02x11 - 1910s Cash Register

[bunniefuu]

Welcome to The Repair Shop,

where cherished family heirlooms are
brought back to life...

This is the workshop of dreams.

..home to furniture restorer
Jay Blades.

Nowadays, everybody spends a fortune
on stuff that, once it's broken,

they just bin it. But everybody has
something that means too much to be

thrown away, and that's
where we come in.

Working alongside Jay will be some
of the country's leading

craftspeople.
Every piece has its own story.

It's amazing to think that some of
my work becomes part of that story.

I've always played with things, I've
always repaired things,

and I just love it. There is a real
pleasure in bringing people's pieces

back to life again.

Each with their own unique set of
skills...

I can't wait to get started.
..they will resurrect,

revive... Come on, man!
..and rejuvenate

treasured possessions and
irreplaceable pieces

of family history... Wow!
..bringing both the objects...

She's fantastic! That's just taken
me back 50 years.

..and the memories that they hold...
Oh, yes!

..back to life. Oh, my God!

This place is filthy!

LAUGHTER

In The Repair Shop today,

furniture restorers
Will and Sonnaz join forces...

I'm Will.
Hello, Will, nice to meet you.

Sonnaz. ..making big improvements to
a very small chair.

So, we've got creative freedom.
Yes, you have. Yeah. Exciting.

Yeah! And clock expert Steve swaps
time for money,

as he tackles a
century-old cash register.

I've no idea where to start on this!
LAUGHTER

I thought as much!

But first into The Repair Shop,
Richard and Lesley Bower
from Cornwall.

Hello. Hello. How are we doing?
Fine, thanks.

I'm Jay. Jay, I'm Richard. All
right, Richard, how are we doing?

I'm very well, thank you.
So what have we got in the bag?

Three guesses!
Well, it's quite small -

I would say it looks like a camera.
Yeah, it does indeed, doesn't it?

Is it a camera? Shall I open it?
Yes, please. OK.

Whoa! OK.

Don't tell me this is a record
player. It's a record player, isn't
it? It's a record player.

Oh, that is cool. Tim, you've got to
see this. This is one for you, mate.

Hello. Have a look at this.
Gramophone expert Tim Weeks has been

hooked on classic record players
since 1963,

when his father bought him his first
machine at a jumble sale.

It's a record player,
but a portable one.

But when you put the record on...
METALLIC GRINDING

Cor, blimey. ..it grinds to a halt.

Yeah. If I might intervene
at this point...

Yeah, please!
..this is called a Peter Pan.

This particular model
was made only in 1924.

So how come you guys have got this?
What's the history behind it?

Well, it was given to me
by my father...

Right. ..and he told me stories
about taking it out on picnics.

OK. He was courting my mother
at the time,

and he would play these records,

perhaps some Ella Fitzgerald or
something... Yeah, yeah.

..on a portable record player.

But I think it was given to him by
my grandfather, his father.

OK. He was a naval captain, so he
would go from Liverpool down to

Southampton, then down to Tenerife,
and then the Ivory Coast,

in West Africa. He had it and then
he passed it to your dad, and then
your dad... To my dad, yeah.

..has given it to you. Yeah, and now
I've got a...

we've got two daughters,
and one grandson,

and so, obviously,
when time's right...

Yeah. ..I'm just dying to,
you know, pass it on.

And it did work. I think our
daughters might have had something

to do with it! It's always a little
bit worrying when you hear that

someone's children have been
playing with things...

OK! ..because children can be
remarkably destructive creatures!
LAUGHTER

So, what do you reckon, Tim?
Can we sort this out?

Well, if the motor's all there
inside... Maybe? Yeah.

OK. Yeah. Well, what I'd say is...
75%. Thank you.

LAUGHTER
Thank you for bringing it in...
Thank you.

..and leave it with us. OK.
We'll get it sorted.

It's going to happen! All right.
Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

Tim's first task is to take the
record player apart,

starting with the sound box,

which passes vibrations
from the stylus to the horn.

Something very peculiar has been
done to this.

Someone seems to have put what looks
like a cardboard -

or possibly it's felt -
washer in there.

But if we take the whole thing out,

we can see,

possibly, what's inside there.

Aha!

Now, that's what you
would expect to see.

