LABOR SAVING SYSTEMS 375 



There are many other devices that materially aid or 

 expedite office work, including automatic interior telephone 

 systems, time registers, check protectors and detectors, 

 recording clocks, automatic check filers for use in banks, 

 telautograph, and electric writing machine. There are many 

 patents for machines, that while working well enough as 

 models, have not been successfully introduced into office 

 work. Among these is the combination automatic post card 

 writer and phonograph, which, in model form, writes a mes- 

 sage upon a postal card and addresses it from dictation, the 

 mechanism being attached to a phonographic device, and 

 actuated by the vibrations of the sensitive clisc in the phono- 

 graph, which responds to the sound of the speaker's voice. 



That all devices, no matter how simple, have an easy road 

 to popularity when they succeed in facilitating business work, 

 is proved by the fact that one inventor, whose claim to fame 

 is his invention of a pencil that is always sharpened, is rapidly 

 amassing a fortune of good proportions. 



The immense increase of business in the last fifteen jTars 

 has demanded mechanical contrivances to aid man in turning 

 out the work. Great mail order houses, the huge offices of 

 the gigantic industrial concerns, even Vvdth forces of 400 to 

 5,000 men and girls, could not handle their business. The 

 demand for mechanical devices was promptly met. Now, 

 even with devices that aid one boy or girl to do accurately and 

 inerrantly the work that required ten to twenty persons ten 

 years ago, the firms find difficulty in handling the enormous 

 bulk of business. 



Business must be done twice as fast as in the previous 

 decade — the machines are doing it. The modern office ma- 

 chinery is the result of an evolution, that despite its wonders , 

 appears to be still in its infancy. 



