sort-a-graph

maryw commented on the word sort-a-graph

Clerks used a “sort-a-graph” to prepare letters and files for filing, rather than simply a table, as would be common in centralized filing departments with less volume. The sort-a-graph (sold under the brand names Multisort and Savasort) was a belt with pockets or dividers sized to fit a range of cards and papers. Attached to a carriage that moved on ball bearings, it allowed the operator to use one hand to bring the required divider next to the sorting pile and place a document in the divider, all while determining where the next document had to go. At Brooklyn Edison clerks used a two-container, 1,000-division sort-a-graph. One side was alphabetical and the other geographical, with the clerk sitting between the two.

Craig Robertson, The Filing Cabinet: A Vertical History of Information (St. Paul: University of Minnesota Press, 2021), p. 143

July 11, 2021