I don't know why somebody would have
put that in there.

If they were trying to sort of
quieten the volume down,

you would put, you know, you would
jam something into the end of the

horn, literally. And yes,

that is where the expression,
"put a sock in it," comes from.

Why somebody hid that behind this
bit of stuff, goodness only knows.

Next, Tim turns his attention to the
motor that powers the turntable.

Yes, it shouldn't be making that
clicking, churning noise.

So that suggests there's something
stuck inside there on one of the

gears. What it is, well, we shall
find out when we get it apart.

Some of the treasures that arrive at
The Repair Shop may not be large of

stature, but they hold decades of
family history.

Judy Ford from East Lothian has
brought in one such item.

Hello. Hi, there. Brought my chair.
Oh, lovely. Thank you.

I think I know just the lady
for this.

Good. Sonnaz? This is a job
for the furniture dream team -

restorer Will Kirk and upholsterer
Sonnaz Nooranvary.

So what have we got here?

Child's rocking chair.
Child's rocking chair.

That's been with me all my life,

and my mum says she had it
as a child as well, so

it could be about 120 years old.

Right. Wow! Can you remember this
from, like, as a child?

Yes. I played with it, I rocked
on it, I went over on it,

because it's not very stable!
Gosh, yes! Right!
LAUGHTER

And my daughters both used it.

Right. And my grandchildren
both used it.

Oh, right! So, four generations. But
I'd like to pass it onto the fifth,

when my grandchildren
have their kids. Their kids.

Wow, that's incredible.

But at the moment it's just
scruffy and tatty and...

Not quite usable.
It's a little bit, er...

Coming to pieces! ..bit loose there.
It's been sitting in an airing

cupboard now for, I would say, 30
years. Cos looking at these joints

here, I think that's where all
of the glue looks like...

Yeah. Well, I would have said dry,
but there's no glue there to be dry.

So, um, so that's why
that's all popped out.

The key, really, is what colour
fabric. Fabric, yeah.

Well, something...
Jazzy yellow, or...?

Or some nice brown...
Not necessarily...
No, I don't want brown!

Something appropriate for children.

OK. I don't mind.

You don't mind, so we've got
creative freedom.

Yes, you have. Yeah. Exciting.
Yeah. Exciting indeed.

That's brilliant, thank you very
much. Thanks for coming down.

Thank you. Thank you very much.
Bye. Cheers, bye-bye.

Love it, love it.
It's great, isn't it? Yeah.

I kind of want to
have a little sit down.

No, no, don't do that yet.
No? It's coming apart already, look.

These joints are really bad. Yeah.

I need to strip this off so that you
can get on with the woodwork side.

Yeah, I think you should take it now
before I try and sit on it.

Exactly. So without further ado...

Take it away. Cool.

See you later.

At his bench, gramophone expert Tim
is taking apart the motor

of the tiny antique record player.

All these gears, all these teeth
will need cleaning up.

It's just 90 years'
worth of grot, basically.

Ah, now,

you can probably see here
one old needle.

You always find these inside the
boxes of gramophones, and that,

jammed against that, will have been
probably what's making that strange,

scrunching, grinding noise
as it was running round.

So I'm glad we found that.

One thing you can't do, and it's a
mistake that people often make,

is they put a lot of fresh oil on
without cleaning all the old stuff

off first, and that is basically
like polishing a car

without washing it first.

Next into the workshop, Judy Evans
has a piece of history that's been

part of her family business
for four generations.

Right, what have we got?

We have my family's old cash
register from 1913.

Oh, my word!
Dom, can you give me a hand?

Judy's hoping that Steve and The
Repair Shop team can get this old

heavyweight back on its feet again.
Oh, blimey!

Cor, dear! You wouldn't run away
with that till, would you?

You wouldn't!
LAUGHTER

I'll leave you with that.
Thanks, Dom, appreciate that.

Right, what have we got here, apart
from, obviously, it's a till?

Yes, it's a cash register for my
family business, which started in

1862. Oh, right. And this was
purchased by my great-grandfather,

Mr George Williams.
So the business is still in...

It's still in... in existence? Yes,
I'm now running the shop,

as the great-great-granddaughter.

