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Fast Times, Stinky Sheets, and the Art of Duplication
Remember the '80s movie Fast Times At Ridgemont High? In a scene, a classroom of students sniffed copies of paperwork handed out by their teacher. If you're puzzled, you're not alone! We're diving into the world of spirit duplicators, those bright purple copies that had everyone taking a whiff.
Before word processors and modern copy machines, schools, churches, and clubs turned to spirit duplicators, spirit duplicators, mimeographs, and cyclostyles for making copies of worksheets, fliers, and more. Invented in 1923 by Wilhelm Ritzerfeld, spirit duplicators made life a little easier by duplicating documents with a crank handle and some volatile organic compounds.
Crafting the Master
To create copies, you needed a master sheet with special waxy ink on the backside that dissolved in alcohol. This method somewhat resembles tattoo transfer sheets, but they're not interchangeable due to differences in alcohol versus heat and pressure techniques.
Once you drew up your master copy, it was placed on the drum of the spirit duplicator, and with a crank handle, you'd roll the drum over sheet after sheet until you had enough copies. A single master could produce approximately 50 to 500 copies, depending on factors like paper quality and the color used.
Purple ink dominated because of its brightness, vibrancy, and its chemical stability in alcohol. Different colors like green, red, and black were also used, although they faded more quickly. The paper used also mattered, with absorbent paper like newsprint yielding fewer copies than smoother bond paper. Dense text and images consumed more ink and wore out the master faster.
Solely One-of-a-Kind
It's essential to note that the spirit duplicator is not the same as the mimeograph, even though they share some similarities. Mimeographs were usually motorized and used ink and stencils to create copies. To produce a stencil, you'd write or draw on a special sheet with a typewriter or stylus. The stencil was then filled with ink and pressed onto paper, creating copies.
Mimeographs were primarily black, but color copies were possible by hand-painting them onto the stencil. They required better paper, which should have contributed to their durability. However, they were more labor-intensive and prone to mechanical issues, like worn-out stencils or ink pads.
In a nutshell, if you needed to duplicate paperwork in the '60s and '70s, you could turn to either a spirit duplicator or a mimeograph. Both machines simplified the duplication process, but advances in technology led to the development of modern copy machines in the 1980s. So, the next time you're tempted to go on an Office Space rampage, remember the hard work that went into making copies in the past. Embrace the tech evolution!
In the era predating word processors and modern copy machines, individuals relied on spirit duplicators, education materials, and self-development to replicate worksheets and documents. Today, a unique blend of lifestyle and technology manifests in education-and-self-development through the use of advanced tools and resources, far surpassing the manual spirit duplicators of the past.
