听We were discussing our office fax machine last week. There were questions about its viability in our work day. The conclusion was reached that the fax was no longer that relevant since it was only gainfully employed about four times a month, by any of us, if at all.听
As we discussed its usefulness, or lack thereof, my mind wandered off, as it is wont to do on occasions such as this, to a far off land where reporters used things called typewriters to convey messages to the masses. We slammed out copy with 鈥渄uplicates鈥� printed on a second sheet and that was made possible by something called carbon paper. Yes, children, carbon paper. Look it up. When you send out emails today and you want to send it to more than one person, you tap that little 鈥渃c鈥� icon at the bottom of the address site. It stands for carbon copy. Old time reference for current time communication.听
Reporters were just as hard on typewriters as we are on our desktop keyboards of today. Same job, similar keyboard, just a little quicker. When computer servers and monitors and clouds go awry, we need to call in tech support and those creatures come in a variety of packages. In fact, most of them are unseen and often unheard. They are required to repair the systems when they crash. Sometimes that takes hours.听
In our bygone typewriter world, the only thing that jammed were the keys and a quick flick of a finger solved the problem. The closest thing we needed for tech support was a guy named Horace who would come around every six months to change a typewriter ribbon and clean the keys in less than two minutes while it might take you three.听
And then, how delighted we were when electric typewriters arrived to help speed up the process of reporting.听
How many of you senior-types recall the arrival of ball point pens? Yep, they weren鈥檛 that plentiful at the start. Fountain pens or ink cartridges were the rage, as were ink stained faces and fingers. Ball point pens, were also a boon to the reporter鈥檚 world. That was before the likes of ownself arrived on that scene. Reporters could dispense with the pencils that got dull or broke and reverted to quick-script ballpoint pens to scribble notes.听
So here we were, talking about a fax machine whose time had come and gone, just like those typewriters, fountain pens and now ballpoint pens (tiny recorders now).听
I recall being in a newspaper business where we discussed at great length the impending need of a thing they called a photocopier, the more efficient son of carbon paper.听
The first generation of photocopiers provided only reverse images 鈥� like film negatives and no, I鈥檓 not going to explain what photo films and negatives did for the modern world, dear diary. It鈥檚 just that it was white print on black background and it was ugly and the machines had to be refilled often with smelly chemicals.听
Now when I run across old cameras that used things called film, flashbulbs or old 20 pound battery packs that made camera flashes more efficient, and ancient typewriters, fountain pens that are dried up and inexplicably not trashed, I do not cling to them in a nostalgia-like death grip. I just smile and remember the day when pounding out a news story or producing a photo for publication took a lot more work. No remorse, just a memory.听
So when we say goodbye to our fax, there won鈥檛 be any tears and we probably won鈥檛 even post a YouTube tribute to the beast, because it won鈥檛 be that eventful.听
Just another item in our disposable world.听
