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| Antique Copying Machines |
Antique Copying
Machines
Victoria copying machine, Le Bureau Moderne, 1913.
Offices need more than one copy of a document in a number of situations. Typically they need a copy of outgoing correspondence for their records. Sometimes they want to circulate copies of documents they create to several interested parties. Other times they need hundreds of copies of circulars and form letters. And at yet other times they want to copy incoming or old documents. In the late 20th century, all these needs were met by photocopying machines and by electronic storage, transmission and scanning. By contrast, during the final quarter of the 19th century a host of competing technologies were introduced to meet such needs. Indeed, one article at the time was entitled “Still Another Letter-Copying Process.” (Manufacturer and Builder, Feb. 1880.) Nevertheless, until the 20th century pen and ink, and eventually the typewriter, remained the only technologies for copying most incoming documents.
Copying Clerks
In the nineteenth century, correspondence was principally by hand with pen
and ink. Indeed, heavy reliance on calligraphy continued in offices for
decades after the first practical typewriter was marketed by Remington in
1874.
Until the late 18th century, if
an office wanted to keep a copy of an outgoing letter, a clerk had to write
out the copy by hand. This technology
continued to be important through most of the nineteenth century. Offices
employed copy clerks, also known as copyists, scribes, and scriveners, men
who typically stood or sat on high stools while working at tall slant-top
desks. Charles Dickens immortalized one such clerk, Bob Cratchit: “The door
of Scrooge’s counting-house was open that he might keep his eye upon his
clerk, who in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copying
letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk’s fire was so very
much smaller that it looked like one coal." (A Christmas Carol, 1843.
Image of this scene to the right is from 1893.) Herman Melville's story
Bartleby (1853) concerns a lawyer in New York City who employed three
scriveners to copy testimony and other documents. Yates reports that "the Du
Pont Company continued to use hand copy books through at least 1857." (JoAnne
Yates, Control through Communications, 1989, p. 206.)
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Letter Copying Presses |
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Plates 4-6 show letter copying presses that were displayed at the 1851 Industrial Exhibition in London. Along with typewriters, letter copying presses are the most common machines found in photographs of late 19th century and very early 20th century offices. Yates (Ch. 4-5) reports that the Illinois Central Railroad used copying presses to make copies of outgoing letters in press books at least from the late 1850s to 1896, that the Repauno Chemical Co. stopped using press books in 1901 (p. 226), that the Scoville Manufacturing Co. was still using copy presses and press books for outgoing letters in 1913 (p. 181), and that the Hagley Museum and Library has press books that were used in the 1930s (p. 283). The last U.S. President whose official correspondence was copied on a copying press was Calvin Coolidge (1923-29). (David Owen, "Making Copies," Smithsonian, Aug. 2004, p. 92) Screw model letter copying presses were still marketed in 1950, and Proudfoot reports that an organization in London, England, was still using press books in the late 1950s. (W. B. Proudfoot, The Origin of Stencil Duplicating, 1972, p. 32) Because of the size and weight of letter copying presses, numerous portable methods for pressing loose copies and copy books were also marketed during the 19th century. In a review of office equipment at the 1851 Industrial Exhibition, Granville Sharp recommended that when an office was selecting a press like those in Plates 1-3, it should make sure that the handle was heavily weighted at the ends to insure proper spinning. “This is essential to a screw copy press; for unless one pull will serve to raise or to depress the plate, much time is lost.” In addition to the press, offices needed to buy copying books that contained up to a thousand pages of tough tissue paper, copying ink, copying paper dampers, oiled paper, and blotting paper. Sharp explained that before using the new press, the office had to decide how to organize its letters. Production of copies was easiest if the user copied its letters into a single letter book in chronological order. In that case, the user needed to make an index so that letters of interest could later be retrieved. Alternatively, the office could organize its correspondence by client, which avoided indexing but made it necessary to use numerous copying books on a given day. Although copies could be made up to twenty-four hours after a letter was written, copies made within a few hours were best. A copying clerk would begin by counting the number of letters to be written during the next few hours and by preparing the copying book. Suppose the clerk wanted to copy 20 one-page letters. In that case, he (copying clerks were men) would insert a sheet of oiled paper into the copying book in front of the first tissue on which he wanted to make a copy of a letter. He would then turn 20 sheets of tissue paper and insert a second oiled paper. Sharp advised that “Success in copying letters depends almost entirely upon the damping of the paper. The paper should be saturated and damp, not wet.” To dampen the tissue paper, the clerk used a brush or copying paper damper. The damper had a reservoir for water that wet a cloth, and the clerk wiped the cloth over the tissues on which copies were to be made. (See Plate 5A) The oiled papers confined the moisture to the pages that were to be