Olivetti Corporate History
1908 If you consider Olivetti's corporate history from 1908 to the present day it reflects what might be considered a chronicle of automation in the office, which we would now call IT, where Olivetti often set the standard and always the style for others to follow. It can also be seen as a cross section of economic and social history of Italy. Perhaps even the rise and fall of an Empire. One London newspaper commenting on the opening of the factory in Glasgow remarked that Olivetti had “invaded” Scotland whereas the Roman’s built a wall to keep them in their own country.
You can't consider the history of Olivetti in the UK without reflecting on the pedigree inherited from Italy. Camillo Olivetti founded his typewriter factory in Ivrea in 1908. Having been born there in 1868. He studied at the Politecnico di Torino under Galileo Ferraris where he gained a degree in electrical engineering. In 1893 he followed his tutor to the USA and worked as his assistant at Stanford University. It was believed that during his stay he first encountered typewriters.
On his return to Italy he practiced commercial law representing American companies. He also opened a factory making electrical meters with two colleagues.
In 1908 Camillo visited the USA again to study mass production of typewriters. On his return “Ing.C Olivetti & C.” was established in Ivrea to mass-produce typewriters, three years later the Olivetti MI was demonstrated at the Turin World Fair. The brick built factory in Ivrea was based on English Victorian architecture.
Camillo as well as being an engineer, an entrepreneur and a socialist, he was also keen on federalism, local autonomy and democratic reform.
A brief history of Olivetti and Camillo can be found on www.olivetti.com/corporate/history.
Olivetti products have always reflected the best in style and the best of Italian design houses were used at various times. The pedigree of classical design was reflected in the Companies sponsorship of the arts both in Italy and the UK. I was fortunate to visit Italy on many occasions with clients and they were always impressed with the Olivetti culture and pride in the products produced. The Company had a great family tradition and provided working conditions that were ground breaking in Italy. I found that I often worked with parent and then a sibling during my twenty years with Olivetti.
The main design and manufacturing started in Ivrea, with additional factories being opened at Scarmagno near Ivrea and Pozzuoli in Naples. The International HQ moved out of the town to a purpose build office complex "Palazzo Uffici". The centre of the building was a magnificent wooden staircase and for a period a large Tropical tree.
Olivetti in the UK
1947 British Olivetti was registered in Edinburgh in 1947 and the first factory opened in Glasgow the following year at the invitation of the British Government. A new factory six miles out of Glasgow was opened later and it was a 8d bus ride from the city centre.
1956 The year of the first newsletter. Mr G Fei was Assistant Managing Director and Mr A Loria OBE AMIEE was Chairman. The Head Office was at 10 Berkeley Square. The product range included: - typewriters, adding machines, calculators, book-keeping machines, dictating machines, teleprinters, machine tools and photopanograph (for textile printing) but not all of these products were available in the UK. Olivetti had factories in Italy, Scotland, Spain, South Africa and South America.
On Easter Monday BBC Panorama featured the Lettera 22 and Lexicon as examples of modern industrial design. This TV exposure resulted directly in orders being taken. Both the Lexicon and Lettera are featured in the new Design Centre in London. The Lexicon and Divisumma are also displayed in the science museum.
Olivetti had a joint window display with Harrods. In the May a “mobile show room” was launched at the Royal Festival Hall. The demand for typewriters was so great in the south of England that British Rail designed special large containers to ship products down from Glasgow.
1957 A new factory at Pozzuoli near Naples was opened.
Tetractys calculator was launched this had a 12 digit entry and a 13 digit display. (Tetractys was the name given by Pythagoras to the first four cardinal numbers adding up to 10). The machine had two registers and a “memory” (editor of original newsletter quotes) device enabling switching from multiplication to division while maintaining products and quotients in the memory. The News Chronicle had a news article headed “no need to count sheep at bedtime! The Olivetti Tetractys will do it for you”.
In the May Olivetti held an exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, this featured a pictorial history of the Olivetti organisation.
July’s edition of the newsletter featured the first ten years of BOL.
The Graphika typewriter was launched and was the first manual typewriter to feature proportional spacing. The Graphika enabled organisations to produce the impression of a ‘printed’ document, the typewriter also featured two exclusive typefaces. The Glasgow produced Graphika sold for £89 10s 0d. This was seen at the time as the most important event for BOL since the Lexicon was introduced in 1953.
The typewrites statistics for the June were:
| | Standards | Portables |
Produced in UK for home market | 6,194 | 3,897
|
| Produced in UK for export | 8,852 | 6,011 |
| Imports (July) | 2,229 | 3,042 |
The London Evening News reported that BR’s London-Midland Comet express has an office with secretarial services using Lexicons.
