In business, there are those tasks that cannot be done during work hours due to other pressing client demands. In our office foyer, there is a display of vintage dictation/transcription machines previously used by lawyers or other professionals in days gone by.

On a recent weekend, we managed to spend a couple of hours cleaning these up and polishing them. This got me thinking about their history, how they worked and what it would have been like for the lawyers that would have owned them and used them in their law offices before me.

My good friend Rod Suthers recalls seeing the same style of machines in use in his father’s firm in about the late 1950’s when he started work as an article clerk (lawyer in training). In the 1990’s after they had long since been retired from legal service, he developed an interest in them and started collecting these and other vintage items historically used in legal practice by lawyers. When I started working as a lawyer out of Wharf Street, Maryborough, he kindly offered for me to acquire them as a fitting and complimentary touch to the heritage Maryborough law office.

From what I have learnt about them, the two machines to the left are dictation machines used by lawyers or other professionals who regularly drafted documents. The lawyer would talk into the handle, pushing the button to record a message onto a roll loaded on the reel from one of the drum canisters pictured. When the dictation is finished, I understand the roll on the drum is then removed from the dictation machine and fitted to the transcription machine on the right. From there, I believe the message on the roll can be listened to by a transcriber and then typed out onto a typewriter. The transcription machine has a unique looking set of foot valve type pedals (not pictured) in which the transcriber can go back and forward to listen to different parts of the message. This appears to connect via a metal line (incomplete) and I have been told it might have involved the use of compressed air in operation, but I can’t be sure on this. All machines were designed to either be desk mounted, or set on a freestanding trolley for ease of movement between users/areas.

Hopefully one day these machines can be made functional again, but that might be many years down the track. In the meantime, I will continue to look after them doing my bit to preserve them, until it becomes someone else’s turn. There is no doubt the way in which we as lawyers have operated over the last 70 years has changed dramatically. Even though we are lawyers based in Maryborough, Queensland, we assist clients with legal cases in Maryborough, Hervey Bay, Gladstone, Bundaberg, Childers, Gayndah, Gympie, The Sunshine Coast, Brisbane and beyond with the use of ever advancing technology. If you or someone you know are looking for an experienced and compassionate lawyer to assist no matter how difficult or complex the problem or case, please call our Maryborough lawyers office on (07) 4191 6470.