If you look inside the drawer here,
so you look on the underside there,

you can just about make out
George Williams here, and 1913,

and you read the guarantee,
it's two years.

And sadly the guarantee
has run out...in 1915!

LAUGHTER

When was the last time
this was used?

Well, my father thinks it was around
1965-ish.

I mean, my dad used to joke, he
didn't throw it out because he

didn't think decimalisation was
going to take off. Oh, right!
LAUGHTER

This is a great project, so thank
you so much for bringing it in.

My pleasure, thank you.
You're welcome.

The cash register was
manufactured in America

by the National Cash
Register Corporation.

Founded in 1884 in Ohio,

they were the makers of the world's
first mechanical cash register.

By 1914 the company was producing
over 100,000 a year,

and it's still going strong today.

But it's up to Steve to fix
this 100-year-old model.

Steve, are we in the money yet? Eh?
LAUGHTER

Must be payday.
Look at that, down in there.

Whoa! See all the muck and grime?

Dirty in there, innit? So what are
we going to do? Are we going to get
it open? Yeah, let's get the back

off, shall we? Can you just hold
that? See, it's really heavy.

Yeah, I've got it. There we go.
Oh, my goodness!

That is heavy.

I've no idea where to start on this!
LAUGHTER

I thought as much
because normally you're,

"Right, I'll take that bit
off, take that bit off..."

I think the first thing we need to
do is get a Hoover.

All right, I'll get the Hoover. OK.

There we are.

Cool. Do you know how to use it?

Of course I do!
I clean up every night, mate!
LAUGHTER

There we go, there we go.

Oh, look at that.

You're enjoying that, aren't you?
I am, as well!
LAUGHTER

Look at that.

That looks so much better already,
doesn't it?

No dust. Still doesn't work!
LAUGHTER

On the opposite side of
the workshop,

the child's rocking chair has been
stripped of its upholstery

and passed over to
wood expert, Will.

It looks to be in relatively
good condition.

I think that the back here is just
popping out there,

where the glue has dried, and the
joints have come away,

but getting some glue in there,
that should be quite a
straightforward fix.

I'm going to give it a nice clean
now and sort of see what I'm left

with after. Not everybody really
knows the best way to clean

furniture, as well, so a lot of
cleaners melt the top surface of the

polish to make it look cleaner, but

what you're doing is actually
removing what you really

want to keep on there in order to
protect the furniture.

Sometimes, just a really light clean

with a bit of white spirits, just to
clear off any surface dirt,

is more than enough.

All that needs to be done now is,
I need to get some glue into the

wobbly joints up here,

and clamp that down.

I'm really pleased with this.
I love it.

Once the structure is secure, Will
passes the chair back to Sonnaz.

Thank you. Wow, you've done
a great job. Thank you very much.

Over to you. Thank you. And I look
forward to seeing the fabric. Yes.

Now I've got this chair
back from Will, I can now get some

upholstery on here -
get upholstering it, rather.

First step, black and white webbing
on the seat base,

and all I've got to do is web,
I'd say, three webs across there.

A little bit tricky, because it
obviously wants to rock.

That is ready to rock and roll.

OK, so I've got my fabric here.

Lovely, light-colour fabric.

I can see straight away that it does
really bring out the lovely tones of

brown in the woodwork, and Will's
lovely work that he's done to clean

this up has really made
a difference.

So this is not my final fix,
this is just a temporary fix.

Often your first anchoring tacks
are too tight.

You can see here, this staple is a
little bit too tight.

This is called a tack drag. You can
tell that it's too tight because

there's a bit of an arc
in the weft of the fabric.

The way that you remember
what a weft and a weave is,

is weft goes "weft to wight", and a
weave goes up the roll.

So as long as you remember "weft to
wight", you won't get confused.

So I think I need to get a little
bit more tension through the front,

but apart from that,
it's looking quite good.

Horologist Steve has had to do some
swotting up on the inner workings of

the antique till, as it's a far cry
from his usual clocks and watches.

I've gone online to see what
problems there are with the...these

National Cash Registers, and they've
suggested that the problem is

usually in the totaliser, which is a
bit of mechanism here on the front.

So I'm going to take, hopefully take
this off. They say it's very, very

simple, so I'm very conscious
that...

