes, because it is Swedish in fact.
@@ChernobylFamily swedish cash registers are unmatchable.
Nevertheless, this is a historical fact, which we explain in this video. Proof:
www.smythretail.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Sweda_76.gif
(If i understood you correct, if no, I am sorry)
@@ChernobylFamily I absolutely love your videos, because all the history behind the things you show !
@@boris3320 thank you! Without background often is just a rusty junk.
Catching up on youtube, I think I forgot to ask you for something on Patreon - please give your engineer pets/scritches for me from the US! 🙂
Purrrrr!
Based on a Sweda 45?
Hard to say, for us it is a bit hard to say about original Swedas, however, it is surely a Sweda clone.
😺 meow
Meow!
Why you the handle rather than the motor button that uses electric?
I mentioned in the video that it has one gear damaged, so if a motor is used, it goes to an endless loop on most of operations and never stops.
А русская озвучка будет?
Ні
@@ChernobylFamily печально
I wander how much is this cash register is similar to ENIGMA. BTW, this cash register is still a variant of mechanical computer.
Not really, we suppose...)
@@ChernobylFamily Not much but it uses similar principle of electromechanical rotors for calculating instead coding. But, for me it would be great video to watch and maybe some other ppl. Anyway thanks for the great video!
@@w0lfgm welcome! Here will be much more!
@@ChernobylFamily I am looking forward to it.
This is not a soviet cash register, it’s Swedish. It’s a sweda series 6.
Did you watch the video? We explicitly point at this fact.
Gave up on it
@@scotiajinker8392 so you didn’t bother to look and you accused him of something he put in the video because you were too lazy to actually finish watching it.