Editing Desk (section)

==Industrial era==

Refinements to the first desk forms were considerable through the 19th century, as [[steam power|steam-driven]] machinery made cheap [[wood-pulp paper]] possible towards the end of the first phase of the [[Industrial Revolution]]. This allowed an increase in the number of the [[white-collar worker]]s. As these office workers grew in number, desks were [[mass production|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 continued to be 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 split in quality took place more than a hundred years ago.

More paper and 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]].<ref name=potted>{{cite web|url=http://www.desk.uk.com/history.asp/|title=A Potted History of Writing Furniture|publisher=Dorking Desks|access-date=2012-05-17|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120421211013/http://www.desk.uk.com/history.asp|archive-date=2012-04-21}}</ref> It provided a relatively fast and cheap way to lock up the ever increasing flow of paperwork without having to file everything by the end of the day. Paper documents became voluminous enough to be stored separately in [[filing cabinet]]s. 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 [[Pigeon-hole messagebox|pigeonholed]] in a small compartment over or under the work surface of the desk. The famous [[Wooton desk]] and others were the last manifestations of the "pigeonhole" style. The surfaces of some newer desks could be transformed into many different shapes and angles, and were ideal for artists, draftsmen, and engineers.