Filing Cabinet MAguindanao
A Filing Cabinet Maguindanao (or sometimes file cabinet in American English) is a piece of office furniture for storing paper documents in file folders.[1] In the most simple context , it is an Filing Cabinet Maguindanao enclosure for drawers in which items are stored. The two most common forms of filing cabinets are vertical files and lateral files. A vertical file cabinet has drawers that extend from the short side (typically 15 inches or 380 mm) of the cabinet. A lateral file cabinet has drawers that extend from the long side (various lengths) of the cabinet. These are also called side filers in Great Britain. There are also shelf files, which go on shelves. In the United States, file cabinets are usually built to accommodate 8.5 × 11 paper, and in other countries, Filing Cabinet Maguindanao are often designed to hold other sizes of paper, such as A4 paper.
Office Filing Cabinets are typically made of sheet metal or wood. The drawers usually use a drawer slide to facilitate opening the drawer which includes an “outstop” to prevent the drawer from being pulled completely out of the cabinet. To open a drawer on most metal filing cabinets, a small sliding mechanism known as a “thumblatch” must be pressed to release and open the drawer. Each drawer has a handle to grip and pull the drawer with. On the front face of each drawer, there is usually a label holder to allow the user to identify the contents of the drawer.
Many file cabinets incorporate a keyed lock to prevent unauthorized access to the documents being stored. There are two types of locks. A “cam lock” is activated with a key that rotates the lock. A “plunger lock” is opened with a key but can be closed by merely depressing the body of the lock. The plunger lock allows a user to quickly close and lock several cabinets in a short amount of time.
Some file cabinets have a metal plate or wire structure at the back of each drawer which is known as a follower block. The follower block can be adjusted forward to reduce the length of the drawer so that the file folders contained within remain upright and at the front of the drawer for easier access.
The invention of the vertical file remains an unsolved mystery. The Vertical Filing Cabinet section in the Early Office Museum website[2] begins with a discussion of the erroneous conclusions by highly credentialed “secondary sources”, concerning the origin of vertical filing. The secondary sources claimed that a gold medal was presented at the World’s Fair of 1893 for a vertical file. The Early Office Museum found no evidence to substantiate those claims. However, the information presented in the Early Office Museum’s discussion of vertical filing cabinets suggests that the commercial introduction of vertical filing may have occurred in 1900 when a company named the Library Bureau (founded in 1876, later a division of Remington Rand) published a catalog that included a vertical filing cabinet. A US patent was filed in 1902 by the Library Bureau that credited David E. Hunter as the inventor.[3]
Research by Ester Ellen-Poe[4] validated The Early Office Museum’s findings, and suggests that the most credible claim to the invention of vertical filing, as we know it today, appears to have been by the Library Bureau. The Library Bureau’s 1903 pamphlet titled “Library Bureau Systems of Vertical Filing with Interchangeable Unit Cabinets”, begins with: “Vertical filing, as originated [emphasis added] and perfected by the Library Bureau, is the most complete, accurate and practical method ever invented [emphasis added] for taking care of correspondence, catalogs, reports, invoices, orders, duplicate bills, and loose sheets, or papers of any kind for any business—large, small or peculiar.”[5]).
In addition to the Library Bureau, early manufacturers of vertical filing cabinets included Globe-Wernicke,[6] Yawman and Erbe Manufacturing Company,[7] and the Art Metal Construction Company.[8]
Prior to the introduction of commercial vertical filing cabinets businesses kept papers in envelopes in turn stored in arrays of pigeonholes often lining a wall. Finding and opening envelopes and unfolding papers was troublesome and inefficient. However, the concept of vertical filing was clearly practiced as early as 1895 when a U.S. patent (533053) was issued to W.A. Cooke, Jr. for A Receptacle for Letters or Other Papers.[9][10]
After World War II, the Home-O-Nize Company was established in Muscatine, Iowa to provide returning veterans with jobs. Founded to produce steel kitchen cabinets, the company soon encountered the reality of the limited availability of steel. So the company began to make products for others. Finally a small amount of steel was secured and the company started manufacturing steel index card boxes. Soon after, larger cabinets began to be produced including filing cabinets. By designing to minimize the amount of steel, the product was an extremely cost-effective design and had huge commercial success. Home-O-Nize never did make kitchen cabinets and in 1961, the company name was changed to HON. Today, The HON Company, a division of HNI Corporation is the predominant North American manufacturer and marketer of filing cabinets.
The demand for filing cabinets was greatly expanded as a result of the commercial distribution of Xerography machines starting in 1950. This event enabled office workers to “have their own copy” of printed materials. Another influence is the expansion of government regulations that require businesses to create and keep forms and other documents. Some prognosticators have suggested the future of the filing cabinet is in doubt as electronic filing systems proliferate and become lower in cost. Nevertheless, most businesses are still purchasing computer systems with printing capabilities. Unless this trend is reversed, filing of paper is still a viable practice.
In the US, these come in two sizes: for letter-size paper and legal-size paper. Most modern commercially oriented vertical filing cabinets in the US are manufactured in two-, three-, four-, and five-drawer versions in depths of 25, 26+1⁄2, and 28 inches (640, 670, and 710 mm). The drawers are typically supported on a three-member suspension system that allows the drawer to be fully extended for complete access.
The four-drawer vertical file, letter width, is the version purchased by most businesses. The two-drawer file is sold mostly for use alongside a desk. The five-drawer file is mostly purchased by Federal, State, and Local governments (in a 28-inch-deep or 710 mm version), as it typically provides the lowest cost per filing inch. Three drawer files, the least popular version, have the advantage of being at “countertop” height so end users can easily retrieve files and use the top of the cabinet as a work area to examine file contents.
The drawers of most vertical filing cabinets are engineered to accept hanging file folders, as these have come to dominate the way most users store information. Some files still have a “follower block” in each drawer. This is a device that adjusts the apparent depth of the drawer interior so that files are kept upright in the drawer. These are the legacy of a time when most filing was done with manila folders rather than hanging files.
For home offices or lighter use applications, vertical files are manufactured in 18-inch-deep (460 mm) versions. These typically have two-member suspensions and the drawers do not fully extend.