Did they have paper shredders in 1968?

[Alpo]

Every once in a while I will be reading a story that was written in present day but is taking place in the past. And the author will say something, and I sit there and think - did that exist back then?

 

I was reading a time travel story sometime ago. Don't remember what the story was about - not a good story - but the hero had time traveled to Las Vegas in the mid-60s. And he was calling people on his cell phone and looking stuff up on the internet using his laptop.

 

Yeah, right.

 

In this current story, again it's time travel. Magic time travel. A man in his seventies, from the 2020s, is returned to his 13th birthday. In 1968. And he grows up again. It's a pretty good story.

 

At one point this 13-year-old kid is attempting to get hooked up with a brokerage house. And he tells the boss of the brokerage house, "If that won't work, then give me back my check and shred all these other documents".

 

Shred?

 

In 1975 I worked at a bank and they had a paper shredder. Huge damn machine. I had to ask what it was. Never seen anything like it.

 

So it is possible, I suppose, that paper shredders existed back then. But I can't see them being common enough that the 13 year old boy would know that they were, and just casually say to shred some documents.

 

Anybody know if they existed yet?

[Widder, SASS #59054]

When I went into the NAVY back in 69, they had paper shredders, mulchers, etc..... to properly dispose

of classified materials.

 

..........Widder

 

[Pat Riot]

The history of paper shredders.

 

https://accushred.net/blog/shredding-machine-history/

[Alpo]

Based on the history in that link Pat posted, while it was possible, it was not likely that a brokerage house would have a shredder in 1968, and it is even less likely that a 13-year-old kid would know what one was.

 

Author oops.

[Chantry]

5 minutes ago, Alpo said:

Based on the history in that link Pat posted, while it was possible, it was not likely that a brokerage house would have a shredder in 1968, and it is even less likely that a 13-year-old kid would know what one was.

 

Author oops.

Isn't the 13 year old being returned in time with the memories and knowledge of a 70 year old?

[Pat Riot]

I was trying to remember the first shredder that I have ever seen. Pretty sure it was at a law office in the county building I was working in when I was 17 in 1978. I was a custodian - lied about my age. 
The shredder was a fairly big goofy looking thing. Probably 3’ tall with a 2’x2’ square top.

 

I also remember one in the ship’s Personnel Office when I was in the Navy. 

[Cypress Sun]

Every time I hear the word shredder, I think about Fawn Hall.

[Alpo]

8 minutes ago, Chantry said:

Isn't the 13 year old being returned in time with the memories and knowledge of a 70 year old?

Yes, Carl obviously knows about a shredder. But it just seems like the brokerage boss would have responded to the term.

 

"Just give me back my check and shred all those other documents."

 

"Do what to those other documents??"

 

Like if Carl said something about the internet, or calling somebody on your cell. Whoever he was talking to - just seems like they would react. The what?? Call somebody on a what???

 

Like if you went back in time to the 1880s, and told somebody that you were going to get in your pickup truck and drive home, just seems like they would respond "get in your what??"

[Widder, SASS #59054]

Adolf Ehinger, 1930, invented the paper shredder to help get rid of his anti-Nazi papers.

 

If you Google... 'Invention of the paper shredder', it will show this info.

 

..........Widder

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Would that have been one of those straight cut machines and not a microshredder like I’ve been using for twelve years?

[Happy Jack, SASS #20451]

We had a paper shredder in 1966 where I worked on classified chemicals.

[Dogmeat Dad, SASS #48563L]

Shred the documents, Burn the shredded documents, Stir the ashes vigorously, Soak the stirred ashes with water to form a paste, Roll soaked ash paste into a flat sheet and dry, Grind the dried paste into dust, Separate the dust into multiple containers of no more the 1 quart volume, Send each container to a different state, Place each container in the open bed of a pickup truck and remove the lid, Drive on any highway with a speed limit of 55mph or higher until all of the dust has been sucked out of the container.

 

And if the material to be disposed of contains any magnetic storage material, it must first be demagnetized three times (once on each axis), then ground into dust before processing as above for paper documents.

 

At least that is how I was taught!

[Cypress Sun]

11 minutes ago, Dogmeat Dad, SASS #48563L said:

Shred the documents, Burn the shredded documents, Stir the ashes vigorously, Soak the stirred ashes with water to form a paste, Roll soaked ash paste into a flat sheet and dry, Grind the dried paste into dust, Separate the dust into multiple containers of no more the 1 quart volume, Send each container to a different state, Place each container in the open bed of a pickup truck and remove the lid, Drive on any highway with a speed limit of 55mph or higher until all of the dust has been sucked out of the container.