used. Blotting paper was used to remove excess moisture. Next, letters were written with special copying ink, which was not blotted. The copying clerk arranged the portion of the letter book to be used in the following sequence starting from the front: a sheet of oiled paper, then a sheet of letter book tissue, then a letter placed face up against the back of the tissue on which the copy was to be made, then another oiled paper, et cetera, “oiled paper being in all cases placed next the damp paper, to prevent the ink forcing beyond the paper intended to receive it.” Finally, “Close the book, put it into the press, and screw tightly down, letting it remain a minute or two under pressure, when the copy will be properly taken, and may be dried with blotting paper, or held near the fire.” Based on experience, the clerk could adjust the press time. If he made a copy soon after a letter was written, only a second or two was needed to make a good impression. When the letter book was pressed, some of the ink transferred from the letters to the moist tissues in the book. Because the ink penetrated the tissues, copies could be read from the front sides of the tissue. Prior to the introduction of inks made
with aniline dyes, the quality of copies made on letter copying presses
was limited by the properties of the available copying inks. The first
aniline dye was invented in 1856, and numerous aniline dyes were
invented in the following two decades. Bedini (p. 193) reports that "The
growth of the aniline dye and ink manufacturing industries in Germany,
which coincided with the earliest importation in 1868 of thin papers
manufactured in Japan, brought a new popularity to the bound letter
book." |
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| Copying Pad Baths
By the late 1870s, an improved method for moistening pages in
copying books had been invented, and by the late 1880s it had been
widely adopted. Rather than using a brush or damper to wet the tissues,
the clerk inserted a thin moist cloth or pad between each oil paper and
the following tissue. A supply of moist pads was prepared in advance
using a copying bath, such as Hill's Blotter Bath, patented in 1879
(Plate 6B) or Tatum's Ideal Copying Pad Bath, patented in 1887 (Plate
7). Tatum also produced larger copying tanks that included wringers to
remove excess water from copying pads. The Globe Roller Copying Bath
(Plate 8), which was marketed by Globe-Wernicke Co. in the early 1900s,
is an example of a copying tank. To prepare a supply of moist pads using
the Ideal bath, the clerk removed the tray from the bath, poured water
into the pan, and replaced the tray. Also, the clerk sprinkled a set of
pads, let them stand overnight, and then placed them in the tray. “The
evaporation from the water underneath will generally be sufficient to
keep pads damp enough for ordinary work.” Plate 8A shows an 1886
Bailey's Letter Copying Machine with a Moistening Attachment on top. |
 Plate 6B, Hill's Blotter Bath, B.B.Hill, Springfield, MA, patented 1879  Plate 7, Ideal Copying Bath, Samuel C. Tatum & Co., patented 1887  Plate 8, Globe Copying Bath 1909 ad |
| Copying Books Plate 9 shows a letter copying book with copies of typed letters from 1905. |
 Plate 9, Letter Copying Book, 1905 |
| Portable Copying Presses Plate 10 shows an 1881 advertisement for an Atmospheric Letter Copying Press. The copying book was inserted into a slot on the side of a narrow wooden case. Pressure was then applied to the book by manual inflation of a flat balloon inside the case. Plate 10AA shows an 1889 advertisement for the Jewel Copying Press, which was similar in concept, but pressure was applied by moving a lever. At the 1885 Novelties Exhibition in Philadelphia, Alvah Bushnell exhibited his Perfect Letter Copying Book, which did not use a press. Plate 10A shows an 1895 advertisement for Bushnell's Perfect Letter Copying Books. A letter to be copied was placed in the flexible book, which was then rolled up around a wooden rod attached to its spine. "The principle of copying is the same as with a copying press. The covers of our books are flexible, and sufficient pressure is easily given by rolling them up in the hands." "Two thin, tough manila sheets of paper are supplied with each book, to take the place of the stiff oil sheet used with the copying press, and one piece of thin muslin the same size as the leaves of the book is furnished, which, when properly dampened, is used to moisten the leaf when making the copy." In the 1890s, Bushnell's device was $1.00 to $1.60, depending on size. The device as still advertised in 1908. At the same 1885 exhibition, Sagar Chadwick exhibited the Chadwick Copying Book. He claimed that with it one "copies written matter made with ordinary ink by simply laying such matter on a page of the book and rubbing with the hand, dispensing with the use of a press, brush, and bowl." Unlike Bushnell's book, we have found no subsequent mention of Chadwick's. Plate 10B shows a portable Cylindrical Copying Press and cabinet that were marketed by the Portable Copying Press and Stationery Co. in 1888-89. To use the press, one placed a sheet of damp copying paper against an original letter and rolled these around a cylinder. One then inserted this cylinder inside a cylindrical press and applied pressure by turning crank. Another type of portable copying press is shown in Plate 10C, which is from a c. 1920s advertisement in Germany. |
 Plate 10, Atmospheric Letter Copying Press, 1881 Picture coming [GS 040489] Plate 10AA, Jewel Copying Press, 1889  Plate 10A, Bushnell's Perfect Letter Copying Books, 1895
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Roller Copiers |
 Plate 11, Damp-Leaf Copier 1889 |
