Before MS Excel
Guest Post by Carolyn Fraser
July 23
The Universal Mono-Tabular Broach (US Patent Numbers 2153890-2338940) was, according to promotional copy, ‘the most versatile an inexpensive rule form system ever devised.’ It is ‘a machine with punches that may be spaced to broach horizontal metal rules so that vertical rules may be inserted to register most all kinds of forms within two minutes or less.’
The Universal Mono-Tabular Corporation (706 Olive Street, Dallas 1, Texas) addresses her customers on the last page of the machine manual:
It is our sincere desire that you shall always derive from your Mono-Tabular Broach the full measure of service, speed and ease of production that we have earnestly built into it, and with the installation of this equipment in your plant, we trust, will be the beginning of a very pleasant business relationship between us.
May it grow closer as the years pass.
I almost blush to read this.
-Cross-posted from girlprinter.com (If you liked this post, keep an eye out for Carolyn's essay 'Notes on Provenance. Or, Tom Ross's Tooth' in the upcoming September issue of Meanjin)
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