NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Desk

A desk is a furniture form and a class of table. It is often used in a work or office setting to read or write on, using simple implements like a pencil and paper or complex ones like a computer. Desks often have one or more drawers. For the UK band, see Furniture (band). ... A wooden dining table and chairs. ... This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... Reading is a process of retrieving and comprehending some form of stored information or ideas. ... â€œWriteâ€ redirects here. ... This article is about the handwriting instrument. ... For other uses, see Paper (disambiguation). ... This article is about the machine. ... A Drawer Artists illustration of a drawer box. ...

Unlike a regular table, only one side of a desk is suitable to sit on, except for some unusual desks like a partners desk. Not all desks have the form of a table. For instance, an Armoire desk is a desk built within a large wardrobe-like cabinet usually having the height of an adult person. To many the ideal or generic concept of a desk is the pedestal desk, which is often called an executive desk. At one extreme in size one finds the Armoire desk, encased in a very large cabinet looking like a traditional wardrobe from the exterior, when the doors are closed. At the other end one finds the portable desk, which, in its smallest forms, is light enough to be placed on a lap or on small supports on a bed. A Partners desk is an antique desk form which is basically two pedestal desks constructed from the start as one big desk joined at the front, for two users working while facing each other. ... An Armoire desk is a desk built within a large cabinet usually having the height of a tall man or a small woman, or anything in between. ... A pedestal desk is usually a large free-standing desk made of a simple rectangular working surface resting on two pedestals or small cabinets of stacked drawers of one or two sizes, with plinths around the bases. ... The portable desk has not one but many forms. ...

Download high resolution version (2048x1536, 1097 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (2048x1536, 1097 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Rolltop desk A rolltop desk is basically a 19th century reworking of the pedestal desk with, in addition, a series of stacked compartments, shelves, drawers and nooks in front of the user, much like the Bureau a gradin or the Carleton house table. ...

Early desks

Desk forms might have existed in classical antiquity or in other ancient centers of civilization in the Middle East or Far East, but we have no specific proof. Medieval illustrations show the first pieces of furniture which seem to have been designed and constructed for the specific goals of reading and writing. A desk also known as a DOG or puppies is also very popular to teachers. Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, which begins roughly with the earliest-recorded Greek poetry of Homer (7th century BC), and continues through the rise of Christianity and the fall of the Western Roman Empire (5th century AD... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... The far east as a cultural block includes East Asia, Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia and South Asia. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ...

Before the invention of the movable type printing press in the 15th century, any reader was potentially a writer or publisher or both, since any book or other document had to be copied by hand. The desks were designed, consequentially, with slots and hooks for bookmarks as well as writing implements. The absence of regular movable type printing also influenced desk size and shape because of the bigger volumes required for manuscript documents. Desks of the period usually had massive structures. The printing press is a mechanical device for printing many copies of a text on rectangular sheets of paper. ... (14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. ... For other uses, see Book (disambiguation). ... For the similarly-named Surrealist journal, see Documents (journal). ... A book with a bound bookmark Book with florentine paper bookmark A bookmark is a thin marker, commonly made from paper or leather, used to keep ones place in a printed work and so be able to return to it with ease. ...

Desks of the Renaissance and later eras had relatively slimmer structures, and more and more drawers as woodworking became more precise and cabinet-making became a distinct trade. It is often possible to find out if a table or other piece of furniture of those times was designed to be used as a desk by looking for a drawer with three small separations (one each for the ink pot, the blotter and the powder tray) and room for the pens. The Renaissance (French for rebirth, or Rinascimento in Italian), was a cultural movement in Italy (and in Europe in general) that began in the late Middle Ages, and spanned roughly the 14th through the 17th century. ... Artists can use woodworking to create delicate sculptures. ... Look up blotting paper in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Pen (disambiguation). ...

Classical desk forms

The desk forms we are familiar with in this beginning of the millennium were born mostly in the 17th and 18th centuries. The ergonomic desk of the last decades is the newest addition to a long list of desk forms, but in a way it is only a refinement of the mechanically complex drawing table or drafting table of the end of the 18th century. (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... The ergonomic desk is a modern desk form which is in a sense a derivative of the adjustable drawing table or drafting table of the end of the 18th century (and much of the 19th century) since its main goal is to offer the proper amount of mechanical adjustments to... A drawing table (or drafting table or draughting table) is also often called an architects table. ...