| Polygraphs A polygraph is a mechanical device that moves a second pen parallel to one held by a writer, enabling the writer to make a duplicate of a document as it is written. Although polygraphs in the 17th century, polygraphs did not became popular until 1800. Hawkins & Peale patented a polygraph in the US in 1803, and beginning in 1804 Thomas Jefferson collaborated with them in working on improvements in the machine. Jefferson used a polygraph for the rest of his life. However, polygraphs were not practical for most office purposes and were never widely used in businesses. Hawkins & Peale lost money producing polygraphs. One problem was their "inherent instability, and constant need for repair and adjustment." (Bedini, p. 187) Plates 12-12A show polygraphs owned by Jefferson. For additional photographs of Jefferson's polygraphs, click on the following two links to the Library of Congress (1, 2). |
 Plate 12, Polygraph 1803  Plate 12A, Polygraph 1803, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, on loan from the Franklin Institute |
| Carbon Paper, Manifold Books and
Typewriters A crude form of carbon paper was patented by Ralph Wedgwood in 1806. The R. Wedgwood Patent Manifold Writer and similar systems that were sold from 1806 until around the end of the 19th century enabled users to retain a copy of outgoing letters made with this carbon paper. The original Wedgwood system used manifolds consisting of a sheet of transparent paper followed by a sheet of ordinary writing paper. To write a letter and make a carbon copy simultaneously, the user would insert a sheet of double-sided carbon paper between the transparent sheet and the writing paper. When the user wrote with an agate-tipped stylus like that in Plate 13 on the transparent paper, he would produce an outgoing letter on the ordinary paper under the carbon. He would also produce a copy in reverse on the back of the transparent sheet. Because the sheet was transparent, the copy could be read from the front. Plate 13A shows a stylus lying on a manifold copying book with detachable letter pages. This is an 1879 Lightning Copying Book and Lightning Pen manufactured by the Triumph Mfg. Co. W. Davison, Alnwick, England, advertised "letter writers," which may have been manifold writers, c. 1814-26? (John Johnson Collection Exhibition 2001, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford) Manifold Writers made by Francis & Loutrel are reported to have been used by military leaders during the Civil War. Mark Twain wrote some of his stories on Manifold Writers in the early 1870s. McDonald & Johnson's Stylograph, which was similar, was advertised in 1881. During the 1850s, advertisements for Wedgwood Patent Manifold Writers claimed that they could be used to make up to ten copies, but most of the manifold books were designed to make one copy that could be sent and one that would be retained. The c. 1858 catalog of John W. Clothier, Philadelphia, PA, advertised "carbon paper for copying" (Hagley Museum and Library). Nevertheless, use of carbon paper was modest until the 1870s. Early carbon paper was messy, carbon paper did not make a satisfactory copy when the original was written with a pen, there was concern that carbon copies could be altered or forged, and carbon copies were not admissible in court. Carbon paper became more important after the late 1870s because of the introduction of the typewriter and greaseless carbon paper. Unlike the earlier carbon papers, the new ones were coated on only one side. Typewriters were able to produce up to ten carbon copies along with an original. Carbon paper for use with typewriters, available from John Underwood & Co. among others, was advertised in 1886 (A.C. Farley & Co., The Purchaser, Philadelphia, PA, Feb. 1886. Hagley Museum and Library). Yates reports that in 1912 a government report stated that "by the almost universal practice of business concerns, the carbon copy has supplanted the press copy as a record of outgoing correspondence." According to Yates (p. 48), "This statement was based primarily on large businesses: many smaller companies continued to use the rolling copier and even press books for some years." |
 Plate 13, Agate-Tipped Stylus  Plate 13A, Lightning Copying Book and Lightning Pen, 1879.
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| Printing Presses Neither letter copying presses nor carbon paper could be used to make numerous copies of a document. Until the mid-1870s, offices had two options for making many copies. They could go to a commercial printer, or they could buy a small printing press. In the 19th century, commercial printers used platen presses for job work such as business cards, envelopes, billheads, and circulars. (Harold E. Sterne, Catalogue of Nineteenth Century Printing Presses, 1978, p. 217) Yates (Ch. 4) indicates that until 1876 the Illinois Central Railroad used commercial printers when it needed large numbers of copies of items such as circulars, and that it continued to use commercial printers after 1876 when it needed multiple copies of documents to be distributed to the public rather than for internal use. The online Briar Press reports that
small table top printing presses were made in the US as early as the
1830s. One type of small press that was marketed for office use in
England in 1851 was the S. Mordan & Co. Combined Lithographic and
Copying Press (Plate 14).
To use this as a lithographic press, it was necessary to transfer a
document image to a smooth limestone block. The available evidence
suggests that such lithographic presses were not widely used in offices,
at least in the US. William Tuttle and Benjamin O. Woods produced small lever presses in Boston by 1857. A lever press is a table-top hand-operated version of the larger foot-operated platen press used by commercial printers. Woods advertised small Novelty printing presses in 1873 and exhibited them at the Centennial Exhibition in 1876. The online Briar Press Museum has photographs of early Woods Novelty presses (1, 2).
