Duplicating machines were the predecessors of modern document reproduction technology.
Old copy machine with purple ink.
The ink came in tubes.
The stencil was thin rubber backed with paper and it was critical to get this on right while peeling the paper backing.
Ideally each ink color would have its own screen.
Both pieces of paper are stained with purple ink because they went through a machine invented in 1923 called a ditto machine or spirit duplicator.
Sold a hectograph kit as late as 1974 tray gelatin a few sheets of purple inked paper and that thick cover.
There were two cylinders with a silkscreen belt running on them.
The mimeograph process should not be confused with the spirit duplicator process.
When the gelatin got too saturated with ink dad would liquidize it by heating it and re pour it into the pan les newcomer reports that the heyer hectograph co.
Stencil duplication was a low cost printing method that worked by forcing ink through waxed paper stencils on to target paper.
The duplicator that produces purple copies is not a mimeograph.
A ditto machine was a primitive photocopier that used a solvent like methylated spirits or ammonia to transfer ink from the master copy the template if you will onto other pieces of paper.
I never knew to actual name of it.
We just cleaned it out to change color.
It didn t use a drum.
The tray was only 1 4 deep.
Who could forget the purple ink that rubbed off on your hands the copies had a smell that was recognised by any 1960 70 s school kid.
Mimeographs along with spirit duplicators and hectographs were a common technology in printing small quantities as in office work classroom.
The stencil duplicator or mimeograph machine often abbreviated to mimeo is a low cost duplicating machine that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper.
I guess we changed those.
Ditto machines made the purple copies that faded over time faster with exposure to light.
Ditto machine purple print and that smell.