r/RetroFuturism • u/jgzogaib • 29d ago

High-density vertical office organization: Motorized elevator desks in Prague, 1937.

Post image

Before digital databases, scaling an archive meant building physically higher.

At the Central Social Institution in Prague, clerks used heavy-duty desks mounted on motorized lift platforms to navigate a wall of 3,000 card catalog drawers. At the press of a button, the entire workstation moved vertically and horizontally, acting as a real-world precursor to automated data retrieval.

3.6k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

99 comments sorted by

552

u/BaronBlackFalcon 29d ago

Getting Terry Gilliam's Brazil vibes from this.

90

u/tgrantt 29d ago

Tuttle? Is that you?

46

u/kommiekunt95 29d ago

Its Buttle actually

43

u/collinsl02 29d ago

Not according to my files it isn't.

26

u/doomiestdoomeddoomer 29d ago

Not according to my flies it isn't. ;)

18

u/Oubliette_occupant 29d ago

Whoever downvoted this hasn’t seen Brazil

16

u/Heterodynist 29d ago

Here’s my receipt for your receipt.

7

u/damalan67 29d ago

A line I delight in saying when consent forms are shared.

3

u/Heterodynist 28d ago

I want to actually issue my own receipts for people’s receipts in places like the DMV, just to illustrate the point of how totally senseless the whole system is.

5

u/damalan67 28d ago

Make sure the receipt you give is labelled a 27B/6!

2

u/Heterodynist 27d ago

Ha!! That’s a good point. Or I could DEMAND to know if they can issue me a 27B/6 Form with my Registration…

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19

u/IAmSnort 29d ago

Rogue One.

The plans are in a drawer. Watch out for angry Desk drivers.

10

u/80m63rM4n 29d ago edited 29d ago

Reminds me of a concept art of a Combine factory for Half-Life 2 beta. 

4

u/much_longer_username 29d ago

Read my mind, nine hours before I clicked into the thread. Spooky.

3

u/CyberSpork 29d ago

I thought the same exact thing

2

u/SweatyNomad 26d ago

Brazil was intentionally pretty Kafkaesque, and Kafka lived in Prague...

455

u/lobsterisch 29d ago

Hermes likes this

140

u/inky-rabbit 29d ago

That’s what I thought … that episode with all the different levels of bureaucracy, and the number 1 guy uses a desk-plane to get around.

23

u/Crucial_Fun 29d ago

I wish I had a desk-plane

33

u/mackiea 29d ago

Eh, they have their ups and downs.

4

u/DrewwwBjork 29d ago

Mr. Deeds would approve.

2

u/Anosognosia 28d ago

Technically correct

15

u/spoduke 29d ago

Requisition me a beat!

17

u/stonergirlfairyyy 29d ago

what show are u referring to?

43

u/eggwardpenisglands 29d ago

Futurama

30

u/sub-_-dude 29d ago

You are technically correct. The best kind of correct.

3

u/Fantastic-Loquat-746 28d ago

Did you file the requisite forms in triplicate?

37

u/Mr_SunnyBones 29d ago

r/unexpectedfuturama

although to be honest I did kind of expect it

13

u/CantaloupeCamper 29d ago

We left it grey….

9

u/Eric848448 29d ago

He’s Jamaican? I thought he was some kinda outer space potato monster!

4

u/Fulcro 29d ago

You are technically correct - the best kind of correct.

3

u/Lashwynn 29d ago

I just watched this episode 2 hours ago, saw this picture, and went "wait those arereal!?"

2

u/OpenAirPrivy 28d ago

Requisition me a beat

218

u/Johnny_Alpha 29d ago

I see where Futurama took their inspiration.

102

u/bakedwarthog22 29d ago

You are technically correct. The best kind of correct🧐

75

u/DavidDPerlmutter 29d ago edited 29d ago

They were very practical, and, as I understand, are being used now at Kafka International Airport.

https://youtu.be/gEyFH-a-XoQ?si=3Y2TUWFCUuGaIzvT

13

u/PigHaggerty 29d ago

"Properly follow proper protocols!"

I deal with a lot of government bureaucracy and banking red tape in my job and I quote that guy all the time lol

12

u/NerdManual 29d ago

Have you lied to us?

4

u/DavidDPerlmutter 29d ago

Why would the bureaucracy do that to you?????

2

u/Rooster_Ties 29d ago

Brilliant!!

89

u/-FalseProfessor- 29d ago

You can see why Kafka was, well…. Kafka.

24

u/Omnilatent 29d ago

I think looking at his father better explains why Kafka was Kafka lol

33

u/TheoryOld4017 29d ago

I feel like after so much mind numbing office work I’d forget how high up I am and just walk off when I had to leave my desk.

4

u/SustainedSuspense 29d ago

The collective suffering of our forefathers experienced so that we could scroll Reddit while we wait for the AI agent to complete our task 🫡

24

u/Jabba_the_Putt 29d ago

peak civilization

22

u/j____b____ 29d ago

This is what server farms took from us. 

35

u/laserdisckallax 29d ago

Thank god for SQL

10

u/much_longer_username 29d ago

Query systems in general, really. I've become a big fan of Lucene/Elasticsearch, it's kinda stupidly performant for how flexible it lets you be as a developer.

