A Rolodex is a rotating card file device used to store a contact list . Its name, a portmanteau of the words "rolling" and "index", has become somewhat genericized for any personal organizer performing this function, or as a metonym for a total accumulation of business contacts. In this usage, it has generally come to describe an effect or characteristic of the small-world network of a business's investors, board of directors , or the value of a CEO's contacts, or in organizational structure . Models have been exhibited in the Smithsonian Institution .
3-619: The Rolodex was invented in 1956 by Danish engineer Hildaur Neilsen, the chief engineer of Arnold Neustadter 's company Zephyr American , a stationery manufacturer in New York. Neustadter was often credited with having invented it. First marketed in 1958, it was an improvement to an earlier design called the Wheeldex . Zephyr American also invented, manufactured and sold the Autodex , a spring-operated phone directory that automatically opened to
6-439: The 1980s, and individual Rolodexes containing a large amount of information were considered valuable, and lawsuits were filed by companies against employees who attempted to take their Rolodex with them when leaving the company. A 1985 episode of the detective TV series Moonlighting involved a stolen Rolodex being ransomed for $ 50,000- a figure reflecting the value of the data it contained. The system fell out of widespread use in
9-400: The selected letter; Swivodex , an inkwell that did not spill; Punchodex , a paper hole puncher; and Clipodex , an office aid that attached to a stenographer's knee. Rolodex also marketed non-rotary (linear) tub-like card-file systems using the same cards (size and notches) as the rotary files. Neustadter retired and sold out to a larger firm in 1970. The Rolodex remained popular throughout
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