Matter of mechanical devices;

              Bulletin HASKINS & SELLS 7
The Matter of Mechanical Devices
T H E office clerk must be able to write, add,
subtract, divide, and multiply. There
are machines on the market which will do
anyone of these things; some will do more
than one.
There are different kinds of machines
doing the same kind of work, some with
special features offering advantages in cer­tain
classes of work. The accountant
should know the tools which may be most
advantageously used in an office. If records
in all offices were alike, a machine method
no doubt would be created and the need for
accountants' services on system work would
be eliminated. As this is impossible, the
accountants' services cannot be dispensed
with. May they, however, render full serv­ice
to a client without the knowledge of
these office appliances?
It is known that mechanical devices af­ford
economy in many offices, yet in some
places they are not being used. Then again
there are offices in which appliances are be­ing
used unsuccessfully, and in some cases
have been discontinued. The reason is that
either the work has not been properly ap­plied
or that the wrong machine was pur­chased.
Salesmen, perhaps, through ignorance or
selfishness, have been responsible for many
unfair sales. The public accountant with a
knowledge of the general merits of the lead­ing
mechanical devices might render service
to the client by giving an unbiased opinion
which is often difficult to obtain from sales­men.
Manufacturers guarantee their ma­chines;
operators are as plentiful as clerks;
the correlation of the work and the ma­chines
is a need to be supplied. It is in this
way possibly also that the accountant may
be of assistance.
For this purpose the firm has obtained the
services of Mr. Edward Track, who has
had a large and varied experience in the
field of mechanical devices.
The work as outlined by Mr. Track is as
follows:
The function of the division of mechan­ical
devices will be to render a professional
service to clients in the matter of mechan­ical
and other labor-saving devices as aids
in the accomplishment of office and account­ing
work. Such service will include the
working out for clients of problems which
arise in this field.
Illustrations of the above-mentioned aids
are: adding machines, book typewriters,
typewriters with computing attachments,
computing machines, tabulating machines,
time recording and calculating machines,
labor cost calculating cards, etc.
The service will include, with regard to
these aids, advice as to their selection and
instruction as to their use.
The work preliminary to the introduction
of such service will involve collecting, in­dexing,
and filing catalogues and descriptive
circulars of the various devices and schemes
and studying, testing, comparing, and ap­praising
the same.
The results of the preliminary investiga­tion
will then be brought to the attention of
the staff. An attempt will be made to ac­quaint
the members of the staff with the
best and most useful devices available and
the relative advantages and disadvantages
of the various makes and kinds. The men
will then be in a position to discuss intelli­gently,
at least in a general way, the subject
of mechanical aids.
With a view to facilitating the work of
the staff in this respect Mr. Track will
answer any questions left for him in the
"suggestion box," which is located in the
library.