Modern Office Appliances. Photographs kindly supplied by the Office Appliance Company, Lower Cuba Street, Wellington.

Progress, Volume IV, Issue 5, 1 March 1909, Page 167

Modern Office Appliances. Photographs kindly supplied by the Office Appliance Company, Lower Cuba Street, Wellington.

If this article reads like an advertisment of America, those amazing Americans must be blamed. It is meant to be merely descriptive. The times move rapidly. It is not very long ago since, in British ears, the word "American" was the accepted synonym of gymcrackery and claptrap. We begin to know better now. America is Britain's eqnal in many industries, and in some America positively leads. She leads, for instance, in the manufacture of agricultural machinery ; she leads in dentistry ; she leads the boot trade. These things, despite occasional cavillers, are generally conceded. America, in short, is a country of vast resources and remarkable natural advantages in some directions. Her business men, harrassed by trusts or controlling trusts, have been spurred by competition on a mighty scale. The keenest minds of a great continent that has honourably exalted commerce and trade have concentrated their energies from a thousand different points on one absorbing problem: How shall America get the lead and keep it? That problem is still in process of being worked out; but here and there along the line. America already leads. It is probable that she leads most notably in the matter of office appliances. In most other matters, she has simply carried on where others have pioneered ; but in this matter of office appliances, she has originated. She has shown how factories and offices can be equipped, for the saving of labour and the minimising of irritation and uncertainty, as they never were equipped before she took hold. She has marie office

furniture more beautiful and more durable than office furniture was ever made before. And in the great matter of convenience, she has already surpassed the fondest dreams of twenty years ago. Making a new departure, she has for once virtually ere-

ated a monopoly by sheer force of merit. At the outset, however, certain things were immensely in her favour. The finer British timbers were becoming; comparatively scarce and costly; but America had an almost inexhaustible supply of beautiful wood preeminently fitted for this purpose — the wood we know as American oak. But she was not content with that. Having found her timber, she proceeded to build up and extend its natural capacities. She speedily discovered that the driest timber, nature dried, was not dry enough for the most exact uses. So she experimented busily, and in the end perfected a system of kiln-drying. She found that heavy furniture made in the old way, however well-seasoned the timber, had inevitable defects that the years made manifest. The most solid oak warped in time, the most faithful work failed in permanence; joints gaped or bulged as time and temperature operated on them. So that American office furniture, albeit in effect the most solid in the world, is not solid in quite the old sense. It is built in layers and cross sections so adjusted that warping is impossible; so that every pull of time and temperature produced a redeeming pull of readjustment. To-day American office furniture of the best type has this distinction: it wears true. These facts were forcibly brought home

to the mind of a member of Progress staff by a recent visit he paid to the showrooms of the Office Appliance Company, which some time ago took over and extended the business theretofore carried on by Messrs. Yerex, Barker and Findlay, in Lower Cuba

Street, Wellington. To any man who takes an interest in such things, a visit to these showrooms is a sort of education. Let us summarise the impression and justify statement with facts. American oak is on all sides, and American oak has a beautiful grain and is highly decorative in effect.

Take first the matter of bookcases. Under the old order, your booklover filled the case he happened to possess, and then acquired another; or when, in the other case, he filled his open shelves, new shelves

were added. And so the process went on. until many small libraries had such a look of disquieting heterogeneity as you may observe in a second-hand shop. The effect

might occasionally be picturesque, but it was not satisfactory to the earnest reader, and it was (this being a matter of more importance) excessively wasteful of space. Many of the old book-cases, and all the old shelves, were open, so that the books were

exposed to the dust that disfigures, the Hy that corrupts, and the moth that destroys precious bindings. Between loved pages tiies were often enough entombed. When bookcases were enclosed, they generally had

