No article on office furniture would be complete without a reference to the admirable filing cabinets and capitally arranged bookcases which are offered nowadays for the consideration of the business man.
In former days a large amount of office space was given over to more or less bulky volumes containing various office records; to accumulations of cor respondence and other heterogeneous documents. The rapid growth of the card index and vertical filing system has effected great benefits in this respect. Thousands of business men have discarded the bulky volumes for neat card cabinets and vertical filing drawers, the former being worked either independently of or in conjunction with the latter.
It is possible nowadays to buy a bookcase which can be expanded if and when the needs of your business require additional book-room.
The revolving bookcase is another useful contrivance suitable for many offices where constant reference is made to a number of volumes.
It is impossible within the compass of one article to deal with all the variants of office furniture, but reference may be made to that indispensable article, the office chair. Since it is the lot of most of us to be seated for many hours in the day, it is just as well that we should be seated in comfort. The old stiff-backed chair can now be abandoned without a pang in favour of the chair which responds readily to the movements which we may be compelled to make in the course of our duties, or which are made more or less involuntarily. Office chairs which may be swung at will from right to left, or can be tip-tilted to accommodate our reflective moments, are more than advisable—they are necessary. They save time and they put a brake
on irritation ; moreover, they enable one to do work under easier conditions, which, in the ordinary course of human nature, means better work.
A regard for one's own comfort should synchronise with a regard for the comfort of employees, as the same arguments apply. Your typist will do better work if she is seated at a chair designed for her use—a chair with an adjustable seat and a back hinged from the seat. With a chair of this kind the typist can get herself "right" with her machine, which is half the battle in typing.
The inter-telephone has superseded the old bell and speaking-tube, and gas has given way to electric light. Illumination, however, is not particu larly well managed in many offices, the lamps being placed in all sorts of odd positions and governed without much regard fcr economy. A good deal will be saved from the electric light bill if each lamp is given its independent switch and groups of lamps a main governing switch. In this way a single lamp may be extinguished or several lamps, when necessity for their use has temporarily ceased. Lamps should be located so that the light therefrom is directed over the left shoulder of the desk occupant, when such lights are fulfilling this purpose.
Electric radiators are, in many cases, good substitutes for the messy office fire, preventing waste of heat and saving trouble.
Every office should be equipped with an electric fan which can be driven by the ordinary current, and which is a necessity in the hot summer mouths.