Copy That! : In the Days Before Photocopies . . .

Modern Americans take many things for granted in the 21st century that even 100 years ago were unimaginable. One of those things is the ability to duplicate documents with ease. Prior to the mid-1800s, educators had no means to easily and inexpensively replicate handouts, worksheets, tests, etc. Enndeavors had been made prior to the mid-1800s to invent mechanisms for reproducing written documents, but those efforts resulted in expensive, unwieldy, and inefficient equipment. In fact, for most of human history, reproduction of spoken or written words was the work of clerks, scriveners, secretaries and other human copyists. In 1450, Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press and dramatically changed the Western world. Movable type enabled to easily, quickly, and relatively efficiently reproduce documents of all types. The mechanism was heavy, large and labor-intensive, but the output paved the way for a burst of literacy and access to information hitherto unthinkable.
 
From 1450 to around 1850, reproducing and/or copying written items for business purposes was completed almost entirely by human hands. Presses were used for commercial or broadcast purposes and required special training to operate. Education benefited from the publication of textbooks and special educational tracts, but handouts, worksheets, etc. had to be painstakingly created by teachers and thus were not a common item in the classroom. Students learned by listening, asking questions, and hearing answers, and by copying onto their slates or (much later) pencil and paper what their teachers wrote on the chalkboard.

A report made by Eugeio de Zuccato, an Italian inventor in London, in 1872, introduced technology that used “electro-chemical action” combined with a scratched plate and a copying-press to produce almost unlimited number of copies: the first stencil duplicating machine. The first operating machine, patented in 1874, was called a papyrograph and cost between $23 and $75.

Zuccato's Papyrograph, The Papyrograph Co., Norwich, CT, 1878
www.earlyofficemachine.com

Between 1877 and 1884, inventors presented patents for the Trypograph, Cyclostyle, Stygmograph and Mimeograph. The Mimeograph is the one that was used by educators until the Hektograph and Spirit Duplicators were introduced 1887. Both mimeograph and spirit duplicators were operated by turning a hand crank and some of today’s grandparents may remember being chosen to run copies by turning the crank. Those grandparents may also fondly remember the scent of the spirits used in the duplicators. In the case of the Hektograph, copying was achieved by using special aniline ink and gelatin into which the document (master) would be pressed; the gelatin would retain the imprint; as a plain piece of paper was rolled through the machine, some of the ink on the gelatin would transfer creating the copy. This method could result into up to 50 copies from one master.

Edison Rotary Mimeograph No. 75, 1904
www.earlyofficemachine.com

Educators depended upon either the Mimeograph or the Spirit Duplicator (Hektograph) well into mid-20th century. It wasn’t until 1963, when Haloid-Xerox Inc. introduced “its first desktop plain paper copier, the Xerox 813,” and made producing copies in education inexpensive, quick, and uniform.

Model E-41, Ditto Division of Bell & Howell, c. 1950s
www.earlyofficemachine.com

We have come a long way since 1963 but educators still depend upon printed copies of documents, worksheets, images, etc. in their classrooms. Copiers have been a boon to educators, but they also have unintended consequences. In today’s world, many children are growing up with limited penmanship skills. Cursive handwriting poses a problem for many K-12 students who are no longer being taught this form of communication. There are environmental considerations as the amount of paper used in education is enormous. And there may be pedagogic considerations that MOTAL may discuss in a future article.


Submitted by Cheryl Stewart,
MOTAL Board member and treasurer


Sources
Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing


Smith, E. (2020). How mimeographs transformed information sharing in schools. https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2020/09/how-mimeographs-transformed-information-sharing-schools


Early Office Museum www.earlyofficemuseum.com