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By
Mary
Bellis
The following is a list of office
machines with background information and history on each office machine.
• Calculators
• Carbon Paper
In 1806, carbon
paper was invented by Pellegrino Turri of Italy. The term "carbonated
paper" was first used in 1860, when Englishman, Ralph Wedgwood was issued
a patent for his "Stylographic Writer." However, Pellegrino Turri invented
carbon paper as we know it today.
• Check
Protectors
The earliest record of a mechanical
check protector is an 1872 advertisement for the National Safety Check
Punch, which was patented by Cory & Brown on May 17, 1870, and sold
by J. B. Parks of New York, NY.
• Clocks
and Timekeeping
• Coat
Hangers
• Coffee
and Coffemakers
• Computers
• Copying
Machines
In 1780, steam engine inventor James
Watt obtained a British patent for letter copying presses, which James
Watt & Co. produced beginning in that year.
• Fax,
Fax Machine and the Facsimile
• Fluorescent
Lamps
• Legal Pads
The following information may or
may not be true, since legal pads were never patented it is hard to say
who really invented them first. Since the American Pad & Paper Company
does claim to have invented the legal pad and no one else is claiming this,
it is fair to give them the credit until proven otherwise.
The American Pad & Paper Company
(Ampad) was founded in 1888 by Thomas W. Holley, who was a young employee
of a local paper mill. Holley recognized a need for "inexpansive ruled
pads of paper" and from his employeement at the mill knew of a paper source
called "sortings" from the paper mills. Sortings were cheap because they
were unsuitable for finer papers, however, they were perfect for Holley's
making of low-cost lined pads, which came to be called legal pads.
• Measurement
& Measuring Tools
• Modems
and Email
• Paperclip
History
• Paper
Punch
• Pens,
Pencils, and Pencil Sharpeners
• Post-It
Notes
• Push
Pins
• Revolving Door
The revolving door was patented
by Theophilus von Kannel (1841-1919) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August
7, 1888.
• Rubber Stamp
The rubber stamp was patented by
William
Purvis on February 27th, 1883 (U.S. pat#273,149).
• Office Safe
The office safe was invented by
Henry Brown on November 2nd, 1886 (U.S. pat#352,036).
• Rolodex
• Scotch
Tape
• Scissors
• Stapler
Brass paper fasteners were introduced
in the mid-1860s, and by 1866 George W. McGill had developed a machine
to insert these fasteners into papers. The first stapling machine with
a magazine that held a supply of preformed wire staples that were fed automatically
to the staple-driving mechanism was patented in 1878.
• Telephone
• Typewriter
and Typing
• Xerox
Photocopiers
• White-out
- Liquid Paper
Next
page > The
History of the Home.
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