Industrial-era desks

Refinements to those first desk forms were considerable through the 19th century, as steam-driven machinery made cheap wood-based paper possible in the last periods of the first phase of the industrial revolution. This produced a boom in the number of, or some might say the birth of, the white-collar worker. As these office workers grew in number, desks were mass-produced for them in large quantities, using newer, steam-driven woodworking machinery. This was the first sharp division in desk manufacturing. From then on, limited quantities of finely crafted desks have been constructed by master cabinetmakers for the homes and offices of the rich while the vast majority of desks were assembled rapidly by unskilled labor, from components turned out in batches by machine tools. Thus, age alone does not guarantee that an antique desk is a masterpiece, since this shift took place more than a hundred years ago. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1600x1200, 745 KB) Untidy Desk I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1600x1200, 745 KB) Untidy Desk I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... A steam engine is a heat engine that makes use of the potential energy that exists as pressure in steam, converting it to mechanical work. ... A Watt steam engine, the steam engine that propelled the Industrial Revolution in Britain and the world. ... White-collar workers perform tasks which are less physically laborious yet often more highly paid than blue-collar workers, who do manual work. ... Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardised products on production lines. ... A machine tool is a powered mechanical device, typically used to fabricate metal components of machines by the selective removal of metal. ...

More paper and more correspondence drove the need for more complex desks and more specialized desks, such as the rolltop desk which was a mass produced, slatted variant of the classical cylinder desk. It provided a relatively fast and cheap way to lock up the ever increasing flow of paper without having to file everything by the end of the day. Paper documents started leaving the desk as a "home," with the general introduction of filing cabinets. Correspondence and other documents were now too numerous to get enough attention to be rolled up or folded again, then summarized and tagged before being pigeonholed in a small compartment over or under the work surface of the desk. The famous Wooton desk and others were the last, monstrous manifestations of the dying "pigeonhole" era. The new desks can be transformed into many different shapes and angles, ideal for artists. Rolltop desk A rolltop desk is basically a 19th century reworking of the pedestal desk with, in addition, a series of stacked compartments, shelves, drawers and nooks in front of the user, much like the Bureau a gradin or the Carleton house table. ... The cylinder desk is a form of desk which resembles a Bureau Mazarin or a writing table equipped with small stacked shelves in front of the users main work surface, and a revolving cylinder part which comes down to hide and lock up the working papers when the day... A tall metal filing cabinet for work or home use. ... Literally, a pigeonhole is a small hole in a loft, the nesting-place of a pigeon. ... The Wooton desk is a variation of the Fall front desk. ...

Desks groaning under masses of paper

A smaller boom in office work and desk production occurred at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th with the introduction of smaller and cheaper electrical presses and efficient carbon papers coupled with the general acceptance of the typewriter. Steel desks were introduced to take heavier loads of paper and withstand the pounding meted out on the typewriters. The L-shaped desk became popular, with the "leg" being used as an annex for the typewriter. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... A sheet of carbon paper, coating side down. ... Mechanical desktop typewriters, such as this Underwood Five, were long time standards of government agencies, newsrooms, and sales offices. ...

Another big boom occurred after the Second World War with the spread of photocopying. Paperwork drove even higher the number of desk workers, whose work surface diminished in size as office rents rose, and the paper itself was moved more and more directly to filing cabinets or sent to records management centers, or transformed into microfilm, or both. Modular desks seating several co-workers close by became common. Even executive or management desks became mass-produced, built of cheap plywood or fiberboard covered with wood veneer, as the number of persons managing the white collar workers became even greater. Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Microfilm machines may be available at libraries or record archives. ... Toy constructed from plywood. ...

Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1168x956, 176 KB) A desk in a office. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1168x956, 176 KB) A desk in a office. ...

Student Desks

A student desk can be any desk form meant for use by a student. Usually the term designates a small pedestal desk or writing table constructed for use by a teenager or a pre-teen in his or her room at home. More often than not it is a pedestal desk, with only one of the two pedestals and about two thirds of the desk surface. Such desks are sometimes called left pedestal desks or right pedestal desks depending on the position of the single pedestal. The height of the desk is usually a bit lower than is the case for normal adult desks. In some cases, the desk is connected from the seat to the table. The table is also used for sitting before classes. A pedestal desk is usually a large free-standing desk made of a simple rectangular working surface resting on two pedestals or small cabinets of stacked drawers of one or two sizes, with plinths around the bases. ... A writing table is usually a desk with a series of drawers directly under the surface of the table, to contain writing implements. ...