 

And if the material to be disposed of contains any magnetic storage material, it must first be demagnetized three times (once on each axis), then ground into dust before processing as above for paper documents.

 

At least that is how I was taught!

 

Purt sure that I know who you used to work for...

[Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438]

1 hour ago, Cypress Sun said:

 

Purt sure that I know who you used to work for...

 

Hillary's campaign staff ???

 

LL

[Dogmeat Dad, SASS #48563L]

2 hours ago, Cypress Sun said:

 

Purt sure that I know who you used to work for...

 

Around these parts, if you are/were in the SatCom business, it's hard not to work for one of the "Listen Only Phone Companies".  But that was decades ago, I'm sure they stopped tracking me by now...

 

44 minutes ago, Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438 said:

 

Hillary's campaign staff ???

 

LL

 

Nope, they used these...

 

[Texas Joker]

Dump docs in tote of bleach water.

Agitate vigorously with paint stirrer on drill until pulped.

Pour pulp and water out

[Garrison Joe, SASS #60708]

Gov't entities used burn furnaces LONG before shredders.   So ingrained was the practice that the facilities I sometimes worked in continued to instruct employees to place sensitive materials in the "burn bag" to be disposed of long after they had shut off the furnaces.

 

 

[Chickasaw Bill SASS #70001]

US Army , 1980 , burn stir , add a bit more fuel , burn again , inspect for unburned materal , if found repeat step 2 

 

  did this many times , while in the S 3 shop 

 

  CB 

 

  If they are still tracking me , they are wasting time 

[Colorado Coffinmaker]

 

When I was in Southeast Asia, 1967 thru 1969, Paper shredders were common.  Problem was, they were just straight line shredders.  The ingenious folks of the north use to snatch up the trash, and play Jigsaw Puzzle with the strips.  When we realized they were doing what was thought to be impossible, we had to change our modus operandi toot sweet.  They were reading our classifieds on a regular basis.  So much for overconfidence. 

[Sixgun Sheridan]

When the US embassy in Saigon was evacuated in 1975 the CIA shredded all their documents but left them behind in trash bags. The communists managed to piece them back together and get the names of those who had helped the Americans, who no doubt wound up regretting that they ever trusted a US government official.

[Pat Riot]

When I worked in aerospace all trash in classified areas was handled by a special crew. I asked one of these folks what they did with the trash and paper waste. I was told I didn’t have a need to know. That was good enough for me. 

[Cypress Sun]

1 hour ago, Sixgun Sheridan said:

When the US embassy in Saigon was evacuated in 1975 the CIA shredded all their documents but left them behind in trash bags. The communists managed to piece them back together and get the names of those who had helped the Americans, who no doubt wound up regretting that they ever trusted a US government official.

 

The Iranians did the same thing with the US Embassy shredded documents, not only to find sympathizers, but to find Embassy American workers/addresses/etc.

[watab kid]

yes they did - big international corporation employed me in that time period and they had a big one but then everything back then seemed to be oversized , the blueprint machines took up a fairly large room with paper storage and print storage and such , i was a lowly person in the big scheme of things but i got to run a lot of that big equipment , most of that has been scrap for decades now if my current understanding of things is any indication , 

 

my most recent experience is that all drawings are computerized and there is very little need to shred anything - thus hillary destroys her computer files in her own server that should have put her in jail , or at least on trial , 

[Buffalo Creek Law Dog]

I spent a two year stint attached to Military Intelligence HQ.  The classified docs went through a mulcher, the end result being nothing but a pile of mush.

[Colorado Coffinmaker]

 

Oh I don't really know about that.  Those right thinking Republicans spent MILLIONS investigating Hillary only to come up with nothing tangible.  Hillary actually did nothing illegal.  I'm not a Hillary fan by any means, but iffin yer gonna slam somebody, it would help iffin you were correct.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

The crosscut shredder was invented in 1959.

 

I burned out about one shredder a year until when I had to shred medical records from my late wife’s practice in 2011. I bought two of Staples’ best shredders, my daughter and I spent an afternoon filling two thirty gallon trash barrels.

 

the shredders shut down for overheating twice.  They are still working but less hard.