Information can be transmitted.
Information can be analyzed.
It can be manipulated
But, for those activities to take place, something else is necessary: Information has to be stored.
For which purpose, the three mid-1918 advertisements below – promoting The Dictaphone sound recording machine – are examples.
The Dictaphone Company was founded by Alexander Graham Bell, the name – Dictaphone – being trademarked by the Columbia Graphophone Company in 1907. The technology of the device was based on the use of wax-coated cardboard cylinders for sound recording. The Dictaphone company existed through 1979 (!), when it was purchased, though retained as an independent subsidiary, by Pitney Bowes.
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Though the advertisement uses different images – the Dictaphone itself; a “boss” or manager surveying inefficiency in an office setting; a generic office setting – and the “copy” also differs, the fundamental thrust of the ads is identical: More efficient use of the employee labor, greater output of correspondence, and supplanting activity of absent employees. As per August 20, 1918: “No wonder that every stenographer away on her vacation adds greatly to the burden or short help, mail congestion and overtime work.” (Uh-oh!) Each advertisement closes with the suggestion that the prospective client should obtain a copy of Dictaphone Company’s booklet, “The Man at The Desk”.
The full text of the three advertisements is presented below.
July 8, 1918
Why The Dictaphone for you?
The Dictaphone keeps the mail going out on time in spite of summer vacations.
The Dictaphone is the easiest, the most comfortable, the nerve-saving method of hot-weather dictation.
Two Dictaphone operators can write more letters per day than four able stenographers. Dictaphone operators can wrote from 50% to 100% more letters per day, better letters, too.
Convince yourself with a demonstration in your office, on your work. No obligations.
Secretaries and Stenographers: Send for free book, “One Way to Bigger Pay.”
Phone, Worth 7250 280 Broadway
“The Shortest Route to the “Mail Chute”
Write for “The Man at the Desk”
It is not a Dictaphone unless trade-marked “The Dictaphone,” made and merchandised by the Columbia Gramophone Company.
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August 13, 1918
“If I Only Had the Dictaphone!”
Four of his stenographers are spending two hours apiece per day taking dictation, and the fifth is on her vacation. No wonder that much important dictation must wait until tomorrow.
Install the Dictaphone in his office, and he would not miss the girl on her vacation. The other three girls would easily turn out more letters per day than all four when they have to write each other in shorthand as well as on the typewriter.
And with the Dictaphone right at his elbow all the time, he could dictate his important mail at the hour most convenient to him.
You need the Dictaphone as much as he. Phone or write today for a demonstration in your office, on your work.
THE DICTAPHONE
Registered in the U.S. and Foreign Countries
Phone 7250 Worth Call at 280 Broadway
Write for the booklet, “The Man at the Desk,” Room 224, 280 Broadway, New York
It is not a Dictaphone unless it is trade-marked “The Dictaphone,” made and merchandised by the Columbia Graphophone Company.
“The Shortest Route to the Mail Chute”
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August 20, 1918
The Dictaphone solves vacation troubles
Look at the waste! The typewriter is absolutely idle. One stenographer has been taking dictation continuously for nearly two hours. The second stenographer is puzzling over her shorthand notes. And all this time, not one letter is actually being written.
No wonder that every stenographer away on her vacation adds greatly to the burden or short help, mail congestion and overtime work.
What is the remedy? Stop writing each letter twice. The Dictaphone makes it necessary to write each letter only once – on the typewriter. Result – from 50% to 100% more letters per day – better letters, too, and at one-third less cost. Phone or write for demonstration in your office, on your work.
To Secretaries and Stenographers
You have to pay for the time you lose going back and forth to take dictation – and waiting to take dictation – with overtime work and constant strain and anxiety. Send for free book “One Way to Bigger Pay.”
THE DICTAPHONE
Registered in the U.S. and Foreign Countries
Phone 7250 Worth Call at 280 Broadway
Write for the booklet, “The Man at the Desk,” Room 224, 280 Broadway, New York
It is not a Dictaphone unless it is trade-marked “The Dictaphone,” made and merchandised by the Columbia Graphophone Company.
“The Shortest Route to the Mail Chute”
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References
Dictaphone (at Wikipedia)
Dictation Machine (at Wikipedia)