Ads for the Dictaphone
One hundred years ago today … The Dictaphone was a popular office equipment item, according to its manufacturer, the Columbia Gramophone Company, located at 280 Broadway.
New York Tribune, 14 September 1920, p. 5. Newspapers.com.
The “Dictaphone” was the brand name for the dictation machine, invented by Alexander Graham Bell some twenty years prior. The two terms seem to have been used somewhat interchangeably, as evidenced by Columbia’s defensiveness about its trademark at the bottom of the advertisement.
Dictaphone ads touted the satisfaction of businesses that used the product, as above. The Pillsbury Flour Mills Company, Armour Meat, and Western Union were three companies that shilled for the device in 1920.
1920 Dictaphones are still available for purchase, theoretically as antiques or movie props, such as this one by Worthpoint.com:
Courtesy Worthpoint.com.
WRITTEN BY JONATHAN GOLDMAN, SEPTEMBER 14, 2020.
TAGS: technology, offices, business, communications