Small lever presses were sold in a wide range of sizes by numerous companies. Lever presses that printed items measuring 1.5" x 2.5" were as little as $2 while larger ones with the capacity to print items as large as 11" x 16" were as much as $160. Plate 14B shows a lever press intended for use in printing small items such as business cards. |
 Plate 14, Mordan Co. Press, 1851  Plate 14A, Kelsey & Co. Excelsior Printing Press, model patented 1893  Plate 14B, Patent Lever Self-Inker Press No. 2, 1889 ad |
| Stencil Duplicating Machines In 1874, Eugenio de Zuccato, an Italian in London, obtained a US patent for the first commercially successful stencil copying process for use in offices. His Papyrograph process began with a sheet of lacquer-coated stencil paper that could not be penetrated by liquid. By writing on this stencil with corrosive ink, a clerk made the affected parts of the stencil porous so that liquid would pass through. An improved version of the Papyrograph system that was patented in 1876 and marketed shortly thereafter by the Papyrograph Co. of Norwich, CT, used a horizontal sliding frame that was twice the width of the printing surface of a letter copying press. The operator placed this sliding frame so that half covered the printing surface of a letter copying press and the other half was next to the press. The operator then placed an inked pad on the half of the sliding frame that was next to the press, placed a prepared stencil face down on the inked pad, and covered the stencil with a sheet of paper. The operator then slid this "sandwich" inside the copying press and lowered the press to make a copy. The manufacturer claimed that "By this process from 300 to 1000 facsimile impressions can be taken upon Dry and Unprepared Paper, direct from the original writing, in an ordinary Letter-Copying Press." Although advertisements claimed an operator could make 500 copies per hour, the method was slow and messy. Also, the stencils could not be prepared with a typewriter. Nevertheless, the Papyrograph continued in use into the late 19th century. In 1878, a complete Papyrograph system, including press and supplies, was $23 to $75. |
 Plate 14C, Zuccato's Papyrograph, The Papyrograph Co., Norwich, CT, 1878 ad |
| Edison Electric Pen In 1875, Thomas Edison and Charles Batchelor developed a stencil system for copying handwritten documents, Edison’s Autographic Press and Electric Pen. The operator would hold a special pen (Plate 15) in a vertical position and write or draw on a stencil resting on a sheet of blotting paper. The pen was 5 ¾” tall and top-heavy. The top portion was a small uncovered electric motor attached by flexible wires to a nearby two-cup wet battery containing water and sulfuric acid (Plate 16). Each time the motor’s horizontal shaft rotated, a cam attached to the shaft caused a needle inside the pen to make three vertical strokes, each one cutting a minute hole in the stencil. The pen made approximately 135 perforations a second. |
 Plate 15, Edison Electric Pen & Stand 1876
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| Edison’s 1876 patent explains that to print copies
one placed the stencil over the paper on which an impression was to be
made. A felt-covered roller was used to press ink through the
perforations in the stencil to the surface of the sheet below. The
patent describes a simple hand press consisting of a flat bed with a
hinged frame to which the stencil was attached. Presses are shown in
Plates 17-18. To view the 1876 patent, click
here.
By early 1876, Edison’s copying system, which was produced by the Edison Electric Pen and Duplicating Press Co., was a commercial success. According to the Smithsonian Institution, the system was priced ad $30-$35, and approximately 60,000 were sold. However, sales were constrained by the fact that many office clerks did not have the skill or motivation to maintain the complicated battery. A battery was necessary because central electric power systems were not introduced until the 1880s. Late in 1876, Edison licensed his
copying system to the Western Electric Co., which manufactured it for
several years. A number of other companies marketed similar systems,
including some with pneumatic perforating pens driver by foot-powered
bellows. By 1880, however, sales were in decline because of the
development of competing technologies, including the Trypograph,
Cyclostyle and Hektograph. |
 Plate 17, Edison Duplicating Press
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| Trypograph In 1877, Zuccato introduced the Trypograph, which used an alternative method for producing stencils. A wax-covered stencil was placed on a metal plate with a file-like surface with thousands of perforating points. When a metal stylus was used to write on the stencil, the stencil was perforated from below by the file. A similar method is illustrated in an 1880 patent awarded to Edison (Plate 19A). Trypographs were still sold at the end of the 19th century. |
 Plate 19, Trypograph marketed by Zuccato & Wolff, London  Plate 19A, Edison Stencil Perforation 1880 |
| Cyclostyle In 1881, David Gestetner patented the Cyclostyle wheel pen, which was superior to Edison’s electric pen because the wheel pen did not require a battery and produced better stencils. On the tip of the Cyclostyle pen was a minute steel wheel with a toothed edge. An improved version was named the Neo-Cyclostyle or Neostyle (Plate 20). As the pen was moved over a wax-covered stencil, the teeth perforated the stencil. Cyclostyle, Neo-Cyclostyle and Neostyle copying systems were sold during the 1880s and 1890s and apparently well into the 20th century in boxes similar to the Edison Mimeograph (see Plates 22 and 23), as well as with a flat manual metal press (Plate 21). In 1887, boxed Cyclostyles were $12.50 to $22.50, depending on size. |
