The Changing Phases of Furniture
Filing cabinets
What is the first place you look for when storing items? Invariably it will be a filing cabinet. This useful and incredibly versatile item of furniture has become a staple item of furniture in most businesses. It is the type of furniture that never really loses its appeal. Although there are constant changes in the field of technology, computers phones and so forth the evolution of the filing cabinet has become one of our constants no matter how large or small, simply because it is one of those items of furniture that we often cannot be without.
When you need to store documents and files the most obvious place is somewhere neat and secure. When you hire a filing cabinet you have the luxury of being able to dictate the period of time for which you need it. We offer our customers stylish and high quality furniture that can be hired for long or short term this makes your choices simple, convenient and cost friendly.
Our range of storage accessories are perfect for keeping your papers and files safe and secure, but what else do you know about the filing cabinet that you would otherwise not be aware of?
The American connection
Firstly we know that the filing cabinet was actually invented by an American a Henry Brown, and that it began life as a metal “receptacle for storing and preserving papers” what set it apart from other items of storage is the fact that it separated papers. It was also fitted with a lock to keep documents and personal papers safe and secure. It was also fire and accident safe, since it was made from metal.
Types of filing cabinets: The Vertical Filing cabinet – USA
It was another American national who had the wise and wonderful idea of creating the vertical filing cabinet. Its usefulness has made business and office life much easier, it is hard to believe that before the invention of this convenient office furniture accessory most businesses would keep their papers stored in envelopes, which was a time consuming and somewhat confusing process of folding and unfolding envelopes, in order to retrieve papers and other documents.
It was Edward G Seibels who saw the light however and decided that this time consuming and muddled way of storing papers was unnecessary and came up with an idea for a replacement. This came in the form of the vertical filing cabinet, a cabinet which has become a staple furniture accessory and which is still used to this day by thousands if not millions of offices and businesses around the globe.
The initial design was constructed in wood and proposed a series of problems regarding Siebels patenting of his design, something that was later resolved.
Popularity
The filing cabinet began to really make its mark following the invention of the xerography machine, or photocopiers as they would later become commonly known. This invention pushed the idea of the filing cabinet to the forefront of business and proved it to be invaluable to the functioning of business and every day office life.
Another notable influence on the use of the filing cabinet however was also the increasing amount of government documentation filing cabinets would prove to be invariably useful, for this type of paper work particularly since there were often a multitude of papers to file and store, and which could now effectively be stored both safely and securely.
Other variations of the filing cabinet include the lateral file and the shelf file, all it seems are wide spread in terms of utilisation and usefulness and despite there being wide spread speculation as to the long term prognostics for the continuing use of filing cabinets, we know that globally they are still incredibly popular and that the invention of electronic filing and so forth has had little effect on the market for filing cabinets which are still bought and hired at a significantly high rate.