ungainly doors that swung outwards; and at the end of each shelf there were small hidden spaces in which books hurriedly needed had a habit of hiding themselves. These amazing Americans have improved on that. Their bookcases are sectional. As a man's books increase in number, he adds section after section to his case. He can Set sections of almost every conceivable shape — sections that will serve as window-sc-ats, escritoire sections, sections with shaped ends 1o fit in corners of any angle, special sections to go round corners. The sections tit together perfectly, but each section is complete in itself, every book is fully "v isible. and each has a dust-proof glazed front that slips back as required, and lies snugly hidden away on the top of the section. This system of sectional bookcases is not only convenient and economical — a man need not waste an inch of his wall space — ]t is also beautiful. Books are the loveliest adornment of a quiet room, and by this sectional s\stem books are shown to excellent advantage and perfectly preserved The glazed fronts or doors slide noiselessly on roller-bearings, and cannot stick or clog Further, the sectional system is adaptable. It is as useful m offices as it is convenient in libraries. The sections may be used effectively as small show-cases. They serve admirably for the keeping of catalogues. They may be put to almost any use that convenience may require or ingenuity devise. For libraries, the escritoire section is compact and invaluable, and provision can be made among the sections for the keeping of the style of card-cata-logue now adopted by every wellregulated library in the world. It is a sign indicative of these rapidly changing times that in the library of the Vatican at Rome there is an American card catalogue. After all, it is to business men that thismarvellous perfection of Americai office furniture chiefly appeals. Some facts are easily overlooked. Your business man in the average spends at least a third of his life in his office. His clerks, secretaries, accountants, typists, or other paid servants, spend a third of their lives in office also. In proportion as friction and irritation are reduced, m proportion as comfort is secured and convenience perfected, so is this bigspan of the business life lived well or ill. Millions of business men of the older type are fastidiously careful of comfort at home, and most extraordinarily careless of comfort in office.. But if you take out of the reckoning the time spent in sleep, the average business man spends a very small part of his life at home. There is no reason why, having provided for the comfort of his women folk and progeny, he should not reasonably consider himself. That is win the new type of business man, having taken thought, is beginning to realise the virtue of making office comfortable Take chairs. The old. high, hard-seated, backless stools of English offices were abominally back-breaking and disheartening things to spend the day on. The new office chair of the Americans is as comfortable in its degree as a saddle-bag. The typists' chairs are wonderfully well adapted for their purpose. Typewriting from an ordinary chair is a wearisome business. As the typist necessarily leans forward, the ordmarv chair-back gives no support In the American typist's chair, the back is sensitive and adjustable. It moves with the typist, and gives excellent support. The

pressure or tension of the back support can be regulated to a nicety. The seat can be raised to any height required, and when that height is fixed the chair can be swung round to any extent without affecting it. The seats neither weary the body nor wearout the clothing. Never before was such delicate complexity of invisible springs ap-

plied to furniture building ; and yet the simplicity of the mechanism is such that under fair treatment it can seldom or never get out of order. Such details, concerning office furniture, may seem at a first glance trivial. They are not. Physical discomfort does not conduce to mental clarity; bad conditions of work do not make for good temper. The new type of business man realises that the better the conditions under which his emplo\ ees work, the more fully and consistently will be profit by their skill. It is really very difficult to say how far these benefits will go. Once this new

principle was adopted, it grew like a river, as tributary appliances were perfected. The improvement in filing devices has been especially remarkable. All of us have experienced the defects of the old system. There were files, roughly labelled, that

hung round the office on nails. These files were unlovely. They were easily mixed. They gathered the dust. And, more than all, they were inconvenient in use. That also the Americans have changed. To start with, they introduced a system of filing alphabetically in flat trays, each tray fitting into its place in a cabinet. That was a good system, so far as it went ; but it did not prove good enough for the busy men who had learned the advantage of doing things thoroughly. They wanted, not a good thing, but the best. The system of vertical filing marks a great advance, and its possibilities are almost endless. It reduces labour, it lowers the risk of mistake to a minimum. In the vertical files, each folder contains letters or papers dealing with a given subject; and each number and subject is indexed by reference and crossreference in the card catalogue that forms part of the system. By this means, a letter months or years old, dealmg with any subject, is as readily at hand as a letter that came and was answered yesterday, and all the answers are filed exactly in their place and order. Where the most ordinary care is used, there can be no confusion. It is easier to pick out a number from the vertical-fiie folders than it is to turn to a given page in a book. The folders are filed upright in a drawer of fitting size, every number showing. Subjects or general classification are marked by heavy guide-cards, each with its projectirig tab. This system of vertical-files has been adopted bv many New Zealand firms and

