I’m not really reading this wonderful book to examine the history of office technology - but as an aside, it has some pretty good insights into the changing world of white collar work.

The first thing the office boy Stanley has to do in the morning is fill the ink wells, arrange the paper. Remove the dust covers from the typewriters. One of his jobs is to deliver messages and letters to other offices. In between times he’s copying letters that the typists have typed up - copying by hand . It’s a changing mix of technical advancement and stagnation.

London has electrification and tube trains - but clerks still use ink wells. (Although electrical power wasn’t ubiquitious or standardised across London or anywhere else at this time).