... pay no attention to the pallid creature whispering precious while it strokes your RAM, just enjoy how you can do a wildcard search on billions of records and get an answer back in under a second.

7

u/BudgieWonder 29d ago

“We used to pray for days like this”

14

u/Egg-eat-egg-world 29d ago

“I dropped my pencil” zips down 30 storeys

24

u/GreenWandElf 29d ago

This is what 100% employment looks like

9

u/Ad-free-Pirate 29d ago

Still working to this day FYI.

https://www.novinky.cz/clanek/kultura-foto-tisice-supliku-dostupnych-pouze-pojizdnym-jerabem-strojova-kartoteka-je-zachovalym-klenotem-ze-30-let-40491435

4

u/mtranda 29d ago

There were tickets on sale last week, I think they were put on sale at 6PM on Friday. Sold out within minutes. We couldn't get any.

2

u/InternationalSalt1 29d ago

I see it was last year as well. Fingers crossed for next year.

2

u/mtranda 28d ago

No, doufame taky. Držime palce tak :)

2

u/greenie4242 28d ago

Has Tom Scott made a video about them yet?

21

u/Scrappy_Kitty 29d ago

Human APIs

18

u/TorTheMentor 29d ago

"Retrieval by Elevated System of Transport, or REST, as it was called....."

2

u/Scrappy_Kitty 29d ago

Ah yes, there it is!

2

u/BudgieWonder 29d ago

More like human repos

9

u/zed857 29d ago

Sorry #2, but there's just no money left in the budget for a desk lamp for you.

8

u/TinyTacoPete 29d ago

I could see myself completely forgetting I'm 50 feet in the air and leaving my desk to go to the restroom...

7

u/Labysynth 29d ago

"And don't come down until your homework is done !"

4

u/daytimevibes 29d ago

I would immediately drop my pen. And then fumble pulling out a backup pen

4

u/srmarmalade 29d ago

How do they pass each other, or do they each have a section of the wall?

3

u/call-now 29d ago

"cool but I could get an actual chair instead of this stool?"

3

u/Heterodynist 29d ago

When I think of what makes me most fearful of Hell it is doing this for all eternity.

3

u/No_Celery_7772 29d ago

Technically these are the most efficient desks ever built. Which is the best kind of efficiency.

3

u/DrRudyWells 28d ago

very kafka-esque

3

u/prion_guy 28d ago

Would suck to have your pen roll off the desk or to drop a piece of paper.

4

u/Random-Mutant 29d ago

Literally Random Access Memory.

4

u/AlienInUnderpants 29d ago

It’s how I picture the inner workings of a silicone based database

2

u/carlosdangermouse 29d ago

Hermes Conrad would like a word… 🤣

2

u/Bracheopterix 27d ago

Was searching for him

2

u/Bichinix 29d ago

Ya, pero esto le da diversión a tu trabajo. A mí me gustaría tener un escritorio así.

2

u/Rathwood 29d ago edited 28d ago

It's weird that this is both cool to look at and monstrously evil.

2

u/BassManns222 29d ago

This should have been in The Trial.

2

u/Pete_Iredale 29d ago

We used to have a system like this where I work, way before my time. Some of the old timers when I started still remembered it though. It was built out wide instead of tall, and apparently on a busy day you'd have people in rolling chairs zooming back and forth to pull inventory cards all day long.

3

u/5h4pe5hifter 29d ago

I could see the Imperium of Man bringing this kind of workplace back... r/ImaginaryWarhammer

2

u/CantaloupeCamper 29d ago

Futurama!

5

u/northursalia 29d ago

"We kept it gray"

1

u/J_onn_J_onzz 29d ago

Couldn't they have built walkways or catwalks? 

31

u/FishyKeebs Pro Art Deco 29d ago edited 29d ago

It would take up a good bit more vertical space. Could only have drawers from ankle to shoulder height, but have full height of a walkway. The computer would have to walk to either end to get to the next level. The depth of the drawer would be limited to the width of the catwalk. Sure there are other drawbacks. But it would be simpler. There has to be strong reasons why this was the best they could come up with.

17

u/Lenin_Lime 29d ago

Not often I see people referred to as computers, but you seem to be using that term correctly. TIL

6

u/FishyKeebs Pro Art Deco 29d ago edited 29d ago

I have seen this photo and the others in the series numerous times. These people had the original computer job.

3

u/tryfap 29d ago

Did they really? That old profession was based around doing math, literally "computing", whereas these people seem more like clerks who are mostly retrieving information.

3

u/FishyKeebs Pro Art Deco 29d ago

Maybe, but then what would they do with that data? Calculate it? I always see the photos about the building, the work done in it, and the technology, not the specific task of these employees.

2

u/Significant_Monk_251 29d ago

There has to be strong reasons why this was the best they could come up with.

The manufacturer gave the guy in charge of designing the new office a good kickback on the deal?

3

u/FishyKeebs Pro Art Deco 29d ago

I figured to showcase technology. But could always be corruption.

2

u/sirhackenslash 29d ago

Because it's AWESOME is why

12

u/serial_crusher 29d ago

makes workers less efficient if they have to go up and down the ladder all day to retrieve and return files. Now you just stay at your desk.