Typewriters
Ability to type is basic to most clerical work, but the degree of proficiency required depends on the job at hand. The most common brands of manual typewriters are Royal, Remington, Underwood, and Smith Corona. However, in most offices, these machines have been replaced almost entirely by electric type-writers. A typist who has become proficient in the use of a manual typewriter can easily transfer to an electric typewriter or to a machine with a special keyboard.
Added to the above list of typewriter manufacturers is IBM, a leader in the field of Selectric typewriters. With experience on this electric typewriter, a novice can learn to operate a Magnetic Tape Selectric Typewriter (MT/ST), a Mag Card II typewriter, a memory typewriter, or a correcting Selectric II typewriter rather quickly. The type on the Mag Card, Magnetic Tape, or Memory typewriter is reproduced electronically, and perfect final copy is turned out at 150 words a minute. Input using these machines can appear simultaneously on a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) screen, which displays text and graphic images. What has been typed is edited and changed via the display before printout. This type of system appeals to operators because they can see changes as they are made on the keyboard. These documents and data can also be fed into a computer through an appropriate terminal.
Intelligent machines are another family of equipment not to be overlooked. An example of the intelligent typewriter is the Qyx, introduced in 1978. This typewriter can perform at five different levels ranging from one line of memory to dual diskette storage. There are also "intelligent" copiers that reproduce what the computer tells them to compose.
Efficient utilization of these machines has led to new managerial concepts, especially word processing, a discussion of which is found in Chapter 5.
In common use in many firms, too, is the automatic typewriter, a machine whose keys are activated by punched tape rather than manual operation. These machines have been in use since the 1930s for repetitive typing. Today, more sophisticated models are used in word processing centers.
There are many type sizes and styles of typewriters, as well as several hundred different keyboards. There are keyboards for practically every language and for many different professions and businesses, such as keyboards equipped with special symbols for use in the fields of astronomy, telegraphy, air navigation, electricity, medicine, pharmacy, physics, engineering, chemistry, biology, meteorology, and mathematics.
Voice-Writing Machines
The originator may use a voice-writing machine for dictation, and the clerk (sometimes called transcriber) may type from the record or cassette. Some machines may be attached to a telephone so that the executive may dictate from another location to a central recording and transcribing point.
Most voice-writing machines record on plastic discs, belts, or cassettes. These recordings are durable and may be mailed to a central transcribing pool or word processing center if the originator is away from the office. For instance, a salesperson may leave a customer and dictate a report from an automobile before the next call.
Via a telephone, an executive can dial the firm's central dictation system to record material, thus bypassing mail delivery. The clerk plays back the records or cassettes on a transcribing unit and types what is heard.
A very recent innovation by Dictaphone which can enhance the transcriber's productivity is the two-line visual display on the machine which indicates the beginning and ending of each letter, length of each letter, and special instructions.
Commonly used voice-writing machines are manufactured under the names Dictaphone, IBM, Steno cord, Edison Voice writer, and Lanier.
The magnetic tape cassette is very popular today. The unit is compact, and the recording-media can be filed, mailed, transcribed, erased, and reused many times.
Reprographic Machines
Reprographics is the term used to define the reproduction and duplication of documents, letters, reports, and images. Photocopiers make copies from originals and are generally used for shorter runs; duplicating processes produce copies from masters or stencils and are designed for quantity requests.
Special clerks are often employed to operate the duplicating machines. The principal processes of office duplication are: fluid or spirit, stencil, offset, and photographic. With the direct or liquid process, a carbon-typed page is used as the master copy. The copies are made directly from the master copy as it comes in contact with chemically moistened sheets of paper. An alcoholic fluid is used to dissolve and transfer a minute portion of the dye from the master to the paper. A. B. Dick, Standard Duplicator, and Ditto are popular fluid duplicators.
The stencil-process duplicator is a commonly used office duplicator. It involves a stencil and an inked drum. The stencil is a thin tissue coated with a substance that resists ink. When the typewriter key strikes the stencil, the wax coating is pushed aside, exposing the fibers through which the ink can pass when the stencil is placed on the cylinder of the reproducing machine. As ink passes through the typed perforations, clear and accurate reproductions of the original are produced. The A. B. Dick and the Gestetner are excellent stencil duplicators.
The offset process is based on the fact that grease and water do not mix. The outlines on the master copy hold the printing ink, which is greasy, and the remainder of the surface attracts water and repels the ink. The ink is transferred or offset from the outline to a rubber blanket; this is what transfers the copy onto the paper. The plate may be a thin metal sheet or a paper mat, and copy may be photographed onto the plate. Popular offset duplicators are the Addressograph Multigraph, Rotaprint, and A. B. Dick. This equipment is making inroads into many plant reproduction departments in view of the original-like copies reproduced, its multicolor capabilities, and its fast operating speed.
Photocopying duplicators are so nearly automatic that they hardly require the services of skilled operators. A picture of a letter or other document may be reproduced in less than a minute. Most of the major equipment companies are producing photocopy equipment. The most common photocopy duplicator is the Xerox, al-though other companies are strong competitors.
Data-processing Machines
The past ten years have seen the widespread use of electronic computers in many offices. Electronic data-processing systems usually consist of a combination of units including input, storage, processing, and output devices. They receive scientific or business data at electronic speeds with self-checking accuracy.
Input devices read data on punched cards, magnetic tape, paper tape, or magnetic discs. The data can be stored in the computer on magnetic cores, magnetic drums, magnetic discs, and magnetic tapes.
The processing unit controls and governs the complete system and performs the actual arithmetic and logical operations.
Output devices record information from the computer on cards, paper tape, magnetic tape, or as printed information on paper.
The computer cannot reason or think for itself and is unable to perform even the simplest operation without definite instructions. A person must be specially trained to set up the wires controlling the operation of the machine. The person who sets up the machine for analyzing data is called a programmer.
Data processing equipment is manufactured by International Business Machines, Minneapolis-Honeywell, Univac, Control Data, Burroughs, NCR and others.
Calculating Machines
The adding-listing machine is probably the most common type of calculating machine found in the office. On a "listing" machine, the figures are printed on a paper tape so that there is a permanent record which can be checked for errors. There are ten-key machines on which the keyboard consists of one set of keys from zero to nine and full keyboard machines with each column containing keys from one through nine. Adding machines are used primarily for addition and subtraction and are cumbersome for multiplication and division.
Calculating machines record totals in the dials, from which they may be copied. They are used for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division-all of which are practically automatic. The operator merely sets the figures on the machine and presses the proper key; the answer appears in the proper dials. Emphasis in the offices today is on the desk-size ten-key electronic calculator. Some calculators have the capacity to perform operations in multiplication and division in milliseconds, as well as square roots and statistical operations. Pocket-size calculating machines have become very popular, too.
The more sophisticated calculators have computer-like ability to store instructions, a TV-like screen or illuminated dials to display results, and automatic decimal control.
Burroughs, Monroe, Olympia, Canon, NCR, Hewlett-Packard, and Texas Instruments manufacture many of the calculators now in use.
Not all clerks operate all of these machines. However, it is likely that a clerk will use some of them. Their operation may be learned in school, at training centers organized by the equipment manufacturers, or on the job. Proficient office machine operation is becoming increasingly important as the office becomes more and more mechanized.
