Old Copy Machine With Purple Ink

Ditto machine purple print and that smell.

Old copy machine with purple ink.

It didn t use a drum. The mimeograph process should not be confused with the spirit duplicator process. There were two cylinders with a silkscreen belt running on them. The stencil was thin rubber backed with paper and it was critical to get this on right while peeling the paper backing.

The duplicator that produces purple copies is not a mimeograph. They have now been replaced by digital duplicators scanners laser printers and photocopiers but for many years they were the primary means of reproducing documents for limited run distribution the duplicator was pioneered by thomas edison and david gestetner with gestetner dominating the market up until. 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. We just cleaned it out to change color.

Ideally each ink color would have its own screen. I never knew to actual name of it. Mimeographs along with spirit duplicators and hectographs were a common technology in printing small quantities as in office work classroom. Duplicating machines were the predecessors of modern document reproduction technology.

The tray was only 1 4 deep. Sold a hectograph kit as late as 1974 tray gelatin a few sheets of purple inked paper and that thick cover. The master for the ditto was only good for a limited number of copies as the solvent spirit dissolved. When i was in grade school i remember this copier that printed in purple ink and the secretary had to turn a handle to produce copies.

Ditto machines made the purple copies that faded over time faster with exposure to light. 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. 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. The ink came in tubes.

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.