it is easy to accept the Company's assurance that there is no case on record in which the system has not guen satisfaction. In especial, the old bugbear of confused stock records is removed. The card system

for stock records provides a sort of automatic perpetual inventory. Receipts, deliveries and stock-balances are shown on a single card. There can be easily added (1) g-oods to arrive, with name of boat, (2) goods on order for which documents have not yet been received, and (3) goods oTvlorofl bv mail, but which have no 1 " vet

been shipped. The system also makes provision for postcards, which have proved invaluable in practice. An extraordinary feature of this system is the ease with which it can be adapted to the needs of any business. It is being used all over the world, in tens of thousands of cases, by all sorts of firms. Every business man who needs a precise record of any sort — from an ironfounder to a dentist, from a beauty specialist to a wholesale butcher — finds his purpose served. It is a system of universal applicability. The modern principle has been gradually extended to cover all office appliances. Thus the latest roll top desks (there are many in this showroom) are marvels of convenience. There are drawers for vertical filing, drawers for flat filing, pigeon-holes with collapsible fronts. There is a compact card catalogue specially adapted for this requirement, by which the business man can keep an absolute check and tally of all his appointsments, intentions and fixtures, for months ahead. There is everything, in short, that can minimise the labour of the busy man who knows rhe value of time ana the dangers of coniusion. Even the old-time copying press has to go. The new Y. and E. Rapid Roller Copier does the work in a tenth of the time, and does it more effectively. Letter after letter is copied, and the copy dries quickly and is ready for filing. Under the old

system, only one copy of a letter can be taken; with the Rapid Roller Copier it is perfectly easy to get half-a-dozen copies. But for the man who wishes to send out hundreds or thousands of signed letters to advertise his business — and the man who does not know the value of signed letters, as distinct from printed circulars, is still a neophyte in trade — there is the Gestetner Rotary Cyclostyle. The original letter is typed on a prepared sheet, and the prepared sheet is fitted to the cyclostyle. Then a handle is turned, and the machine, automatically fed with the blanks, turns out sixty copies a minute, each copy an exact replica of the original. The keenest expert of typewriting cannot distinguish between an original typed letter and ;i cyclostyle copy. Near at hand are the new typists' desks models of convenience. The machine is screwed to its bed, and the moment the typist finishes work, the machine rolls over into a recess, the lid closes, the key is turned, and everything is secure for the light. Of course the Company sells typewriters. The present writer knows something of these übiquitous machines. He has used typewriters of one sort and another in all sorts of climates, under prety well all sorts of conditions. So, because he has been for so long accustomed to "invisible" machines. he does not care whether a machine writes visibly or not, and he is not prepared to enter upon any comparison of the excellent "Yost" with the admirable "Underwood," for instance. But there is one new machine in the Office Appliance Company's showroom that appealed to him. The "Sun" is a small machine, and can be carried in its comely leather case as conveniently as a handbag. But, unlike most small machines it is solid and sturdy and strong. It is of extreme simplicity in movement, it gives perfect alignment, and it can be worked at a high speed. For the purposes of a man who keeps a typewriting machine merely for for his personal convenience or his private correspondence, the ' ' Sun appears to be excellent. It has none of the essential delicacy of some of the big, much-advertised machines. There is nothing about it that will get out of order with fair treatment. There is no ribbon to go wrong and need attention. It would be a very easy machine to learn for touch-typing. And so one might go on almost indefinitely, for of the many inventions exhibited in this showroom there seems to be none of dubious value, and none lacking points of - special interest and appeal. The Americans have their faults, and it may be that they have formed the injudicious habit of carrying their faults in front. But they are a great people, and they have abandoned some things in office appliances that other nations have scarcely yet discovered. All the same, there is an American catalogue in the library of the Vatican. And the more you think of that, the more singular and illuminating it must seem Fifty-six foreign countries have representatives in London. A French engineer, M. Edouard Cros, has submitted to the French railway companies an invention designed to relieve drowsy travellers of the fear of being carried past their destination The invention consists of a slip of paper on which is a dial.The passenger writes his destination on the slip, marks the time he is due on the dial, and attaches the paper to a pait ot the carriage where it can be easily seen by the railway servants, whose duty it will be to tell the traveller when he has arrived.