Machines, Methods, and Modernity in the British Civil Service, c. 1870–c. 1950

Abstract

The growth of government and its bureaucracy in the first half of the twentieth century focused political interest in Britain on office work, workers, and practices. Parallels were drawn to offices in large organizations in business and industry and an active market of office products offered a growing choice of machines and other appliances for use in public offices. Demands for manpower in the military and related industries during the First and Second World Wars coupled with an increase in public business in civil offices encouraged both novelty and greater system in analysing processes to overcome obstacles to speed and management controls. Certainly by 1930 civil servants in Britain saw their offices as being different from those of their predecessors. Modern ideas linking specialist skills in organization and methods with machine processes drove changes to increase economy and to speed workflow. This article explores aspects of office history in the British Civil Service especially as it relates to the use of machines for written communications, the conditions that encouraged their use, and the ideas that came in their wake.