# What did they do in the Steno Pool? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 12, 2009, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-they-do-in-the-steno-pool/485549 "2009-02-12T16:29:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-they-do-in-the-steno-pool/485549/41 "2009-02-13T15:54:45Z")
My father was in high school in the 1940’s. The nun at St. Mary’s required all the boys to take typing, saying they were more likely to need it than the girls. Even though Dad had secretaries and assistants, his typing skills always held him in good stead, and when PCs came around, he was able to jump right in. Currently the assistant to my department’s director takes shorthand at whiz-bang speeds. It’s very cool to watch. StG ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-they-do-in-the-steno-pool/485549/42 "2009-02-13T16:11:04Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Another historical document of note: > > The [German Instrument of Surrender](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:German_instrument_of_surrender2.jpg) from WWII was a “fill in the blank” document. Apparently they thought it was more important to end the war in Europe than retype the thing. Where were their priorities? Or maybe the Allies figured what with having to defeat Germany every 25 years or so it would save time in the future to just fill out a pre-existing form! ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-they-do-in-the-steno-pool/485549/43 "2009-02-13T16:37:50Z")
Some people just can’t stop messing with what they’ve written: [https://1984-e20.wikispaces.com/file/view/g.o\_writing.jpg](https://1984-e20.wikispaces.com/file/view/g.o_writing.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-they-do-in-the-steno-pool/485549/44 "2009-02-13T16:39:10Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I still use a typewriter on occasion. A three year old once asked me in total awe “Is that a typewriter?” A 15 year old said “That is so cool.You can see what you’re printing.” > > I feel very old. I still have, in my house right now, the electric typewriter I used to type my high school term papers on back in the late 70s. It was actually bought by my parents at Sears in the early 70s. I keep it just in case I ever need to actually type something, and for sentimental reasons. I haven’t used it in probably 15 years. Ed ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-they-do-in-the-steno-pool/485549/45 "2009-02-13T16:59:37Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > When I was in high school (early '80s), my father insisted that I take a semester of typing. I was highly annoyed (mostly because I was afraid it would screw up my GPA), but he figured it would be useful for me to know how to type, so I could type up my own term papers in college, rather than having to hire someone to type them. > > I struggled through that semester, barely got my A with 20 wpm on a manual machine…and have been touch-typing for 26 years now. I’m now at 70 wpm, and figure my father was prescient. 😉 I used to watch my dad in the 1970s keep that speed up on a manual typewriter. He had learned typing in high school and used it as a business major in college, and really boosted his speed in the Army Reserve. When they found out he could type that was all he did for six years. He’s always figured it to be a useful skill as well. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-they-do-in-the-steno-pool/485549/46 "2009-02-13T17:27:36Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > I used to watch my dad in the 1970s keep that speed up on a manual typewriter. That’s impressive. One of my college girlfriends worked, for a time, as a legal secretary. She was an amazing typist; she could do 110 wpm on a 1980s-vintage IBM computer, while wearing long false nails (she reinforced the hell out of those nails, with lots of layers of glue or whatever, just so they could stand up to the punishment). ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-they-do-in-the-steno-pool/485549/47 "2009-02-13T17:40:56Z")
> [@Mk\_VII](#): > > Typing wasn’t a skill which most men (and especially businessmen) thought worth learning. That’s what they had the typing pool for. That’s specious. I used to have a typist work under me, we had to produce a few 100% perfect letters every so often. A 100% perfect business letter takes quite a few staff hours\*. In our case, the letter was going out to high-ranking govt officials and thus could contain no “Wite-out” and had 3 levels of review. Any error or change, and the whole letter had to be re-typed from scratch. We had one letter take just about an entire week for her to get out. Seriously. (Normal letters were allowed 2 minor mistakes per page, either Wite-out or strikeover. Yes, by that time we did have primitive word-processors but the crappy printers of that time could not be used for anything but form letters, etc) It’s just not worth an executives/professionals time to spend that much time doing it. **Princhester** is correct. \*try word-processing something once, where if you do _any errors at all_, you have to start over! ---
**Author:** ![maniondl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cdc98d/32.png) [@maniondl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maniondl)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-they-do-in-the-steno-pool/485549/48 "2009-02-13T17:41:55Z")
My grandfather ended up spending WWII in Massachusetts. Once the army found out he could type (as other have already said, a rare skill for men in that era) they put him in front of a typewriter, pounding out documents that couldn’t be entrusted to the steno pool. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-they-do-in-the-steno-pool/485549/49 "2009-02-13T17:57:29Z")
Folksinger Tom Paxton tells a marvelous story about how he wrote the fisrt song he ever wrote, The Marvelous Toy: > [@Tom Paxton](#): > > I was assigned to be a clerk typist for the army, and one of the requirements was a mandatory five day a week, two hours a day typing class, for which there was no escape. It mattered not how well you could type, you had to take this course. Your name could be Smith Corona, you had to take this course. After a week we were given a typing test, and those of us who could type “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog” faster than 50 words per minute were excused from the class. However, the instructor said we could sharpen our skills by writing letters home. I thought that was a good idea for about a day and a half, when I realized that i had written to everyone I had ever met in my life and still had an hour to go. So I decided to write a song on the typewriter. . The sounds of The Marvelous Toy (zip when it moved, bopped when it stopped, and whirr when it stood still) are the sounds of an electric typewriter. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-they-do-in-the-steno-pool/485549/50 "2009-02-13T18:03:32Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > The sounds of The Marvelous Toy (zip when it moved, bopped when it stopped, and whirr when it stood still) are the sounds of an electric typewriter. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-they-do-in-the-steno-pool/485549/51 "2009-02-13T18:05:49Z")
