Source: File: Burroughs
Adding Machine Advert - Machine-Guns In The Office.jpg. [online] see an
original image P3 col 6-7 at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12111105/Daily-Telegraph-January-25-1916.html>
Accessed: 23 January 2016].
A curious
conjecture came by way
Of a young lady
seated at a desk,
Where quill and
ink sits next
To scattered
papers - the lady shelters
Besides piled
ledgers.
The shock of a
suggestion is how
The young lady
calmly operates
An 'office-type'
machine gun -
Down the barrel
she aims, as smoke
Emits metaphorical
bullets.
The lesson begins
by stating,
How that many men
armed
With rifles are
equaled by
One man operating
a machine gun;
So few men can hold
trenches.
While not exactly
aiming at a boss,
The lady
illustrates how use
Of innovations,
may overcome
Shortages in the
workforce - equal
To a skeleton
armies strength.
Clerks are office
infantrymen,
While the 'machine
gun'
They handle, is a
Burroughs
Adding Machine -
lady, boy or man
Can do the work
of three.
The advantages of
technology,
Is how a machine
can never
Be off colour
from a heavy
Night - the
adding machine can carry
On all day, without any flicker.
Versatility is a
proclamation,
To say it is a
cost keeper,
Statician,
bookkeeper -
To be a complete
mechanical
Accountant in any
office.
The great ability
of the wonder
Machine is as record
maker,
Adding multiple
columns
In various
denominations, in ability
To analyse, tabulate
and index.
Promises
continue, as it records
Abstract and make
sub totals -
Giving quantities
and amounts,
Excluded from the
total, if so wished -
To print out many
carbon copies.
With the hard
sell is the lady
That rattles out
bullets
Efficiently -
just 30 minutes
Is the claim to
illustrate Burroughs
Machine to any office
employer.
Comes an invite
right away,
To send that
same day,
A booklet of
information,
That can bridge
the gaps in low staff,
And turn one clerk
into three.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1916. Advert-
Machine Guns In The Office. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 25 January 1916. P.3.
Col.6-7. Available at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12111105/Daily-Telegraph-January-25-1916.html
[Accessed: 25 January 2016].
Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 25 January 2016).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Britain
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