Ever notice those little steel boxes used to hold 3” by 5” index cards? Well, they used to be steel. Nowadays they are probably all made of plastic. But immediately following World War II there was a shortage of sheet metal and other materials. The Home-O-Nize company was set up to make steel kitchen cabinets. But there wasn’t enough steel available. So instead they started creating tiny steel boxes perfect for holding index cards.
Eventually larger amounts of steel were available and the company began to make larger boxes. These boxes took the form of the vertical filing cabinets which for decades had been constructed of wood. The company revolutionized office filing and the metal filing cabinet was born. HON filing cabinets were manufactured and copied throughout the world. The original designs are still used today. And HON is still the largest manufacturer in the world of metal filing cabinets. We wonder if they still make the little boxes for index cards?