21 hr. ago • 99%

File clerks at elevator desks in Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1937

95 comments

This must unironically be the first "big data", where it is cheaper to move the computation than the data.

12
wes Anderson, is all I'm saying

15
- Or Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
  
  2
This is what SQL took away from us. Never forget.

113
- Now the drop table is merely a database command instead of a table actually falling down from an elevator failure.
  
  55
  
  It’s less fun, but ultimately saved lives
  
  15
- But how? This looks way more efficient.
  
  1
^DAMNIT ^KEVIN ^STOP ^LEAVING ^THE ^FUCKING ^DRAWERS ^OPEN

30
I can see how that'd inspire Kafka

26
- Made in 1936 and Kafka died in 1924. He would probably have died in a concentration camp if he lived to see this. Nazis did not give special treatment to Jewish writers, for example Josef Čapek (✝ approx. 14 April 1945 Bergen-Belsen). Still, there must have been other bizarre filing systems in his era, a multi-story vertical conveyor belt of filing cabinets is used in some town halls to this day.
  
  13
  
  Nazis did not give special treatment to Jewish writers, for example Josef Čapek
  
  They kind of did. The Nazis started out by hunting down and imprisoning or killing academics. If you were smart and educated, and not well connected inside the Nazi party, then you were enemy number one at the start of their takeover.
  
  6
Scientists in 1985: "This data can now all fit on a computer thanks to CDs. Get a few of them pressed at Gramozávody Loděnice every year and keep the index plus updates on a HDD or tape."

Scientists in 1990: "With CD-R, you don't have to pay a fortune to have a few copies of the database pressed every year. You don't need the magnetic storage buffer either, updates can be written on the disks."

Scientists in 2000: "Screw CDs. Many-gigabyte HDDs are decently cheap. You can store full scans rather than transcripts."

Scientists in 2010: "You can afford terabytes in SSDs now, and keep a few copies off-site for backup, all in a cloud solution with access from anywhere with less latency than the HDDs."

Central Social Insurance Institute Card File in Prague-Smíchov in 2013:

95
- No shit? I always wondered where Futurama got the floating buerocrats from.
  
  28
  
  I'm glad they kept the cabinets grey
  
  6
- Don’t see an easy way of walking around those counterweights as it looks pretty tight or you get smacked in the chin as he suddenly rockets up
  
  12
  
  Here's a video of them in action - you can see the Nazis tried to create popular high-budget movies despite the war costs. They weren't very fast even back in the day and now that they are only used for historical records, they probably go even slower. I'm pretty sure their usage is very restricted and still they likely needed an exception from the European equivalent of OSHA.
  
  11
What Futurama level bureaucrat do I need to be to get assigned this post?

107
- Just gotta be able to limbo!
  
  33
  
  23
  
  Technically correct.
  
  10
That looks kinda dope ngl.
I'd be a 1937 file clerk

40
- You're gonna have a real blast in 5 years
  
  22
  
  alright, I'll bite, what do you mean.
  
  6
  
  2 years.
  
  7
  
  2 years.
  
  2
It is still in use. I had to revisit this video where you can see it. (It has eng subtitles)

57
- Amazing. They say the records are digitized but they still use the paper version as the authority for court cases and things like that. That's amazing because the rest of the world is rushing to jettison the idea of paper as authority and everyone accepts easily faked electronic documents.
  
  17
  
  Cryptography and PKI makes it pretty feasible to authenticate digital documents.
  
  24
  
  Because paper and ink are impossible to Forge...
  
  6
- I sort of love that.
  
  4
seems like it came straight from harry potter

18
Part of me wistfully mourns for the loss of edifices like this, caused by computers. Another part recognizes that those guys would probably have given their left nut to get out of those desks and in front of a computer.

59
- I'm sitting here wondering what modern safety programs would find wrong with the processes involved here. Looks amazing though.
  
  18
  
  The obvious one is an enclosure or latches door to prevent accidental falls. They might be wearing fall protection that we can't see but I doubt it.
  
  There's a good chance nobody ever fell from one of these but those regulations exist for a reason.
  
  Maybe less obvious is fail-safes for any elevator system so if the brakes fail it doesn't freefall into the ground.
  
  12
The guys got replaced by a needle

11
- What kind?
  
  1
  
  On a hard drive
  
  3
What Terry Gilliam movie is this from?

14
- Brazil?
  
  6
- It did appear in a Nazi-Protectorate-era movie back then.
  
  5
Very Brazil

49
- Damn what a brilliant film
  
  5
- Not enough pipes!
  
  11
  
  Hey! Prague was one of the last cities ever to operate a public pneumatic mail system (until 2002).
  
  15
- My first thought also
  
  2
- One step further back, very Orwellian, or even Kafkaesque.
  
  3
  
  Kafka was from Prague, probably no coincidence!
  
  5
“The offices of the Central Social Institution of Prague, Czechoslovakia with the largest vertical letter file in the world. Consisting of cabinets arranged from floor to ceiling tiers covering over 4000 square feet containing over 3000 drawers 10 feet long. It has electric operated elevator desks which rise, fall and move left or right at the push of a button. to stop just before drawer desired. The drawers also open and close electronically. Thus work which formerly taxed 400 workers is now done by 20 with a minimum of effort.

Source

40
🎵They say the world looks down on the bureaucrats,
They say we’re anal, compulsive, and weird,
But when push comes to shove,
You’ve got to do what you love,
Even if it’s not a good idea!🎵

25
- I am Bender, please insert girder
  
  14
Workers of the Adeptus Administratum. Terra, 937.M1

19

You've viewed 95 comments.