Citograf workstation

Citograf workstation in burgundy

In the 1940s Carl Lamm (Sweden) came up with a system of population administration and registration using embossed aluminum plates. Each plate had information on one person: name, address, date of birth, gender, marital status, social security number and so on. The brilliant thing was these plates were also used to print the address for large mailings such as Tax returns. Previous to this everything was administrated by hand on paper, this new system saved an enormous amount of time and labor.

THIS is the machine to punch/emboss the aluminium plates, facilitated by an electric motor (made in France). The Netherlands switched to this system in 1950, using it until computers arrived in 1966. Smaller towns and districts lagged behind; on the maintenance test plate the last noted date is 12 March 1990.

comes with several blank plates;

WPR: Wet Persoonsregistratie (Personal Registration Act);

industrial, equipment, device, apparatus, machine, government,  technology, innovation,
vintage, retro, 50s, 1950s, fifties,

height is 114 cm; 129 including the page-holder