In 1966 I was ordered to take typing in HS because of my terrible handwriting, normally you had to be a jr to take typing but I was a freshman. Graduated HS at about 60 wpm, and now zoom along at who knows what. I haven’t been timed in a very long time. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-they-do-in-the-steno-pool/485549/52 "2009-02-13T18:11:07Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > My grandfather’s secretary (yes, I met her - wonderful lady) could remember banging out seven copies of briefs for the Supreme Court of Ohio on a manual typewriter with carbon paper. She said her hands ached at the end of the day. As a practical matter, it also enforced some rigor of brevity. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-they-do-in-the-steno-pool/485549/53 "2009-02-13T18:15:16Z")
Alas, no. She wasn’t the one writing the briefs. She just had to type what she was given by her boss, and he wasn’t always the most laconic of lawyers. For those who like typewriter-inspired songs: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdcqpQYX6As&feature=PlayList&p=4122E0D715CBF044&playnext=1&index=19](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdcqpQYX6As&feature=PlayList&p=4122E0D715CBF044&playnext=1&index=19) ---
**Author:** ![3acresandatruck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/e79b87/32.png) [@3acresandatruck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3acresandatruck)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-they-do-in-the-steno-pool/485549/54 "2009-02-13T22:47:03Z")
I got my first fulltime job out of high school with the local phone company in 1974, working as a clerk-typist. I was one of the first men they hired into one of those jobs in the St. Louis area. At the time, I could type 75 wpm on a manual typewriter - a Remington-Rand. When I got my first IBM Selectric (not one of the fancy correcting ones, either), it was absolutely amazing. I did all the correspondence for three district-level managers and their subordinates at the time I got the IBM. I also handled filing and supplies for the office. As previously mentioned, some letters were permitted to have a couple of corrections on them (using a typewriter eraser, and digging into all the carbon copies being made, too). Others had to be absolutely perfect; it depended on the sender and recipient(s). We had little tricks to make it possible to cram enough paper and carbon paper into a typewriter to get up to eight copies at a time. I had to be sure to get titles of addressees perfect and put them in the correct order based on power and prestige. After a while, the managers I worked for also gave me blanket permission to correct their grammar and spelling without bothering them for each correction, so I basically ended up editing everything that went out of our office. ---
**Author:** ![Seeker\_of\_Truth\_and\_Beauty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Seeker\_of\_Truth\_and\_Beauty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seeker_of_Truth_and_Beauty)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-they-do-in-the-steno-pool/485549/55 "2009-02-14T03:20:56Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > They probably just didn’t want to have extra copies of a “I hereby authorize the use of atomic weapons against such-and-such a target” order on White House stationary lying around, is all. :eek: 😉 > > \ But surely they must’ve had some form of what we now call a shredder. Even in those prehistoric times… ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-they-do-in-the-steno-pool/485549/56 "2009-02-14T03:36:11Z")
> [@Seeker of Truth & Beauty](#): > > But surely they must’ve had some form of what we now call a shredder. Even in those prehistoric times… True, but it’s not nearly as funny. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-they-do-in-the-steno-pool/485549/57 "2009-02-14T03:45:44Z")
> [@Seeker of Truth & Beauty](#): > > But surely they must’ve had some form of what we now call a shredder. Even in those prehistoric times… At my first job out of college there were about 6-8 mailbox like affairs around the cube farm for sensitive trash. Once a week or when someone complained they were full, a pair of security guards would haul the contents out to the back parking lot where they had a 55 gal. drum to incinerate it. I still call the shredder the “burn barrel.” ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-they-do-in-the-steno-pool/485549/58 "2009-02-14T14:51:59Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > Well hell, you sure shrouded this in mystery, didn’t you. Ha! although I guess if one goess FAR enough back, there might have been 2 such. I doubt a company that old would have had a steno pool though… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-they-do-in-the-steno-pool/485549/59 "2009-02-14T15:03:43Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Clark Clifford, one of President Truman’s top aides, recalled in his memoirs that original documents about U.S. relations with the Soviet Union, IIRC, were held up at the State Department once. Truman had to give a public statement in a hurry without the papers in hand, and was annoyed when he was contradicted by the documents once they were returned to the White House. I forget exactly what the controversy was. > > It’s hard to overstate how photocopying has transformed government, academia and business. and what is funny, as a history channel show once said, is that until the first Xerox machines were put in offices no-one realized how they would be used. People were so ingrained with “circulating memos” that the Xerox machine was intended to be a mini print shop in the office where important reports would be reproduced for publication. It was only when the first person in a hurry decided he/she could run off a few copies faster than typing up the carbons that the light dawned and the office world changed. Xerox wasn’t marketing the machines as office copiers at first. The were printing machines. In keeping with the roots of the company. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-they-do-in-the-steno-pool/485549/60 "2009-02-15T02:46:56Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I still use a typewriter on occasion. A three year old once asked me in total awe “Is that a typewriter?” A 15 year old said “That is so cool.You can see what you’re printing.” > > I feel very old. LOL. I used to work in a typing pool and I’m feeling particularly ancient at the moment - reading this thread. I’ve been a nurse for several decades now, so my typing skills aren’t what they were but I can still touch type, a skill which astounds my fellow nurses, who are all hunt-and-peck typists. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-they-do-in-the-steno-pool/485549.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-they-do-in-the-steno-pool/485549.md?page=4)