The gentleman on the right side is interesting looking. I thought at first he is giving an icy stare at the camera, but then when I look again his eyes may be closed. Any ideas?

[Looks like they're open. - tterrace]

Farked again!

When I started out as a bookkeeper in the early 1970s, we had a Burroughs punch-tape computer for billing, and an IBM Systems III computer for accounts receivable (I was a keypunch operator for that task). We still did accounts payable and general ledger by hand. I was known then for my skill of running a ten-key calculator with my left hand while writing in the books with my right hand. Not much call for that sort of thing these days.

Anyway, when I first looked at this photo, I noticed the woman on the far left and thought, Oh! She's working at the Xerox copier! No, I said, slapping myself on the cheek. But I do wonder two things: did this accounting office have no mechanical calculators (they had been around for many years), and, where are the inkwells? The woman entering stuff into the ledger is using an ink pen but there is no inkwell visible.

The electrical whatzit under the windowsill looks like a two-piece rosette, those were more frequently used for ceiling mounted drop lights but certainly would have made a very secure electric socket.

Google-fu turned up a blog post, including pictures, that explains these and many other early electric mysteries:

http://www.rexophone.com/?p=1175

I found a druggist's circular from 1910 that mentioned various cucumber remedies including a cucumber moisturizing lotion with benzoic acid in it.

when ledgers were written up by hand and it didn't matter if the power went down!

Skin lotion it is. The label says "Benzoin (and?) Cucumber" a traditional mix used in skin lotions with other ingredients according to my sources (or rather, THE Source of all Knowledge which begins with a "W")

I can't quite make out what's in the bottle on the desk, can we get a close up Mr Demille...err..Dave?

[Looks like a type of skin lotion. - tterrace]

Look at the gizmo on the wall below the windowsill. It appears to be a primitive way of connecting the desk lamp to the building's wiring. It sure doesn't look like the standard two-prong electrical outlet that we have been using for the last hundred years.

Are there any really old electricians reading this, who could illuminate the insides of this junction block for us?

of fresh ink in the morning. No sauteing the spreadsheets here.

Really good mustache pulls on the desk too.

Ears big enough to hold pencil? Check!
Super fine, really good mustache? Check!

Hired!