Headline
The transcription or "secretarial" model, like this Dictaphone from the 1930s, was usually fitted to a roll-around cabinet, and was intended to stand next to the typing table. Transcriptionists retrieved cylinders at random from a central distribution rack. If the dictator had done his job properly, the recording would begin with an address and salutation. The rest of the recording would be typed verbatim, but often the typists had to correct the dictator's grammar or "fix" awkward sentences.
Typists were even more carefully trained on the machines than the male dictators. Instructional material from the dictation equipment manufacturers was sometimes supplied to the many secretarial schools where women prepared for futures as office workers. The equipment companies emphasized that knowledge of machine transcription was a valuable skill. The manufacturers spent considerable time and effort trying to accommodate the Scientific Management movement's obsession with efficiency. In addition, they were highly conscious that to succeed, office dictation had to be smoothly integrated with the use of the typewriter. The final stage in the process was the return of finished correspondence to the writer and disposal of the used cylinders. As the typists finished with cylinders, office boys collected them and took them to a room where a "shaver," a lathe-like machine, resurfaced the cylinders for re-use. A cylinder could be used and shaved dozens of times before it got too thin to use, and the wax shavings could even be returned to the companies to be remade into new cylinders, although this was rarely done. This early form of "recycling" was intended to save money, not resources.
