Filing cabinets – because a paper-less office is a long way off!

May 31, 2011 - PRLog -- Remember when everyone got all excited about the concept of a paper-less office, well you won’t be surprised to hear that us folks at Office1web (http://www.office1web.ie/) were never behind that idea! Not just because we feel pretty passionate about humble stationery, but also because we knew that if a paper-less office is indeed ever possible, the modern world is still a long way off embracing it! You just have to look at the booming sales of filing cabinets to see that offices around the world have still got a heck of a lot of paper that needs filing.

The very first version of a filing cabinet was a horizontal file invented back in 1886 when an American inventor called Henry Brown decided there was a need for a “receptacle for storing and preserving papers”. He designed and patented a container of forged metal tough enough to withstand fire and accident and which could be locked. Not only that, it kept papers separated into files to make for easy future access and hey presto, the concept of filing was born!

Modern vertical filing cabinets like the standard office filing cabinets we know today came into being when another American, Edwin G. Seibels went one step further and in 1898 designed a cabinet where papers could be kept in large files which would stand on end vertically in a drawer. This simple idea revolutionised the day-to-day running of businesses the world over.

Today, filing cabinets are surprisingly unchanged. The materials are more modern, durable and yet much lighter – even steel filing cabinets and heavy duty fire proof filing cabinets – so they are now much easier to move around, and some new features have been added (wheels to make them mobile, the option of having different finishes of wooden filing cabinets, etc.).

Demand is still steady for this simple piece of office (http://www.office1web.ie/) equipment 125 years after its invention, which just goes to show, a paper-less office is a long way off!