Do you remember this type of office equipment/supplies?

Question

The old black clunky typewriters?
Selectric typewriters (would you believe we have 3 in our office?!)
The original fax machines where you could watch the ink spray on the paper?
The old mimeograph machines?
Cash registers that didn't automatically compute change?
Carbon paper?
Rotary phones?

What else can you add?

Answer 1

And may they rest in peace!

Answer 2

don't think I could add anything but I do remember the selectric typewriters-had one for quite a while then got rid of it. When I went to school back in the 70's they still taught mimeograph machine classes-they were very messy. I never did them but saw other kids do them-they always wore an apron. I worked on cash registers back in the 70's that didn't compute change and who could forget the rotary phones? How about the party line? My mom's phone would ring for someone else but everybody picked up the phone to listen to others conversations. Ha! I remember when you used to dial the operator and get a real live human at the other end. Ha!

Answer 3

> The old black clunky typewriters?
Yep.

> Selectric typewriters (would you believe we have 3 in our office?!)
We still have two. They're for typing on duplicate forms that use that chemical junk for making duplicates.

> The old mimeograph machines?
Yep!

> Cash registers that didn't automatically compute change?
Nope!

> Carbon paper?
Yep!

> Rotary phones?
Yep!

> What else can you add?
Do you remember the little cylinder messaging system, which would deliver your notes if they were placed in a little tube that was attached to a string? LOL.

I had a handheld adding machine that used a stylus to move numbers up and down.

Answer 4

I remember all of them, except the FAX machine. I stopped office work around 1979. The IBM Selectric correctable typewriter, was the IT machine of the time:-) I worked on the old Royal typewriters too. Also the Ditto Machine. That might be what you are calling a mimeograph. I remember when secretaries actually typed, made coffee(or mixed drinks:-), filed, greeted clients in a friendly manner and took dictation. In other words, we ran the office and were very good at it !

Answer 5

We only recently got rid of my father-in-law's black manual Royal. Our selectric, which we've kept up meticulously, is now dead again, and this time I think we'll give it to stepdaughter for the daycare's annual yard sale for "as is" sale. Our first fax machines at work were thermal faxes that did one line at a time on heat-sensitive paper. Mimeograph machines were those purple things they distributed in grade school! We have a package of carbon paper and one of our telephones (still in service) is a rotary phone. I think the change-computing cash register is relatively new, and on very rare occasions, regardless of what the machine says, a clerk will count the change back correctly. "That's $14.99, $15, $20. Thank you, Ma'am." (She just handed me a penny and a $5 bill.)

I love to use the rotary phone for business calls. I just stay on the line until a human comes on, and I explain that I do not have a touch-tone phone to comply with their menu options. Doesn't always work, though. Some businesses will hang up on you if you don't push a button.

Oh, as long as we're reminiscing, there's the old PBX switchboard (I could run that), and when I started working at the newspapers, we still had teletypes.

Answer 6

still have the old black clunky typewriter
use all the other hated carbon paper and had to use it a lot when i worked for the navy housing.. still have my rotary phone i find it fun.. also have a phone that hangs on the wall and has no number on it.. at one time i had a cash register that you punched in the money and then put the big long button that said sale. and the drawer would pop out.. and hit you in the gut.. LOL.. i like this equipment because i understood it.. now days you just don't know how to work them to many button to push
tape recorder that was reel to reel still have one..
i remember the ink wells
still have nibs for the pens that draw the ink from the well
how about computers that were so big they took up a hole room.. and the punch cards.. how about the party line.. love them..

Answer 7

I was trained as a secretary after college. I went to Katherine Gibbs in NY. I remember all of those machines. Some of them were pretty good too. I was trained on a Selectric typewriter. I still wish I had one. They are great for typing envelopes. I remember having to change the ball for a different font. I had one called Symbol that typed Greek letters. I worked for some science professors who used it. I remember typewriter ribbon and those round erasers.
I sometimes wish we had rotary dial phones. I remember having to ask for the long distance operator, then giving her the number.
Slide projectors with the carousel. Tape recorders that
had round tapes, Dictaphones. Princess phones.
33, 45 and 78 records. We have a stereo that can play them. To name a few. These were state of the art at the time.
Glad you asked, Lady G. Brings back memories.

Answer 8

Oh boy I thought once upon a time an IBM Selectric was the key to successful proposals. Remember the kids that use to sniff the memeo papers and that pretty purple ink. Those old typewriters especially NCR type are worth a fortune today.

Answer 9

I still have my first typewriter. It was a small portable that came in a case. It had a black and red ribbon. Selectric.. I have one of those too. My husband works for the phone company and one day he brought home an old rotary desk phone made out of bakelite. Remember those old hair dryers that came in a small case with the air hose that went into the cap and inflated it?

Answer 10

How about Ditto machines (made purple print),Comptrometers, taking short-hand ( I was a whiz - still have my pin for 120 words per minute), mimeograph stencils and the blue correction fluid, those awful round typing erasers with the little black brushes attached. Remember how difficult it was to erase the type on the original - and 5 carbon copies?

How about the "Dictaphone".....with that floppy wide plastic tape and annoying pedal to stop and start the machine?

Telex machines.

Answer 11

I remember in this order:

Royal upright typewriters with cloth ribbons

Carbon paper

PBX Switchboards! Lordy those were a hoot...remember SNL and whatsher name acting as the switchboard operator?


IBM Selectrics
Ten key adding machines

Clunky answering machines

Memiographic machines with the film paper and the knotched holes and the nasty ink
Would you believe there is a modern version of that even today?

Xerox machines that were the forerunner of today's faxes...can't remember what they were called.

Lexitron word processors - pre PC's

WANG