The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-14
Labor Saving Devices In the
 -Msdern Offices
CHANGES OF FIFTY YEARS
Telephones, Gall Buttons, Business Charts, Adding Machines, Filing Cabinets and a Host of Other
 Things Simplify Work.
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKIN.

the IheeryDle Brothers, could SID out of the pages of Nicholas Nickleby' for awhile and look into a modern business office, what revelation 1t would be to him. He would return to his high desk, his old time pens, his ponderous ledsers and his archaic methods and shake his head over the dream he had had. What if he could go to the souths first national business show in Atlanta in early De- eember and see the devices that modern Ingenuity offers the business men to save time, money brains and energy! He would think the world had gone mad. The present day man of affairs with his telephone at his elbow, his desk set with rows of call buttons, his business charts, his graphophone into-which he can dIc- tate letters at the rate of 25O words minute, and hiS office furnishings that include. everything from a patent paper weight to yards of filing cabinets, would be to poor Timothy as things seen in q dream.
 The modern business office is as little like that of 50 years ago as the Twen- tieth Century Limited is like fiat boat. Step by step every implement known 1 to manager, clerk and bookkeeper has been changed step bp step every device for doing the work has been improved, until the up-to-date office is a most ex- cellent complication of the word 'sys- tenn The initial step in the revolution was taken by the typewriter, which was first patented in 1868. Since then over he Philadelphia centennial showed the busi- ness man the value of typewrters in office work, and though somewhat chary at first, he soon began to invest in them He realized the neatness and general business like effect of letters written on the new machine, and the girl with the nimble fingers soon superseded the quiet old gentleman in the black stock who used to slowly write each letter with d care fully pointed quill pen, afterward shaking sand over the ink to dry it.
 The typewriter letter today is a vital factor in commercial life It bears tho hall marks of business aristocracy. If more than one copy is needed the progress sive business man can get up duplicates that seem to be written first hand At first he tried to have them printed, but it was a slow and expensive venture Then he got t'arious kinds of mimso- graphs and manifolding devices and these did well except that he had to have the | name and address of the superscription inserted afterward, and as thisw some- ! times in different ink or different type, it showed the recipient that he was get ting one of a possible thousand such let ters. and the personal note so essential in business was eliminated. The lates, inventions that will be shown at Atlanta obviate this difficulty, so their inventors claim. One of these is an automatic typewriter on which a stencil is first cut on wax sheet by an operator at the keyboard, a stencil which contains the body of a circular letter This is fitted on a cylinder and other stencils with additional paragraphs and the vail ous names and addresses are fitted on other cylinders and the whole set in motion. The machine feeds itself automaticaIly inserts the proper headings and addresses and alternates certain paragraphs If de- sired. A bell summons an attendant
 
 supplies, and after that the novel affair clicks away independently.
 A duphgraph recently patented prints letters very much after the fashion of this automatic typewriter supplying au- tomatcally the proper names and ad- dresses, and being simple enough for any office boy to manage In a year from now the average business man will not be able to tell a letter printed by one of these machines from one written by some careful stenographer. Another time saving device is a combination let ter head and envelope which may find favor. It is so arranged that when the address is written on the letter head 1t is also written on the envelope by means of carbon slip, and the two re- main together until signed, then one is folded about the other, sealed and stamp ed An addressing machine with three rollers carrying stencilled addresses pre- viously prepared on a typewriter, occu- pies an inconspicuous position in the modern office. When set in motion by the office boy this remarkable machine can address 1000 wrappers, cards or envelopes an hour.
 In olden times the business man sat down each morning and with pocket knife or silver letter opener proceeded to open his mail. Later he found a string inserted in the end of each en- velope, and pulling that opened the let ter more quickly. His mail increased and his stenographers did the work for him. Now he has regular envelope opening machine that can make ready 5000 letters an hour for him and his sec retaries. Across the room q sealing ma chine industriously secures his letters for him in their envelopes ready for the outgoing mail The nimble red tongue of the office boy was long ago eman- cipated from it's onerous task of moist ening stamps for the daily mail and a sponge in a saucer took it's place. Now the sponge is too slow for the average establishment whose mail must keep pace with the mad whirr of the times and device for carefully placing stamps in their proper place clicks away many hours day.
 Twenty-Five years ago carbon paper was known chiefly to the school girl as a means of faking her maps. Now the telegraph and railroad companies alone use over 2,O00000 worth annually, and typewriting and billing machines con sume over $2,500 0A0 worth for their man folding One American factory alone puts out enough sheets of carbon paper each year to cover the desert of Sahara if spread edge to edge over 1t. As high as 30 copies of letter have been man