The Age of Advertising: National Cash Register Corporation – August 9, 1943

Before NCR was “NCR”, the company was appropriately known as the National Cash Register Corporation. After having been acquired by ATT in 1991, a 1996 restructuring of that firm led to the spin-off Lucent Technologies and NCR, with the firm being the only “spun-off” company that has retained its name.

This advertisement, from August 9, 1943, illustrates the company’s National Class 3000 Bookkeeping Machine.

The advertisement is quite simple in style and design. A sketch of a model using an NC 3000 is repeated four times in the same illustration, giving an impression of “depth” and activity as in – well, quite appropriately! – an office setting. An example of a neatly completed bill appears in the background.

The full text of the advertisement appears at bottom. Note the use of alpha-numeric telephone number prefixes (“CIrcle”, “MOtt”, and “CAnal”).

Bookkeepers for a Nation

Unheralded!  Unsung! …  It’s time to praise the bookkeepers of our nation … for, without them, the wheels of industry would not turn to produce vital war materials and keep supplies rolling up to the home front and on to you.  

Without machines to help them do this job, hundreds upon thousands of new bookkeepers would be needed to keep our records, and millions of man-hours would be stolen from our war effort.

National Typewriting-Bookkeeping Machines in industry, in business and in government are speeding record making and record keeping for the nation because they are simple and easy to operate…for they alone combine the standard adding machine and typewriter keyboards with full visibility of forms in the machines…  Any typist with a knowledge of an adding machine becomes a proficient operator with a few hours’ practice.

Nationals are flexible…for they can be changed to do all sorts of bookkeeping…like the statement you receive from the department store or the wholesaler…or for purchase records…payroll writing…posting general ledgers…and numerous other applications.

National Typewriting-Bookkeeping Machines, as well as all other National products and systems, save man-hours and provide protection over money and records for the bookkeeping of the nation.

National Accounting-Bookkeeping Machines may be secured by essential industries through priorities… A stock of modern used National Cash Registers is also available for business needs.

The National Cash Register Company

CASH REGISTERS      *      ACCOUNTING – BOOKKEEPING MACHINES

40 ROCKEFELLER PLAZA, CIrcle 5-6300
321 EAST 149TH STREET, MOtt Haven 9-3323
138 BOWERY, CAnal 6-4906

______________________________

Here’s an illustration of an NC 3000 from Office Museum:

These two images – showing the front and rear of an NC 3000, on its stand – are from the Smithsonian Museum of American History. This example was manufactured in 1938 or 1939.

And, Some References

Early Office Museum – Antique Special Purpose Typewriters, at OfficeMuseum.com 

Bookkeeping Machines, at Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Mathematical Treasure: National Class 3000 Bookkeeping Machine on Stand, at Smithsonian National Museum of American History

NCR Corporation, at Wikipedia

 

The Age of Advertising: The Noiseless Typewriter – June 24, 1918

Extolled by C. Montgomery Burns…!

An emblematic aspect of mid-twentieth-century movies and television programs which portrayed – whether seriously; whether in parody – corporate “office” settings, was the depiction of row, upon row (upon another row) of secretarial, clerical, or administrative personnel, each busily typing away upon their own typewriter or calculating (“adding”) machine.

A humorous example of this effect occurs in the Twilight Zone episode “Mr. Bevis“, which – starring Orson Bean as protagonist James B.W. Bevis – was broadcast on June 3, 1960.

While the the purely visual aspect of such scenes – through their depiction of conformity and regimentation – could be humorously cynical, the sounds generated in such settings – a fusillade of overlapping clickety-clack * pause * clickety-clack * pause * riiiinnnnng-of-a-bell (end of line approaching! carriage return impending!) * clickety-clack (and, repeat) struck a deeper chord: The viewer did not actually have to “view” the scene to understand its nature.  Sound by itself was enough to communicate setting, characters, and sometimes give an inkling of plot.

It seems that “sound”, per se, has long been an issue in the business world: whether one hundred years ago; whether in movies and television; whether through the “white noise” deliberately permeating the offices of contemporary corporations.

An example of this appears below: An advertisement for “The Noiseless Typewriter” that appeared in The New York Times on June 24, 1918.

George Fudacz’s “The Antikey Chop” website clearly presents the history of the Noiseless Typewriter Company and its products.  The Noiseless Typewriter was the collaborative invention of Wellington Parker Kidder (1853-1924) and George Gould Going (1872-1954), with their firm being incorporated in January of 1909.  Their company merged with the Remington Typewriter Company in 1924 “to form Remington-Noiseless, a subsidiary of The Remington Typewriter Company.”

As described at Richard Milton’s Portable Typewriters website (and as seen in the advertisement from the Times) “…the physical shape of the noiseless portable happened to fit perfectly the streamlined Art Deco contours favoured by designers in the 1920s and 1930s and the resulting Noiseless Portable is considered by many collectors to be one of the most beautiful typewriters ever designed.”

The ad:

The text of the ad:

The NOISELESS TYPEWRITER

On the 
Q.T.

          Write for booklet
“THE TYPEWRITER PLUS”

Suppose you issued instructions that for one day all writing in your office must be done with pens.  What a miraculous quite would reign that day!  What an increase in concentration and deep thinking for yourself and every employee!

You must have typewriters, of course, but there is no longer any law of necessity that says to you that you must have noisy typewriters.

The Noiseless Typewriter is really noiseless.  It does beautiful work and it does it quickly.  It is durable – a mechanical marvel.  Makes the office a better place to work in.  Gives every stenographer a better opportunity for advancement into the main office.  Write, call or telephone for a demonstration.

The NOISELESS
     T Y P E W R I T E R

THE NOISELESS TYPEWRITER COMPANY
253 Broadway —– Telephone ★ Barclay 8205

______________________________

You can view images of noiseless typewriter(s) at … appropriately enough! … Noiseless Typewriters.

Here’s Some References

Mr. Bevis (Description of episode), at Wikipedia

Noiseless Portable, at The Virtual Typewriter Museum

The Noiseless Portable, at The Antikey Chop Typewriter Collection

The Noiseless Typewriter, at Portable Typewriters