Old Copy Machine With Purple Ink

The ink came in tubes.

Old copy machine with purple ink.

I began teaching in the 80s and used this machine every day. Duplicating machines were the predecessors of modern document reproduction technology. 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. 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.

Feb 24 2016 ditto machines. It does not use ink. It is a spirit duplicator called alcohol process duplicator in europe. The tray was only 1 4 deep.

It didn t use a drum. Ideally each ink color would have its own screen. The stencil was thin rubber backed with paper and it was critical to get this on right while peeling the paper backing. I never knew to actual name of it.

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 machine the duplicator that produces purple copies is not a mimeograph. 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.

I guess we changed those. Mimeographs along with spirit duplicators and hectographs were a common technology in printing small quantities as in office work classroom. The master for the ditto was only good for a limited number of copies as the solvent spirit dissolved the surface of the ink on the master allowing it to be transferred to the special paper. 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.

There were two cylinders with a silkscreen belt running on them. Ditto machine purple print and that smell. Ditto machines made the purple copies that faded over time faster with exposure to light.