The desks are usually mass produced in steel or wood and sold on the consumer market. In addition there is a wide variety of plans available for woodworking enthusiasts. sketch of front view of student desk created specifically for article on it File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... sketch of front view of student desk created specifically for article on it File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... For other uses, see Steel (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Wood (disambiguation). ... Artists can use woodworking to create delicate sculptures. ...

There are many novel forms of student desks made to maximize the relatively restricted area available in a child's room. One of the most common is the bunk bed desk, also known as a loft bed. A loft bed is similar to a bunk bed in that it usually has one bed stacked on top of another, although this is not always the case. ...

Impact of computers on desk forms

Until the late 1980's desks remained a place for paperwork and business negotiation. Mainframe computers were relegated to a special "computer room" and human workers were guests in this space. Furniture largely separated these two entities except in data entry departments. Many manager-level workers if they did have a computer had a small computer desk unit in the corner of their office.

At the end of this decade though the personal computer was taking hold in large and medium sized businesses. New office suites included a "knee hole" credenza which was a place for a terminal or personal computer and keyboard tray. Soon new office design also included "U-shape" suites which added a bridge worksurface between the back credenza and front desk. This bridge was used to hold the increasing focus of computer time. During the North American recession of the early 1990's, many manager and executive workers found themselves doing more with less including word processing and other functions previously completed by typing pools and secretaries. This necessitated the more central placement of the computer on these "U-shape" suite desk systems.

Now with computers abounding, "computer paper" became an office staple. The beginning of this paper boom gave birth to the dream of the "paperless office", in which all information would appear on computer monitors. There would be no need for paper since all documents would be perfectly organized and accessible on the computers. The exact opposite happened. The ease of printing personal documents and the lack of comfort with computer monitors found workers in piles of paper. The need for paperwork space vied with the rising desk "real estate" taken up by computer monitors, CPUs, printers and scanners. Office types Class A office space Back office Front office Mobile office Paperless office Serviced office Small office/home office Virtual office The paperless office was a visionary or publicists slogan, supposed to apply to the office of the future. ... Nineteen inch (48 cm) CRT computer monitor A computer display, monitor or screen is a computer peripheral device capable of showing still or moving images generated by a computer and processed by a graphics card. ...

Through the "tech boom" of the 1990s, office worker numbers skyrocketed along with the cost of office space rent. The cubicle desk became widely accepted in North America as an economical way of putting more desk workers in the same space without actually shrinking the size of their working surfaces. The cubicle walls have become new homes for papers and other items once left on the horizontal desktop surface. Even computer monitor frames themselves are used to attach reminder notes and business cards. A cubicle farm A cubicle desk is a partially enclosed workspace, separated from neighboring workspaces by partitions, generally five to six feet high. ... The logo of the brand. ... Attorney business card 1895 Business cards are cards bearing business information about a company or individual. ...

Early in the 2000s, private office workers find their side and back computer-placing furniture does not "fit" their work day and fails to promote the increasing attention on the value of relationships. This attention due to the fact that so many spend their day staring at a computer monitor rather than interacting physically in front of other people. Manufacturers are slowly noticing this problem and creating what one office furniture company calls "Forward Facing" desks where computer monitors are placed on the front of the "U-shape" workstation. This turns private office workers spending many hours on computers, towards guests. This forward computer monitor placement promotes a clearer sight-line to greet colleagues, increase computer screen privacy and allow for common viewing of information displayed on a screen. Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 Ã— 600 pixelsFull resolution (2592 Ã— 1944 pixel, file size: 1. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 Ã— 600 pixelsFull resolution (2592 Ã— 1944 pixel, file size: 1. ...

Contents

Early desks

Classical desk forms

Industrial-era desks

Desks groaning under masses of paper

Student Desks

Impact of computers on desk forms

See also

External links

References

Real desks

Virtual desktops, GUIs, and the virtual office

Contents

Early desks GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");

Classical desk forms

Industrial-era desks

Desks groaning under masses of paper

Student Desks

Impact of computers on desk forms

See also

External links

References

Real desks

Virtual desktops, GUIs, and the virtual office

Early desks