ROBOT RUN OFFICES

Hokitika Guardian, 6 May 1930, Page 7

ROBOT RUN OFFICES

BUSINESS EFFICIENCY AT

WHITE CITY

LONDON, March 5.

Evidence that office work is ever becoming more mechanical is provided at the Business Efficiency Exhibition at White City, Shepherd’s Bush, where appliances arc on show which talk, calculate, open envelopes, stamp letters, give correct cash change—in tact do everything but think and strike for higher wages.

Sir Charles Higliam, in opening the exhibition., said that four years ago only 25 per cent of the exhibits were British made, and this year the percentage had risen to 50. (Cheers.) Old fashioned methods were dying out and new order taking their place, a matter in which young women demon-s'-rated that they were far more ready than young men.

A. newspaper representative found exhibits'at the ninety-five stands

• !:ic!i were of great interest to employers an I employed. “Gadgets” worked on a typewriter do the work of .a staff, showing separate and collected details of every section of a large business concern, and automatically calling attention to any mistake which may occur in the entries, cross entries, and totals. A machine crosses cheques and postal orders at the rate of 250 a minute, another opens 200 letters a minutf aad another posts and balances ledgers. The employer dictates his correspondence into a phonograph, which produces a record for the typist, making shorthand unnecessary. This machine is providing work for blind typists. Office illuminating, furniture, timekeeping, indexing—everything in connection with office maintenance is shown in its latest form.