..there may be springs...
METALLIC PING

Oh! Some spring went, then.
HE CHUCKLES

Cor, that's heavy! Wow, this...

This is amazing.
This is the totaliser.

This will give them a total of the

amount of money that's been put
through the till in a day.

I'll just pop this over here.

Once broken, these complicated
mechanisms are often beyond repair,

and the only way to get
the till up and running

is to remove
the totaliser completely.

They say that this will

unjam it.

Yes!

That's brilliant.

The one thing that isn't working is,
the till's supposed to fly out.

As Steve delves deeper into
the till's workings,

ceramics restorer Kirsten
joins the investigation.

Hi, Steve. Hiya, you all right?

This is like a detective
sort of thing, really.

Someone has tried,

or someone has successfully broken
into it at some point.

Really? Cos this unit here,

you can see it's supposed
to have a loop over it.

Yeah, absolutely. And that actually
goes into the locking part of the

till. Right. Right, and it's been
forced, so it's actually broken it,

so I need to repair that as well.

Oh, my goodness!
But not only that, they've

actually tried putting a lever in...
This is what I believe.

Right, OK, Detective Steve! Bear
with me, they've put a lever in,

and they've actually broken the
corner of that cast-iron front off.

How fascinating. Yep. Goodness me!

So, well, it is fascinating,
because I want you to...

LAUGHTER
..erm, I'd like you to,
I'm asking you to...

OK, are you begging me?

Yeah, I'm begging, right, begging to
actually make a new piece there.

OK, let's have a look, then.

Yeah, I'm sure that's fine.

I've got a modelling material,
which would be fine for metal,

and I could make up
that corner, yeah.

Steve's asked me to have a look at
this section from the cash register.

Although I don't normally work on
metal items,

one of the fillers that I use,
it's a two-part epoxy,

and it does actually
cure really, really hard.

I come with gifts. Ooh, well done!

OK? Well, that's brilliant,
absolutely brilliant!

Thank you.
That's superb. All right?

Yeah, I can finish it off now.
Good, I look forward to seeing it.

I'm just going to see whether it
actually fits into the till

with the front on now,
and locks all right.

And it does. Perfect.
Absolutely perfect.
TILL RINGS

Ch-ching! That's all right,
that works well. Good.

Meanwhile, Tim is still working on
the 95-year-old Peter Pan
gramophone.

The acid test now - wind her up,

and will it actually work?

Oh, yes. She's turning,
and the turntable,

or the spider, there we go.

Well, that looks pretty good.
He's doing a nice, consistent speed.

As Tim reunites the record player
with its case,

its owners, Richard and Lesley, are
en route to The Repair Shop.

OK, keeping it real
on the wheels of steel.

Good afternoon, Richard.
Hello, Tim, nice to see you again.

Good afternoon, Lesley. Hi, Tim.

Well, how do you remember this,
last time you saw it?

Defunct. The springs had gone, it
was looking a bit tatty, a bit used.

Yeah, it wasn't looking very happy.

Well, I'll take the cover off...

Yeah... ..you let me know if you can
spot any changes.

Oh, my word! Oh, look at that! Oh!

Do you want to open it up and
assemble it? Yeah, sure.

OK...

Ah, that's different!
That looks totally different.
And the needle's there.

It still goes together in the same
way. Oh, yes, it still goes
together.

A lot of the problem is old
gramophone needles that had fallen

down inside and were sticking
into the gear.

Really? Is that right? Fancy that.

Now, we had a think about what
you might like...

and... Oh, wow! ..there we go.

MUSIC: Sentimental Journey
by Ella Fitzgerald

Wow! A little birdie told us you
like this one.

Ah, right. It was one your dad
liked, wasn't it? Yeah.

Oh, yes!

# Going to take a sentimental
journey... #

APPLAUSE

Well done, Tim. Well done.
Thank you. It's a pleasure,
it's a pleasure.

If it makes you happy. then...
You're a remarkable man.

A remarkable man. Well, it beats
going out and getting a proper job,
doesn't it? So how does it feel to

hear Ella Fitzgerald singing
Sentimental Journey? I'm over
the moon! I'm over the moon.

And Sentimental Journey is such
an apt piece of music to play

anyway, considering, you know,
what this is all about.