 Plate 20, Neostyle Wheel Pen 1888  Plate 21, Cyclostyle Presses 1887. The press on the left was also advertised in 1886. |
| Stygmograph
The Stygmograph (Plate 21A) was advertised in 1884 as a copying pen for writing by hand on duplicating stencils. |
 Plate 21A, Stygmograph, 1884 |
| Mimeograph Albert Blake Dick invented the Mimeograph stencil in 1884. The A. B. Dick Co., Chicago, acquired Edison’s copying system patents and, with Edison’s support, began manufacturing and marketing Edison Mimeograph systems in 1887. Models were sold in rectangular wooden boxes (Plates 21B-23). The boxes contained a hand printing frame that consisted of a flat bed or printing board and a hinged frame that held the stencil. The boxes also contained an ink roller, an inking slate, ink, varnish and a brush for making corrections, waxed stencil paper, blotters, a writing stylus, and a writing plate with a file-like surface (see Plate 19) that was 1.5" to 3" top-to-bottom and as wide as the printing frame. To prepare a handwritten stencil, "A sheet of Mimeograph stencil paper is placed over the finely grooved steel plate and written upon with a smooth pointed steel stylus, and in the line of the writing so made, the stencil paper will be perforated from the under side with minute holes, in such close proximity to each other that the dividing fibers of paper are scarcely perceptible." After the operator has written a few lines, the operator moves the stencil upward over the writing plate so that a new portion of the stencil is on top of the writing plate. "After the stencil is completed it is placed in the printing frame, by which the stencil is firmly held taut and in a position for rapid printing. After inking the roller on the slate furnished for that purpose, pass it over the stencil sheet and a correct reproduction of the matter stenciled will appear on the paper which has been previously placed underneath." Ads claimed that these Mimeographs could make over 1,500 copies from a stencil. A. B. Dick claimed to have sold over 80,000 Edison Mimeographs by 1892 and over 200,000 by 1899. In 1889, Mimeographs were $12-$29.50, depending on size and whether they included the items needed for handwritten, typewritten, or both types of stencils. Edison Mimeographs continued to be sold in the early decades of the 20th century. The model numbers denote different sizes and features. In 1889, the models used for handwritten stencils were identified as No. 0 to No. 5; the model for typewritten stencils only was No. 12; the models for both types of stencils were No. 20 to No. 25. |
 Plate 21B, Edison Mimeograph, A.B. Dick Co., Chicago, IL, 1889 ad.  Plate 22, Mimeograph No. 12
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| Until the late-1880s, stencils were written by hand. The types of stencils that had been developed could not be prepared by typewriters. Typewriter stencils were introduced in the late-1880s and underwent significant improvements during the following years. To cut a stencil with a typewriter, one covered the stencil with a fine "perforating silk" cloth and typed without a ribbon. In 1894, the A. B. Dick Company marketed the Edison Mimeograph Typewriter shown in Plate 24 (with the carriage raised); for additional photographs, click here. For a discussion of the Edison Mimeograph Typewriter, go to the Museum's exhibit on Antique Office Typewriters. |
Plate 24, Edison Mimeograph Typewriter 1894 |
| Automatic Stencil Duplicators In the early 1890s, Gestetner introduced the first “automatic,” or self-inking, stencil duplicating press, which was sold as the Automatic Cyclostyle until approximately 1910 (Plate 25). In addition to the printing frame sold in the wooden box (Plate 19), in the 1890s A. B. Dick sold metal Mimeograph presses (Plate 26). In 1896, the Neostyle Co. marketed the Automatic Neostyle with the claim that "The machine is automatic in the full meaning of the word--the printing is automatic, the frame is opened and closed automatically, the pressure of roller is automatic, the distribution of ink is automatic, the copies are discharged as fast as printed automatically, the number of copies printed is automatically recorded, the ink is supplied automatically." These automatic presses speeded the duplicating process.  Plate 26, Mimeograph Presses 1896 In 1895, Stackhouse & Krumbhaar, Philadelphia, PA, advertised the Diagraph, which was described as "The only perfected, automatic and rapid stencil printing machine." |
 Plate 25, Automatic Cyclostyle  Plate 25A, Diagraph, 1895 ad |
| Rotary Stencil Duplicator The Neostyle Co. marketed the first rotary stencil duplicator in 1898, further increasing the speed of duplication. In 1899 the Rotary Neostyle was advertised with a choice of hand crank, foot treadle, or electric motor. (Plate 27) 
Plate 28, Rotary Neostyle Duplicator Model 8-F 1909 
Plate 29, Office with Rotary Neostyle |
 Plate 27, Rotary Neostyle, electric model, 1899 |
| A. B. Dick Co. began to sell Edison Rotary Mimeograph systems in 1900. In 1909, A. B. Dick claimed that the Edison Rotary Mimeograph No. 75 (Plate 30) could produce 2,000 perfect copies from a stencil at a rate of 45 to 50 copies a minute. For printing, the prepared stencil was attached to exterior of the perforated hollow metal drum. As the drum was turned, ink was extruded through the stencil to sheets of paper fed under the drum. In 1914 Rotary Mimeographs were $30 to $160, depending on features. A. B. Dick continued to use the Edison name on such systems until 1940. |
 Plate 30, Rotary Mimeograph No. 75, 1904  Plate 30A, Roneo Rotary Copying Machine, 1913 ad |
