An office is generally a room or area in which people work and conduct business. The office machine is any invention whose purpose is to aid that work. Below is a list of common office machines with background information and history on each individual office machine.
Getty Photography/Dana HoffWilliam Seward Burroughs invented and patented the first workable adding and listing machine in St. Louis, Missouri in 1885. Before we had calculators we had slide rules. In 1632, the circular and rectangular slide rule was invented by Oughtred. An office machine that calculates is a god sent to accountants everywhere.
In 1806, carbon paper was invented by Pellegrino Turri of Italy. However, the term "carbonated paper" was first used in 1860, when Englishman, Ralph Wedgwood was issued a patent for his "Stylographic Writer." Carbon paper used to be common sight offices however, today it is outmoded.
Getty Images/Nicholas EveleighThe earliest record of a mechanical check protector is an 1872 advertisement for the National Safety Check Punch, which was patented by Cory & Brown on May 17, 1870, and sold by J. B. Parks of New York, NY.
Getty ImagesThe modern-day espresso machine was created by Italian Achilles Gaggia in 1946. Gaggia invented a high pressure espresso machine by using a spring powered lever system. The photo to the left is of a coffee maker circa 1850 displayed at the British Library in London, England.
Mary BellisA very common office machine is the computer. Many inventors contributed to the history of computers and a computer is a complex piece of machinery made up of many parts, each of which can be considered a separate invention.
Getty Images/Christopher RobbinsIn 1780, steam engine inventor James Watt obtained a British patent for letter copying presses, which James Watt & Co. produced beginning in that year.
Computer engineer,
Ray Tomlinson invented internet based email in late 1971.
Joanna Kopik (StockXchnge)The technology for fax machines was invented a long time, however, fax machines did not become popular with consumers until the 1980s and are now a common office machine.
Getty Images/Noel HendricksonFriedrich Meyer, Hans Spanner, and Edmund Germer patented a fluorescent lamp in 1927.
The American Pad & Paper Company (Ampad) was founded in 1888 by Thomas W. Holley, who was a young employee of a local paper mill. Holley recognized a need for "inexpansive ruled pads of paper" and from his employeement at the mill knew of a paper source called "sortings" from the paper mills. Sortings were cheap because they were unsuitable for finer papers, however, they were perfect for Holley's making of low-cost lined pads, which came to be called legal pads.