Mm. It's remarkable it's been able
to be restored, and we can listen to

it again, and we can pass it on
to our grandson...

As long as you're happy. Thank you
very much. Thank you. A pleasure,
a pleasure. Bye-bye. Safe journey.

Upholstery expert Sonnaz is putting
the finishing touches to

the 100-year-old rocking chair,
with a colourful modern twist.

The challenge with these particular
studs is that the colour is actually

an enamelled colour finish, and I

have got a nylon-tipped

tack hammer, which will hopefully

mean that I'm not going to scratch

or dent the top surface of my stud.

Whacking it in. As I hit the
stud, I've really got to hit it

square on the head
of the actual dome.

If I don't hit it square,
then two things can happen -

the pin could buckle, or the head
could actually move off-centre.

Owner Judy has arrived to claim her
family heirloom.

Hi! Hello! How are you?

I'm good, thank you.
Nice to see you again.

And you, and you. So, are you ready?

Yeah.

Oh, isn't that lovely?
SHE LAUGHS

Oh, lovely. They look like
tiddlywinks, don't they?

Yeah, yeah, good.
That's lovely, natural colours.

Thank you very, very much. Pleasure.

Smashing. I've made you a little
extra something to go with it.

Oh, have you? I have,
which is just down here.

I thought it was missing a cushion
to go with it.

Oh! So we've made you a little
round cushion to match it all...

That is lovely, for a little person.
Yeah, yeah. That is lovely.

I just love this chair. Aawww!
I really do. It's part of my life.

Mmm. It's fabulous. Thank you.

It's in a better condition than I
ever remember it being in.

It's just wonderful to get it back
in a usable state.

I'll find a little spot for it, so I
can be proud of it yet again.

Mechanical whiz Steve has finished
work on his first ever cash register

repair, and it's time for foreman
Jay's inspection.

How we doing? Yeah, all done.

Yeah? Is it working, though?
That's the main thing.

Yeah. Go on, have a go.
Ten shillings and sixpence.

Ten shillings? Ten shillings, yeah.
That one. No, that's just ten
shillings!

You've missed out the sixpence.
What, you've got to press them both
together? Yeah.

Ten shillings and sixpence. Yeah.
TILL RINGS

OK. Ch-ching. Ch-ching!

I've got one for you.
Two fat ladies. 88!

Oh, that's nice.
You've done a good job.

So even though it's the first time
you've ever done a till...

Yeah. ..you've done it all right.
Yeah. It's good, yeah.

Well done. You happy? Yeah, really
happy. I love this.

This is going to look amazing
in the shop, isn't it?

Yeah, it's going to look brilliant.

The till is transported back home to
the shop in Cheshire,

where Judy's mum and dad, Derek and
Megan, are reminiscing.

We've called it
Williams's since 1862.

And we've run it for five
generations now,

of which Judy is the latest.

£1.80, thank you very much.
OK, thank you.

We always had the till there, and
it was rather a nice thing to have.

I like the "ching". It went "Ping!"
Like Open All Hours, it really was!

To celebrate its return, Judy has
invited shop assistant Olive, and

Jean, who worked at the shop from
the age of 14 until she retired.

Well, look what's back,
everybody.

Shall we take a look?
Let's have a look.

This old friend of the shop.
I name this till Tilly!
LAUGHTER

This is going to bring back a few
memories, Jean, isn't it?

The cash register's really
important to me, because it really

gives me that connection with the
past and with my great-grandfather.

Oh, look at that!

That's fantastic! Oh, the corner's
all fixed, look, that's fantastic!

So this was here when you came,
Jean, was it?

Oh, yeah, that was definitely here,
yeah, yeah.

TILL RINGS
Oh, that's it! Oh, there we go!

Ch-ching! A lovely ring, isn't it?
That's what I call music.

Yeah, it's nice to have this back in
the shop now. It's lovely, yeah.

And it'll be here for a good while
longer, we hope!

We hope, yes!

It just brings back memories, and
I'm glad it's able to be used again.

It's wonderful that it's
actually working.

Working better than it did
when I was here!
SHE CHUCKLES

TILL RINGS
Wahey!

Join us next time, as more
extraordinary treasures...

Oh, marvellous!
..are rescued and restored...

That is just how I remember it!

..in The Repair Shop.