| In 1906 the Roneo Co. introduced the Roneo Copier (Plate 30B), a "dry" copying machine that made copies on a paper roll impregnated with a glycerin solution that kept the paper uniformly moist for several months. Copies were made on the roll, which was then cut and dried to yield individual copies. The Soennecken copying machine (Plate 30C), which was made in Germany and sold in France as of 1913, appears to have been similar to the Roneo. |
 Plate 30B, Roneo Copier, 1906  Plate 30C, Soennecken Copying Machine, 1913 |
| Gestetner stencil duplicating machines (Plate 31) had two drums instead of the usual one drum. The stencil was attached to a band around the two drums. |
 Plate 31, Gestetner Duplicator No. 26 |
| Mimeoscope In 1914-16, the A. B. Dick Co. patented the mimeoscope (Plate 32). A mimeoscope had an electrically-illuminated glass top on which the operator traced drawings onto mimeograph stencils. The stencil took the place of tracing paper. The electric light was needed because the stencils were heavier and less transparent than tracing paper. |
 Plate 32, Mimeoscope, patented 1914-16, advertised in 1922 |
| Hektograph and Spirit Duplicators The stencil copying systems described above involved pressing or extruding ink through stencils onto sheets of paper. In the hektograph process, which was introduced in 1876 or shortly before, a master was written or typed with a special aniline ink. The master was then placed face down on a tray containing gelatin and pressed gently for a minute or two, with the result that most of the ink transferred to the surface of the gelatin. Gelatin was used because its moisture kept the ink from drying. Copies were made by using a roller to press blank papers onto the gelatin. Each time a copy was made, some ink was removed from the gelatin, and consequently successive copies were progressively lighter. In practice, up to fifty copies could be made from one master. Plate 33 is an 1876 ad for J. R. Holcomb & Co.'s Transfer Tablet hektograph. Plate 33B shows another hektograph, Lawton & Co.’s Simplex Printer, which was introduced by a predecessor company, General Copying Apparatus Co., by 1889. The Simplex was $3 to $29.50, depending on size. Yates (p. 122) reports that "By 1885 the [Illinois Central Railroad] Freight Office's need for a neat alternative to printing had led it to adopt...the hectograph....Using a hectograph in the Freight Office, rather than sending the rate circulars to be printed, was faster as well as cheaper. And although the hectograph duplicating process itself was messy, the final products were neater and more readable than those produced with the Edison Electric Pen." An 1887 ad stated that a hektograph could be used to make 15 to 40 good copies of a letter typed on a Hall index typewriter. Hektograph copiers were still marketed by Heyer in the 1950s. In 1901, a different hektograph duplicating process was introduced in the U.S. (W. H. Leffingwell, The Office Appliance Manual, 1926, p. 378.) Rather than using a gelatin pad, this process, which was invented in Germany in 1880, used a roll of paper coated with gelatin, glue, and glycerin. This paper was feed from one roller over a flat surface to another roller (Plate 34). The portion of the paper resting on the flat surface played the same roll as the gelatin pad. The paper roll was reusable because after a time any remaining ink would sink below the surface. These were advertised as late as 1922. The Commercial Duplicator, which was advertised in 1917, appears to have used a similar technology to produce copies of documents written in duplicator ink. Beginning in 1910, Ditto, Inc., sold gelatin duplicators that were essentially large mechanical versions of the Daus Tip-Top Duplicator pictured to the right. Like the hektograph, the Ditto process could be used for up to 100 copies. Plate 34A is a 1925 Ditto machine. "When preparing the original, hard bond paper and a special kind of ink [containing aniline dyes] are used. This may be in the form of a duplicating typewriter ribbon, a duplicating ink, or even an indelible pencil. The original is placed face down on the copying surface and smoothed with the palm of the hand or a roller. It is then lifted off, having left its impression on the gelatin. The blank sheets are placed one at a time on the gelatin surface and allowed to remain a few seconds until the imprint is made." The Ditto machine in Plate 34A was $200. In 1925, other models were $117 to $395. The spirit duplicator, which was introduced in 1923 and which was widely used for several decades, evolved from the hektograph and Ditto machines described above. The best-known spirit duplicator company was Ditto, Inc. The Ditto process involved the creation of masters and the transfer of ink from masters to copies. A Ditto carbon consisted of a sheet of slick, impermeable paper (the master) attached to the front of a second sheet that had on its face a coating of paste-like ink. When one typed or drew on the front of the master, a reverse image in heavy ink was transferred to the back side of the master. The master was then detached from the second sheet and attached to the drum of a rotary press with the inked surface outward. When the drum was rotated, the inked surface of the master was wiped with a solvent such as spirit ether to wet the ink, and until the ink was exhausted impressions were made on papers that were fed under the drum. |
 Plate 33, J. R. Holcomb & Co. Transfer Tablet hektograph, 1876 ad  Plate 33B, Lawton Simplex Printer, 1895 ad. The illustration shows three gelatin trays.  Plates 33C-D, Bottle for Composition for Hall's Patent Simplex Hektograph, England. Photo below shows instructions on back of bottle. 
