Today's business office still uses high volumes of copier paper despite all predictions. Some office processes are very resistant to change. Read more by Mark Bartley to stay in touch with the latest about office work styles and related office supplies.
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The Humble Filing Cabinet
Picture the scene: in the land of the efficient office, where hole punches and paper clips roam freely and packs of copier paper gather at dusk with their cousins, the notebook. Where window envelopes and erasers recline in the shadows of the desk draw, ink jet and toner cartridges resting lazily along side spare pens and pencils on the high shelves of the stationery cupboard, sticky notes attached to monitors fluttering gently in the breeze. In this most harmonious of environments there is only one boss, one ruler, one king.
The master of all it surveys, the greatest, the indisputable champion of offices and office equipment the world over. All hail the filing cabinet.
Originating from humble beginnings out of Cincinnati in the USA the filling cabinet quickly established its world-class credentials after an impressive debut in 1898. Since that time it has taken on all-comers, and despite predictions by many that the filing cabinet would finally meet its comeuppance, especially in the head to head death match with the much fancied paperless office, the filing cabinet remains today, undefeated, standing tall and proud in millions of homes and offices across the planet. It's hugely useful, highly appreciated, revered and respected by its loyal and devout fan-base.
So what's the story? What are the qualities that have propelled the filing cabinet to it stellar status and left the paperless office trailing in its wake, a mere also ran, nothing more than a weak-wristed lightweight, punching above its paperless weight?
The simple answer is brutal simplicity. In truth though, there is far more to the success of the filing cabinet than that.
Edwin G. Seibels invented the original vertical filing system in 1898. At the time, probably best known for his affair with an acrobat from a traveling circus Seibels went on to revolutionise the world of record-keeping. In one fell swoop he instantly removed the necessity to store documents in pigeonholes and have to fold and unfold them. Paper could now be stored in large envelopes standing on end vertically in a drawer. Prototyped by The Globe'Wernicke Company of Cincinnati and consisting of five wooden filing boxes, the filing cabinet as we know and love it today was born!
Such was the success of the concept that in 1938, Globe'Wernicke presented Seibels with a bronze plaque inscribed with the accolade: "Business throughout the world has been helped by this idea and on it is founded an industry that provides employment for many men and women." It's a shame for him that he never went through with the patent for the product, discouraged by the advice that a simple variation of the filing box dimensions would circumvent any claim. What he failed to recognise was the role of his device in 'setting the envelopes upright, and separating them by guide cards. This device, of course, could have been patented." he later commented. There's no knowing how much money Seibel might have made in royalties over the years. It's quite possible that the figure could have run into the many millions of dollars.
Over the last 50 years or so Xerography, photocopying and more recently the volume of printer materials used in business have seen demand for filing cabinets explode. Despite many predictions that electronic storage and digital media would spell the end for the filing cabinet, rumours of its death have been much exaggerated.
In fact, the future looks bright. An insatiable desire by business and government to generate printed materials, often as a legal requirement, means that rather than turning into an office relic, a thing of the past, filing cabinets are needed in even greater numbers than ever. All hail the filing cabinet.
