TECHNOLOGY IN THE OFFICE

I. MECHANIZING CORRESPONDENCE II. DUPLICATING OR COPIERS

III. TELEPHONY, TELEGRAPHY, FAX AND INTERCOMS IV. ADDING MACHINES, ACCOUNTING MACHINES AND COMPUTERS

MECHANIZING CORRESPONDENCE
The typewriter was the best-known icon of office mechanization through much of the twentieth century.

In 1852, John Jones received US Patent No. 8,980 for the writing machine to the right, which he called a Mechanical Typographer. The Writing Ball introduced in 1869 or 1870 by the Rev. Malling Hansen of Denmark was a commercial success on the European continent, where it won several awards during the 1870s.

The first power operated machine of practical value was invented in 1914 by James Fields Smathers of Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. Smathers's operations as an inventor were halted by World War I.
By the early 1900s, the phonograph (invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison) was marketed as an adjunct to the typewriter. The dictating machine is yet another example of the complex relationship between technological development and what people need and want.

DUPLICATING OR COPIERS

The first method for making a typed copy was carbon paper.

The mimeograph machine of the 1890 made by Thomas Edison increased the number of copies that could be made from a few to a hundred, using what was known as a "master." But the only way to copy an original after it had been made was to retype, redraw, or rephotograph it.

A familiar sight in offices until about the 1980s was the "spirit duplicator" (often confused with the Mimeograph), which used a volatile liquid that produced a distinctive smell.

Chester Carlton's discovery of the effect of light in photoconductivity, however, led to the unprecedented success of the "Xerox" machine. The first commercial Xerox machine, the Haloid Xerox 914 of 1960, had defects, such as paper scorching. Nevertheless, today's copiers produce near-perfect images, in color as well, in record time.

TELEPHONY, TELEGRAPHY, FAX AND INTERCOMS

The opening of telegraphy by Samuel Morse in 1843, greatly accelerated the expansion and interconnection of the railroads and became a nearly universal fixture in large businesses after the end of the Civil War.

In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone .For much of the period from the 1870 to the 1920s, the telephone was almost exclusively a business ,the telephone's importance in business operations steadily increased.

By the 1990s, the analog-based telephone system had been rebuilt around digital technology. In a digital system, information about each sound wave--rather than the sound wave itself--is sent through the wire as a numerical equivalent and then reconstructed exactly at the other end. This new technology enables computers--which are also based on digital technology--to "talk" on the telephone. Today, fiberoptic cables carry digital signals at astounding rates, and they have become the backbone of the world's information infrastructure

1989 Motorola MicroTAC 9800X The first truly portable phone. Up until its release, most cellular phones were installed as car phones due to the inability to fit them into a jacket pocket.

The Smart Board interactive whiteboard operates as part of a system that includes the interactive whiteboard, a computer, a projector and whiteboarding software either Smart Notebook collaborative learning software for education, or Smart Meeting Pro software for business.

Facsimile (Fax)

The process by which a document is scanned and converted into electrical signals which are transmitted over a communications channel and recorded on a printed page or displayed on a computer screen. The facsimile machine was invented in 1842 by Alexander Bain, in 1843.

An intercom (intercommunication device), talkback or doorphone is a stand-alone voice communications system for use within a building or small collection of buildings, functioning independently of the public telephone network. Intercoms are generally mounted permanently in buildings and vehicles.

ACCOUNTING MACHINES, ADDING MACHINES AND COMPUTERS

The first computers were not computers as we define them today. They were calculators--machines designed to solve complex mathematical problems. They reduced the extraordinary amount of time it took people just to attempt to solve the problems themselves.

Few of these sold in large numbers in the United States until the introduction of the Felt Company's "Comptometer" in 1885, the Burroughs calculator of 1892, and the Monroe adding machine of 1911

MONROE ADDING MACHINE

Computers today are used not only in dealing with the financial records of companies, but as communication devices, incorporating typing, mail, and increasingly voice and video communication.