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Lithographic Duplicators In the 1880s, a number of office duplicators were
introduced that used lithographic processes, but the stone was generally
replaced by a zinc plate or even parchment. According to an 1880
description, the process of using Anderson's New Auto-Lithograph
"consists in writing the original document with chemical writing fluid
with any pen on ordinary writing paper, and when dry this original is
placed ink-side downward upon [a sensitive plate], and left for two or
three minutes. It is then removed and a negative impression, in perfect
and beautiful relief, will be found on the plate. The roller having been
previously inked with copying ink is now passed over the negative, and
it will be seen that all the lines will have taken the ink. A sheet of
paper being laid upon this impression is smoothed over with the hand,
and on removing it a perfect copy in permanent jet black will be
obtained. This may be repeated for a number of copies, and when they
become faint the impression may be re-inked with the roller and the
copies will be as at first. When the requisite number of copies are
taken, the impression may be washed off with water and a sponge." (Geyer's
Stationer, Oct. 7, 1880, p. 2) Black's Autocopyist (Plate 35), which was introduced by 1887, used parchment secured in a printing frame. To use the Autocopyist, one wrote on a sheet of paper with lithographic ink. This paper was then laid face down on the dampened parchment, and pressure was applied to the back of the paper, causing the lithographic ink to transfer to the parchment. Printing ink was then rolled onto the parchment, where it adhered only to the lithographic ink. Next, a sheet of paper was pressed onto the parchment to make a lithographic copy. Ca. 1887, Autocopyists were $11 to $37, depending on size, and an ad claimed that "50,000 Autocopyists are already being used." Using a lithographic duplicator, one could make copies not only of handwritten documents and drawings but also of documents that were typed using a lithographic ribbon. Nevertheless, the market for these lithographic duplicators was limited because stencil duplicators and hektographs were superior for most office applications, the exception being in reproduction of drawings. |
 Plate 34B, The Wonder Lithograph, The Wonder Lithograph Co., Corning, NY, 1887 ad.  Plate 35, Black Autocopyist, The Autocopyist Co., NY, NY, 1887 ad. |
| Multigraph Printing Duplicators
Form letters were more likely to be read if they were individually
addressed and were, or appeared to be, typewritten, rather than produced
using a stencil duplicator or conventional printing press. The first
commercially successful machine to produce form letters that appeared to
be typewritten was the Gammeter Multigraph, which was introduced by
American Multigraph Co. in 1902. The next machine that produced such
form letters with a distinct technology was the Hooven Automatic
Typewriter, which is discussed in this Museum's exhibit on
Special-Purpose Office Typewriters. A third technology that was used
to produce such form letters was embodied in the Addressing Multigraph
and the Addressograph Dupligraph. The Flexotype was similar to the Multigraph. The Printograph, which was introduced in 1907/08 and still advertised in 1913, was similar but used a flat bed rather than a drum. Other brands with flat beds that were sold during 1908-14 include the Writerpress, the Planotype, the Niagara Multiple Typewriter, and the Polygraph. Each of the last three was $100. These machines used typewriter type that was arranged by hand in a holder. They printed through a ribbon. In 1924, American Multigraph introduced the Multigraph Keyboard
Compotype, a complicated machine that enabled the operator to set
Multigraph type by working at a typewriter-style keyboard. The Compotype
composed the body of the form letter by stamping characters on strip
aluminum and automatically assembling the strips of type--a line at a
time--on a flexible sheet metal blanket. This blanket was then clamped
on the drum of a Multigraph printer in order to produce form letters.
The Compotype also produced address plates. |
 Plate 36, Multigraph Printer No. 66  Plate 36A, Multigraph Typesetter No. 59  Plate 36B, Multigraph Printer (left) and Typesetter, 1916 
Plate 36C, Woman with Multigraph Typesetter (left) and Printer, Duplication Dept., Denver Public Library, Denver CO, c. 1930s, detail. Denver Public Library, Western History Collection, X-27483  Plate 36D, Multigraph, 1923
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Photocopying Machines The Blue Process The blue process was a contact printing technology: photosensitive paper was placed in contact with the document that was being copied. A clerk began by using paper and chemicals (potassium ferrocyanide and ferric citrate) to prepare photosensitive paper. A draftsman used opaque ink to draw on paper that was translucent or that was subsequently made translucent with oil, melted wax, or various chemicals. Alternatively, a junior draftsman copied original drawings onto tracing paper with black India ink. The clerk then put a sheet of photosensitive paper in the tray of a blue printing frame, covered this with the translucent original or India ink tracing, and covered this with a heavy glass plate that pressed the papers together. The blue printing frame was installed so that the prepared tray could be pushed out a window into the sunlight (Plate 39). The clerk exposed the tray for anywhere from several minutes to an hour, depending on the brightness of the day, and used chemicals to fix the print. The result, a blue print, had a blue background where the photosensitive paper had been exposed to light and white lines where the paper had not been exposed. The blue process was time consuming and impractical for duplication of typical office documents, however, even though by 1881 commercially prepared photosensitive paper for use in the blue process was available. After the development of electric illumination and installation of electrical distribution systems, blueprint machines were developed that operated indoors with carbon arc lamps. On these machines, the frames that held the photosensitive paper and the original were in a vertical rather than horizontal plane. For an early photograph of one of these machines, click on the link to B. L. Makepeace, Inc., scroll down, and then click on the link to first blueprinting machines in New England. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, a number of contact printing processes similar to the blue process but employing different chemicals were used to produce prints that differed in appearance, e.g., colored lines on white backgrounds. Photostat Machines The Rectigraph Co. and the Photostat
Corp. (an affiliate of Eastman Kodak) introduced camera-based
photocopying machines during 1907-11. Rectigraph and Photostat machines
(Plates 40-42) combined a large camera and a developing machine and used
sensitized paper furnished in 350-foot rolls. "The prints are made
direct on sensitized paper, no negative, plate or film intervening. The
usual exposure is ten seconds. After the exposure has been made the
paper is cut off and carried underneath the exposure chamber to the
developing bath, where it remains for 35 seconds, and is then drawn into
a fixing bath. While one print is being developed or fixed, another
exposure can be made. When the copies are removed from the fixing bath,
they are allowed to dry by exposure to the air, or may be run through a
drying machine. The first print taken from the original is a 'black'
print; the whites in the original are black and the blacks, white.
