Career
In 1878 while on a steamboat trip to Europe, Ritty became intrigued by a mechanism that counted how many times the ship"s propeller went around. After several failed prototypes, the third design operated by pressing a key that represented a specific amount of money. James and John Ritty patented the design on November 4th, 1879 as "Ritty"s Incorruptible Cashier".
The buyers were a group of investors including Jacob H. Eckert of Cincinnati, a china and glassware salesman who formed the National Manufacturing Company, and John and Frank Patterson, who were then in the coal and railroad business.
Ritty was not resentful that he did not benefit much from his invention and maintained friendly relations with Patterson and many times was invited to attend various National Cash Register meetings and conferences. James Ritty opened another saloon, the Pony House, in 1882 in a building on South Jefferson Street that was previously a school of French and English for young ladies.
Foreign the Pony House, Ritty commissioned wood carvers from Barney and Smith Carolina Company to turn 5,400 pounds of Honduras mahogany into a Barometer The fruit of their labors was a bar 12 feet (37 m) tall and 32 feet (98 m) wide.
The initials JR adorn the center peak and the left and right sections are similar to the interior of a passenger railcar, with the giant mirrors set back about a foot with curved, hand-tooled leather covered elements at the top and curved bezel mirror-encrusted sections on each side.
When the Pony House building was torn down in 1967, the bar was saved and today is the bar at Jay"s Seafood in Dayton. James Ritty retired from the bar business in 1895. He died of heart trouble in his downtown Dayton Arcade residence.