Street Scene

Surprised again? These are deliberate photos. How do I always look so shocked? Tomorrow: a new expression. I promise.

Melvil Dewey invented the vertical file. That's about the extent of the writing I can find about the event. Here is a more detailed description of his initial conception of the item. I'm pretty sure it went exactly like this.

"A vertical file," he said. "A hanging file. I don't know what to call it yet. The verti-hanger, perhaps. The Upright File Storage Brigade. I'm not sure. Regardless, imagine two sheets of heavy paper, attached at one edge, lengthwise, and at the top, the opening, two rods extending the length of the paper. You could put documents into the opening, and use the rods to hang the contraption in a deep-bottomed drawer. A vertical filing system. Each one of these files could then be labeled, kept in order, all documents in one particular file would pertain to one another, so perhaps, there would be a file for information concerning your home loan, and another file concerning your applications to various colleges or universities, yet another dealing with the intricacies of your health situation, records and such. No longer would all these documents have to be scattered about, or tied together with bits of string or ribbon, or bound into large unwieldy books. Stored in my device, they would be kept flat and wrinkle-free, and what's more, incredibly easy to locate when one needed to consult them."