Forefathers of modern office technology

Who needs fax machines when you have email? No one requires pagers now that you have instant messaging apps. In today s day and age, you have devices that can alone perform the tasks of half a dozen devices of the past.

But there was a time when these machines that are now obsolete were the lifeline of every office. With the rapid technological advancement that has occurred in recent times, these machines are now nothing more than useless scrap. But it were these machines that laid the foundations of modern machinery and if they had not been invented, we would not have been able to tread down the path of technological progress that we have taken over the last two decades

Here we look at the machines that are the forefathers of our modern technology and were an integral part of offices around the world.

Mimeograph:

Before the electronic photocopying machine became common, the mimeograph a necessity in schools and offices. The mimeograph, or stencil duplicator, was a low-cost duplicating machine. All kinds of papers could be copied using the mimeograph. The machine worked by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. The machine included a roller that could be worked by hand or through the use of a motor.

The mimeograph machine was invented in 1880 but did not make its way into offices 1900. It ruled office space till 1960. In 1959, the world famous document technology company Xerox came up with its copier machine. The new copying machine reduced the importance of the mimeograph but did not push it out of the office completely due to problems of its own. Its ink was expensive and it frequently broke down whereas the ink required for a mimeograph was cheap and the mimeograph seldom had problems. But as time passed and the problems of the new copying machines were addressed, the mimeograph was pushed away from the limelight.

Lambert Typewriter:

Before the advent of computers, the typewriter was the most important instrument of every office. Created by French-American Francoise Lambert, this typewriter could have the distinction of being the world s first typewriter but Lambert took a lot of time to make it public.

The Lambert typewriter was unique and different from the typewriters we have generally seen. It featured a round keyboard on top of a horizontal machine. However, before it was released in the market, the Underwood Standard Typewriter - the one with horizontal keyboard - had firmly entrenched itself in the markets. The Lambert Typewriter was thus rendered useless.

Dictaphone:

The Dictaphone was mainly used by higher officials in offices who used the instrument as they could not be bothered with writing stuff down. The Dictaphone was a recording device which they would use to record whatever thoughts they wanted to pen down. The recording was then put into words by a stenographer using a type writer.

The Dictaphone was invented in 1881 by telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell and till 1970 it was used by the majority of executives in organisations around the world.

With the arrival of word processors and computers, the Dictaphone lost its importance. Nowadays, with the touch of a button on your smartphone, you can record your voice, or send a voice note or even translate your speech into words.

The Isolator:

This one is the most bizarre of them all. Nowadays, people use noise cancellation headphones when they want peace and quiet. But in the past, people used this strange helmet oval-shaped helmet with an oxygen pump attached when they wanted to concentrate on their work. The isolator was invented in 1925 by science fiction enthusiast Hugo Gernsback. It was used to help increase focus and concentration by making the wearer deaf, piping them with oxygen and only allowing them to see through narrow slits in the helmet. Imagine walking into your boss s office and seeing him giving you a deathly stare through the tiny slits in the helmet. Fortunately, for the sake of the sanity of office employees, this weird looking helmet was not made commercial for some reason.