The efficiency of the Glasgow factory was increased during the year by in the installation of a BSA ‘Automatic Turning Machine’ the first to be installed in the UK. The second product installed was an induction heater that used high frequency radio waves.
1958 Saw the introduction of the Divisumma 24 printing calculator that was a “lite” version of the Tetractys and worked at a speed of 235 cycles per minute. This easy to use counting machine sold for £239.
As mentioned in the preface the newsletter was aimed at the sales force although by 1958 other facets of Olivetti life in the UK were being included. A feature that caught my eye was a dress code checklist for salesman (I mean man).
1. Is my hair cut and well brushed?
2. Do I keep my hands scrupulously clean and my nails clean and neatly trimmed?
3. Are my shoes in good repair, highly polished and of a style comparable with the “Oxford” town shoe?
4. Do I change collar-attached shirts every day and shirts with detached shirts every other day with a clean collar daily?
5. Do I wear a dark, conservatively-cut suit which is always clean, well brushed and well pressed?
6. If I must wear a woollen is it concealed? (Few men think it good taste to wear jerseys in the ballroom: why should they be considered acceptable for business where the standards are higher and there is more at stake?)
7. When I wear an overcoat or mackintosh is it always clean and well brushed and is my collar always turned down neatly and the belt (if any) properly fastened?
8. Is my tie neatly tied and of a discreet colour and design?
Some companies insist that their Representatives wear hats but we feel that this should be left to the individual taste! (My exclamation mark – editor.)
I noticed from January the newsletter used lower case for the month of publication, I wonder what the Company would have said if this format was used on Company Letters?
A BBC TV programme “Europe: Friend or Foe?” was re-shown by popular demand, this programme about the European Common Market paid compliment to Olivetti’s efficiency of production. Aidan Crawley commented on the use of electronic production schedules and a parts transfer system that worked on time switches (an early form of “just-in-time”).
The front page of the February issue headed “ Message from Mr Olivetti” was a message from Adriano Olivetti.
The Glasgow factory organised a fund raising talent contest, in the canteen and watched by 900 members of staff and friends, to link-up with a national contest organised my Lou Prager. Miss Mary McKeon and Mr Danny McColl both won through into the area finals and Scottish Television gave Mr Ambrose Fagan an audition
Sales staff were reminded that BOL sold service as well as products. Two contracts were offered for the Lexicon, a three year contract at £6 and a five year contract at £10. These costs included service and or adjustment every three months and spare parts where required.
Head office moved from 10 to 30 Berkeley Square on the 5 August. By this time Mr Fei had become MD.
In the September newsletter the Elettrosumma 22 was announced. This was a low priced sterling with fractions all electric adding/listing machine with enough speed and capacity for multiplication by repetition. The Elettrosumma had no competitors with similar features at any price.
1959 The Illinois Institute of Technology polled 100 top designers and asked them to list the 100 best designed products of modern times. The Lettera 22 typewriter designed in 1948 by Marco Nizzoli headed the list. It was also the only typewriter in the top 10. In 1958 the Lettera 22 was the best selling portable in the UK.
The London Evening Standard ran a competition for an original slogan for the Lettera 22. Two entries were selected with both participants winning a Lettera 22. The first slogan was from a writer in the Transvaal “ So light – so right”. The other writer used an anagram technique to produce “ilovolivetti”.
Marco Nizzoli’s name was to the fore again as the designer of the new Olivetti 82 Diaspron typewriter. The Diaspore crystal was the inspiration behind his design. A Diaspore crystal is formed where there are three axes mutually at right angles and un-equal.
The August edition highlighted the ELEA 9003 new generation (an expression coined by the Economist magazine) ‘electronic computer’ with four features:
1. Fully transistorised - no old fashion valves.
2. Large store – 120,000 alphanumeric characters.
3. Simultaneous operations – like transcription from one magnetic tape to another while card reading with mag tape writing and calculations.
4. The ability to extract data from the store in a hundred thousandth of a second.
The ELEA 9003 could produce the payroll with PAYE returns whilst working out the coins required and analyse job cost, absenteeism and sickness by job grade.
In October Olivetti purchased 69% of Underwood Corporation who produced office machinery from four factories in USA, Canada, Germany and England, their total work force was 10,000. At the time Olivetti employed 24,700 staff and had six factories in Italy (2), Spain, Argentina, Brazil and Scotland.
To celebrate Olivetti’s first 50 years a “Jubilee Book” was produced and copies sent to Her Majesty the Queen, Rt.Hon. H Macmillan PM, Rt. Hon. H Gaitskill Leader of the Opposition, Sir Winston Churchill plus the heads of the major banks, newspapers, BBC, leaders of Industry and the Unions.