Working in an office 25 years ago would have been a completely different experience to today’s office. There was no internet, no mobile phones to distract you from your duties and smoking was permitted.
But fast forward to the 21st century and children born this millennium – what office items from the past will this generation only see in a museum? Movehut has compiled a list of the top five items that children of today will never know.
The typewriter was invented in 1829, but became obsolete in 1993. If you worked in an office in the 80’s, you probably would have upgraded from one of these to a basic computer with a black screen and green text.
But if you still used a typewriter, you would have probably typed up documents. But as you typed, each key was stamped onto the paper, so if you made a mistake, there was no delete button. You would simply have to start again and be more careful next time.
The floppy disk was invented as a storage device for computers in 1960, but it became obsolete in 1995 as technology advanced. It was made of a think magnetic material about eight inches square. As they developed, they became smaller; five inches and three inches consecutively.
Today the floppy disk has been replaced by USB sticks and SD Cards.
The fax machine was a very early email system and was invented in 1974. It was widely used to send messages right up until 1999. It was a telephonic device which allowed businesses to scan a document or picture and fax it to someone on a different floor, building or company who also had a fax machine. The receiving fax would then print the items in black and white.
Sometimes items could be hard to read or understand, but it was a good form of communication in its day.
Similar to the fax machine, the telex was a machine which allowed users to communicate via calls or print internationally on a network. The machine was introduced in 1932 and only fully declined in 2003, although it hadn’t been used for many years prior to then.
The incandescent light bulb was invented 1835, but was banned in 2009 as it uses more energy than other forms of modern light bulbs. The incandescent light bulb worked by heating a metal filament wire located inside the bulb to a high temperature so that it glowed to produce light.
The bulb has since been replaced by compact fluorescent light (CFL) and light-emitting diodes (LED) which are much more energy efficient.
That concludes out top five obsolete office items. Did you work in an office that utilised the above technology? Do you have any other items that we could add to the list? Share your stories with us below.
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Does anyone remember carbon paper?
Not in this office Nigel, no.
We stil use a fax at work. Not very often, but we still use it. As for the others, not seen them in years, apart from the odd old style light bulb.
We don’t have a fax machine here, or any of the other products, but I know faxes are still widely used if offices.
Can you think of any other products Beth, that we could add to the list? 🙂