(Plate 43) A white 'positive' print of the original is made by
rephotographing the black print. As many positives as required may be
made by continuing to photograph the black print." (The American
Digest of Business Machines, 1924.) Du Pont Co. files include black
prints of graphs dating from 1909, and the company acquired a Photostat
machine in 1912. (Yates, p. 248, n. 81) In 1911, a Photostat machine was $500.
(Yates, p. 54.) In 1924, Photostat machines were $650 to $1,050,
depending on maximum print size and attachments. The cost of materials
per print was $.06 for an 11.5" x 14" print. Similar Rectigraph machines
were $500 to $850. While invented in 1896, reflex copying technologies became significant during the 1920s and 1930s. Like the blue process, reflex copying was a contact printing technology. In reflex copying, a sheet of photosensitive paper was placed face down on an original, and the back of the photosensitive paper was exposed to light. Light reflected from the original exposed the emulsion on the front of the photosensitive paper. In the 1930s, Remington Rand sold Dexigraph reflex copying machines. Electrostatic Photocopying Machines The first experimental electrostatic photocopy was made in 1938. The first xerography machines were delivered to users in 1949, but they were not successful; all were returned. The first commercially successful model, the Xerox 914, was introduced in 1960. After 1960, Xerox copying machines quickly became important in offices. (See David Owen, "Making Copies," Smithsonian, Aug. 2004, pp. 91-97, for an illustrated history of xerography.) |
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Postscript—An Electro-Chemical Duplicating Apparatus Late 19th century inventors developed numerous copying technologies in addition to the commercially successful ones that are described above. An 1872 report describes a technology developed by Zuccato before his Papyrograph and Trypograph. To the bed and upper plate of an ordinary copying-press were attached wires leading from a small battery. “An iron plate resting upon the bed of the press is coated with varnish, and upon the surface is written with a steel point any communication it is desired to copy. The letters having thus been formed in bare metal, a few sheets of copying paper are impregnated with an acid solution of prussiate of potash, and placed upon the scratched plate, which is then subjected to pressure in the copying-press. An electric current passes wherever the metal has been left bare (where the writing is, therefore), and the prussiate solution acting upon the iron, there is found prussiate of iron or Prussian blue characters corresponding to those scratched upon the plate. The number of copies that may be produced by this electro-chemical action is almost unlimited, and the formation of the Prussian blue lines is, of course, instantaneous.” (Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, July 1872, p. 305.) |
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W.
A. Kelsey & Co. began to market small lever press in 1872, and continued
to sell them for over a century. The online Briar Press Museum has
photographs of early Kelsey presses (
Exhibit Notes
(1) Granville Sharp’s advice comes from The Gilbart Prize Essay on the Adaptation of Recent Discoveries and Inventions in Science and Art to the Purposes of Practical Banking, Groombridge and Sons, London, 1854, including exhibits.
(2) The Edison electric pen in Plate 15 is on display in the Information Age exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History in Washington, DC. The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, also has an electric pen. The Science Museum in London has a number of early copying machines, including a Watt portable copying press, a Trypograph, and a Cyclostyle.
(3) W. B. Proudfoot, The Origin of Stencil Duplicating, Hutchinson, London, 1972, and B. Rhodes & W. W. Streeter, Before Photocopying: The Art and History of Mechanical Copying, 1780-1938, Oak Knoll Press, 1999, are excellent illustrated histories of early copying technologies. J. S. Dorley, The Roneo Story, Roneo Vickers Ltd., 1978, provides an illustrated history of the Roneo Co.
(4) T. A. Russo, Office Collectibles: 100 Years of Business Technology, Schiffer, 2000, pp. 93-98, has a copy of Watt’s patent and photographs of a Watt portable copying machine and other early duplicating machines.
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