Copying - in Office Work

In Office Work

Offices need more than one copy of a document in a number of situations. They usually need a copy of outgoing correspondence for their records. Sometimes they want to circulate copies of documents they create to several interested parties.

Until the late 18th century, if an office wanted to keep a copy of an outgoing letter, a clerk had to write out the copy by hand. This technology continued to be prevalent through most of the nineteenth century. For this purpose offices employed copy clerks, also known as copyists, scribes, and scriveners.

A few alternatives to hand copying were invented between the mid-17th century and the late 18th century, but none had a significant impact in offices. In 1780 James Watt obtained a patent for letter copying presses, which James Watt & Co. produced beginning in that year. Letter copying presses were used by the early 1780s by the likes of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson. In 1785, Jefferson was using both stationary and portable presses made by James Watt & Co.

During XIX century a host of competing technologies were introduced to meet office copying needs. The technologies that were most commonly used in 1895 are identified in an 1895 description of the New York Business College's course program: "All important letters or documents are copied in a letter-book or carbon copies made, and instruction is also given in the use of the mimeograph and other labor-saving office devices."