Antique Copy Machines

Offices need more than one copy of a document in a number of situations. Typically they need a copy of outgoing correspondence for their records. Sometimes they want to circulate copies of documents they create to several interested parties. They may need hundreds of copies of circulars and form letters. During the final quarter of the 19th century a host of competing technologies were introduced to meet such needs. Indeed, one article at the time was entitled “Still Another Letter-Copying Process.” (Manufacturer and Builder, Feb. 1880.) The technologies that were most commonly used in 1895 to make copies of outgoing letters and of circulars and form letters are identified in an 1895 description of the New York Business College's course program: "All important letters or documents are copied in a letter-book or carbon copies [are] made, and instruction is also given in the use of the mimeograph and other labor-saving office devices." (The Stenographer, July 1895, p. 6) At other times offices want to make duplicates of incoming or old documents. Until the 20th century pen and ink, and eventually the typewriter, remained the only technologies for copying most incoming documents. In the late 20th century, all these needs were met by photocopying machines and by electronic storage, transmission and scanning.

In the nineteenth century, correspondence was principally by hand with pen and ink. Indeed, heavy reliance on calligraphy continued in offices for decades after the first practical typewriter was marketed by Remington in 1874. Until the late 18th century, if an office wanted to keep a copy of an outgoing letter, a clerk had to write out the copy by hand. This technology continued to be important through most of the nineteenth century. Offices employed copy clerks, also known as copyists, scribes, and scriveners, men who typically stood, or sat on high stools, while working at tall slant-top desks. Charles Dickens immortalized one such clerk, Bob Cratchit: “The door of Scrooge’s counting-house was open that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, who in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copying letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk’s fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal." (A Christmas, 1843. Image of this scene to the right is from 1893.) Herman Melville's story Bartleby (1853) concerns a lawyer in New York City who employed three male scriveners to copy testimony and other documents. Yates reports that "the Du Pont Company continued to use hand copy books through at least 1857." (JoAnne Yates, Control through Communications, 1989, p. 206.)

History of the Chalkboard

Walk into just about any classroom and you will find one: A dark green board on the wall, lined with pieces of chalk and felt erasers. Chalkboards, also commonly known as blackboards, have long been a part of daily classroom life, but just what is the history of the chalkboard?The earliest blackboards cannot properly be called chalkboards, as there was no chalk involved. They were simply small pieces of slate, and instead of chalk children would use another, smaller piece of slate to write on the board. Marks would be erased with a simple rag in order for the student to move onto the next problem.

The earliest blackboards cannot properly be called chalkboards, as there was no chalk involved. They were simply small pieces of slate, and instead of chalk children would use another, smaller piece of slate to write on the board. Marks would be erased with a simple rag in order for the student to move onto the next problem.

In the late 18th and early 19th century, such "slateboards" were commonly used in schools in the United States and other countries. These small pieces of slate would be bound in a wooden frame to help strengthen the board and keep them from cracking. In those days paper was expensive and hard to come by, so these mini slate blackboards provided a good substitute.

In the past couple of decades, many schools are beginning to phase out use of chalkboards for whiteboards over fears of the hazardous effects of chalk dust. The principle, however, remains the same, and blackboards will continue to be used in schools for many years to come.

Protractor

In geometry, a protractor is a circular or semicircular tool for measuring and angle or a cirlce. The units of measurment utalized are usually degrees. Some protractors are simple half-discs; these have existed since ancient times. More advanced protractors, such as the Bevel Protractor have one or two swinging arms, which can be used to help measure the angle.

Pens

Hand-held implement for writing. Pens have existed since ancient Egyptian times. Quill pens were developed by the Romans, and the technology remained unchanged until the 18th-century development of the steel nib. The fountain pen, which ensured a steady supply of ink, was invented in the 1880s. Today the dominant types of pen are the ballpoint, which became widespread in the 1940s and 1950s, and the felt-tip pen, dating from the 1960s.

CHALK

Blackboard chalk is calcium carbonate and is used for the manufacture of putty, plaster, cement, and of course, blackboard chalk. Calcium carbonate is made up of Foraminifera, shells of little dead marine animals. It is found in the earth’s crust during all geological periods and is usually formed in thick deposits around marine, or formerly marine areas. There are other types of naturally occurring chalk, including black chalk and red chalk. Chalk, in its natural state, was used by early man in prehistoric times for cave paintings.

The electronic slide rule

HP-35

The HP-35 was the world's first pocket electronic scientific calculator.

It was introduced in January 1972 by Hewlett-Packard and had the equivalent of 30,000 transistors. It sold for $395.

Hewlett-Packard sold over 100,000 of the HP-35s the first year.

The introduction of the HP-35 and other electronic calculators that followed marked the end of the mechanical slide-rule as a primary problem solving device.

The HP-35 was known as the "electronic slide rule."

The Slide Rule

This is a slide rule. This was used before the invention of a calculator. It could do almost all math function, it just took a very long time to complete.