CASH REGISTER

cash register, a species of calculating machine adapted for use in connexion with the cash-tills of shops, in order to provide a record of the money received. such machines are made in great variety and widely used. sometimes the records are constituted by holes punched in a roll of paper; in other cases they are shown on dials by the aid of adding mechanism. a common form has a number of keys, each representing a particular sum and each attached to a counting mechanism which records how many times it has been used. by pressing appropriate combinations of these keys the amount of any purchase can be registered, and the combined records of all the counting mechanism give the total that has been passed through the machine in any selected period. each key when pressed also raises an indicator which informs the customer how much he has to pay. in their more elaborate forms these cash registers may have a separate money-drawer for each assistant employed in the shop, thus enabling the proprietor to ascertain how many customers each man has served and how much money he has taken, and also to fix responsibility for mistakes, bad money, &c. the machines are also made to deliver a printed receipt for each purchase, showing the amount, date and assistant concerned, and they may be arranged to keep separate records of credit sales, money received on account, and money paid out. casilinum (mod. _capua_), an ancient city of campania, italy, 3 m. n.w. of the ancient capua. its position at the point of junction of the via appia and via latina, and at their crossing of the river volturnus by a three-arched bridge, which still exists, gave it considerable importance under the roman republic; and while the original pre-roman town, which was doubtless dependent on the neighbouring capua, stood entirely on the left (s.) bank, surrounded on three sides by the river, the roman city extended to the right bank also; remains of it have been found at some 25 ft. below the modern ground-level, the river-bed having risen considerably. in the second punic war it was occupied by fabius cunctator in 217 b.c., taken by hannibal after a gallant defence by troops from praeneste and perusia in the winter of 216-215, but recaptured in the following year, serving the romans as their base of operations against capua. it lost its independence and became a _praefectura_. caesar conducted a colony thither in 59 b.c., which was renewed by antony in 44 b.c. the veterans took octavian's side after caesar's death, but it seems to have been united with capua before the time of vespasian, and it does not occur in the list of independent communities given by pliny, who indeed (_hist. nat._ iii. 70) speaks of the _morientis casilini reliquiae_, and only its position at the junction of the roads redeemed it from utter insignificance. (t. as.)