Dad at Gestetners - Manufacturers of Duplicators

After his time as a milkman Dad had several years of ill health which was put down to damage to his stomach when  held as a Prisoner of War. Needless to say he found it difficult to hold down a steady job. However, as his health improved he managed to get office based work at Gestetners, the duplicating machine manufactures ( further down see a youtube video of a typical machine of the 1950's)
Although we may smile at the antiquity of the machine, in those days it was cutting edge technology!!
I'm not sure exactly how long Dad worked for Gestetners but it was over 10 years, as can be seen by the photo below.

 

Jen has the actual book for safekeeping

 

 

Mum & Dad enjoying a dance at a Gestetners' Party

Below is a link to Youtube:

A typical 1950's Gestetner machine! 

Gestetner's in Broad lane, Tottenham were once one of the largest employers in the Tottenham area and was world famous for the manufacture of the stencil duplicator.  The company opened in Tottenham in 1906 having first been established at premises in Cross Street, Islington, London.  At their height as a business in the 1950's and 60's the company employed in excess of six thousand people from the local area and were widely recognised as being one of the finest companies to work for. At the time most people knew of either family, friends or neighbours who worked for Gestetner's such was their reputation as an excellent employer.

The company was founded by David Gestetner who was born in Hungary in 1854. As a very young man he worked at the stock-market in Vienna where he was employed to make copies of the day's activities by repeatedly handwriting the results. He decided there had to be an easier way and, as a result of his efforts to try and find a better method, his experiments led him to invent the use of a stencil to reproduce multiple copies of documents. His innovation in office copying machinery changed the landscape of the business and finance industries effectively heralding the beginning of the modern office and the demise of the City clerk, whose main function was to copy documents by hand.	THE PLAQUE AT 124 HIGHBURY NEW PARK, ISLINGTON  THE HOME OF DAVID GESTETNER FOR 42 YEARS
David Gestetner moved to London and in 1881 established the Gestetner Cyclograph Company to produce stencils, stylos and ink rollers. To protect his invention he took out many patents and he was also to invent other notable devices such as the nail-clipper and the ball-point pen although the latter is generally credited to his fellow Hungarian Laszlo Biro. David Gestetner had been born into a Jewish family and remained devout throughout his life. He had married his wife Sophie, nee Lazarus, and they were to have seven children of whom his only son Sigmund Gestetner succeeded him on his death in March 1939.  David Gestetner died whilst on holiday at the Hotel Ruhl in Nice on the 8th March 1939 and he is also buried in Nice.	DAVID GESTETNER -  OUTSIDE HIS HOME IN ISLINGTON C1906