[This article originally appeared in the September 1971 issue of Nieman Reports.] …To the office secretary, the Xerox machine is the greatest invention since the coffee break. In an instant, carbon paper has been made obsolete. True, many offices, including my own, constantly exhort the girls to continue using carbon paper for routine tasks, but what girl in her right mind is going to waste her time—and soil her fingers—with that stuff, when it’s possible to recline gracefully against the Xerox, watching the copies spew out and passing the time of day with other girls awaiting their turn at the machine?
Mr. Kupferberg, Associate Editor of Parade, is a former Editor for the Arts for The New York Herald Tribune.