subject: Paper Jam, Call The Repair Man [print this page] Paper Jam, Call The Repair Man Paper Jam, Call The Repair Man
Last year, while working in a certain place in the UK, the lady on the reception desk where I worked was a real country girl. One of her lovely ways of letting a colleague know a repairman was here was something like (made up name to protect the innocent) "Jane, there's a little man here to see you". Absolutely brilliant and she just couldn't see the irony, when the guy was maybe six foot and two hundred pounds in weight.Anyway, I remember this because the repairman who came to service this and the printers was a truly big man. But the point of this article isn't about a man and his dog, it is about photocopiers and printers.Totally innocuous machines, sitting forlornly on a desk or filing cabinet in the corner of the office or stationery cupboard humming away and contributing to global warming, never given a second thought until Oh no paper jam, toner leak or non communication on the network... or worse.It is at this point in time that due deference is given to how much work these machines actually churn out, while making a frantic call to the photocopier man, promising coffee and biscuits if he can get here in the next half hour.What did we do before photocopiers and printers? Well, "photocopying" and "printing" was by means of a duplicating machine, smaller versions powered by a hand crank, (I recall my head teacher churning out page after page of scripts for the school plays we all had to endure and act in) and the larger versions powered by a small electric motor.Originating from what is known as the second phase of the industrial revolution; these machines kick started the major changes in clerical and administration work practices, paving the way for a recognizable early version of what was to eventually become the modern office environment.Typewriters, duplicating machines and the telephone changed the way office work was carried out, and the ability to mass produce cheaply in the office what once cost a lot of money by printers using a press, could now literally be created for the cost of a "dime a dozen".So although the photocopier and printer is a reasonably modern invention, the ability to mass produce from duplicating and typewriting has been around for over a century. Whichever way you look at it, the photocopier man has been, and will be, around a long time.
