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The history of the office-machine is divided into four periods, viz.: the incubation period (the prehistoric period of the office-machines); the period of the smaller machines with few integrated functions, sometimes referred to as the mechanisation period (1880-1920); the period of administrative mechanisation and the beginning of system analysis (1920-1950); the period of computers and automatic data processing (1950 up to the present). Subsequently, the history of the computer after World War II is described in ten-year periods. There are many signs that we are on the threshold of a new period, which might be characterized as the time of 'teleinformatics' or 'electronic communications traffic'. At the end of his article, the author pays attention to the supply of information on the developments in the field of data handling and to the image of the future information-society.