Do You Know which "Great American" inventeted the Mimeograph?

Question

Today is his birthday; also born today was Marjorie Kinnan;she was an "American Journalist & novelist'; also Dino Laurentis,he was "American film Producer.

Answer 1

Remembering the Ditto and Mimeograph
by Harmon Jolley
posted July 27, 2006


Photo by Harmon Jolley
How this article might look if printed on a ditto machine. Click to enlarge.
When I was at the library recently, I reviewed a 1946 publication by an urban planning agency. The purple color of the text of the document jogged my memory. The pages had been printed on a ditto machine. I had not seen the output from one of those types of printers since the day when I wore a younger man’s clothes.

According to my trusty 1965 World Book encyclopedia, the ditto machine (spirit duplicator) and mimeograph (stencil duplicator) were competing technologies in the document-copying market. I learn that the mimeograph can be traced to inventor Thomas Edison, who patented a stencil duplicator called “autographic printing.” Albert Blake Dick invented the mimeograph in 1884, and Wilhelm Ritzerfeld gave us the ditto machine in 1923.

The mimeograph printing process used an ink-filled cylinder and ink pad. Documents had to be prepared on a special wax-covered stencil on a typewriter which had its ribbon disengaged. The typewriter thus made impressions in the stencil, which were filled with ink and squeezed onto paper by the mimeograph’s roller. The stencils could also be used with drawings made by hand.

In contrast, the ditto machine used no ink. The user typed, wrote, or drew on a ditto master sheet which was backed by a second sheet of paper coated with a dye-impregnated, waxy substance. The inscribed image appeared on the back of the ditto sheet in reverse. The ditto machine used an alcohol-based fluid to dissolve some of the dye in the document, and transferred the image to the copy paper.

Though other colors of ditto sheets were available, purple was commonly used. In elementary school, I remember that the teacher would distribute drawing sheets for us to color. The sheets had been through the ditto machine, which gave purple outlines to the drawings of fruit, animals (mostly lions and tigers and bears), letters, numbers, and everything else that we were asked to stay within the lines while we colored.

The output of the ditto machine had a special aroma. Students could tell when a class assignment was hot out of the machine by the strength of the odor of the pages. The smell came from the ditto machine’s duplicating fluid, a mix of methanol and isopropanol.

The school office staff typed announcements, and then ran them through the ditto, for students to take home. “Now, boys and girls don’t forget to give this to your parents so that they will know about our field trip” was something that the teacher often said while handing out the purple forms. The night before a school play, some moms found crumpled purple announcements in which they were asked to make costumes.

I was on the newspaper staff in junior high, and our school periodical was printed on a mimeograph. I recall typing my feature articles on one of the stencils, though I didn’t get to run them through the machine (sigh). The newspaper articles had to be left and right-aligned, which required that I insert enough extra spaces between words to create an even right margin. To do that, I had to type a draft of each article, pad each line with slashes (/), and then re-type it while I counted the number of slashes and inserted extra spaces to match. Today’s word processing software and printers make all of my effort back then seem primitive.

By high school, my newspaper articles were printed on fairly sophisticated printing machines in the school’s print shop. I believe that teachers still used ditto sheets for homework. I can still see those multiple choice tests in garish purple color.

In college, the modern age of the Xerox copying machine had arrived. Even after competitors had joined the copying machine market, “Xerox” was used as the name for copies made on any brand of copying machine. Reminds me of my grandmother, who always said that she had some Jello and fruit salad in the “Frigidaire,” even though her cooler was a General Electric.

Electronic, computerized copying machines have all but eliminated the humble mimeograph and ditto machine. The A.B. Dick Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2004. The company is now owned by Presstek. I searched the new owner’s Web site, and found that mimeograph and ditto owners can still buy supplie through Presstek.

The mimeograph and ditto machines helped to print the pages which are now history, and have now themselves become a part of history. If you have mimeograph and ditto memories, please send me an e-mail at [e-mail].

Answer 2

Dino de Laurentis was "American film Producer"???

Someone had better set him straight. The man is as Italian as da Vinci and Michelangelo.

And this isn't Edison's birthday. Yesterday was the anniversary of his patent on the mimeograph being granted.

On this date (August 8):

In 1876, Thomas A. Edison received a patent for his mimeograph.

Answer 3

I think the definition of a "great wrestler" is bias. Because you know that everyone who is going to answer is going to pick out their favorite wrestler. The fact that a wrestler must be able to give out great moves is a necessity and I'm not going to lie...Shawn Michaels is an amazing wrestler, I think his moves reflects his character but that can work out to his advantage because he's a little guy compared to the others. Plus the fact that he has the ability to entertain a crowd through his moves speaks for itself. Anyone of this list is a great wrestler but they are limited to what they are told to do or what their character is portrayed. However, you get guys like Batista or Hogan and from a wrestling standpoint they have NONE. Hogan makes up for his lack of moves by selling promos but Batista has none, he doesn't have mic skills nor does he have technical skills. You can tell because he has been in this company for a long time and he has yet to update any of his moves. The moves are scripted but wrestlers are only told of how long they are going to perform or who is going to win. Batista would've had the freedom to execute any wrestling move but instead we get clothesline after clothesline and then some hits here and there and then a Batista bomb.

Answer 4

Thomas Edison

Answer 5

Edison invented it but a man named Albert Blake Dick, who first licensed Edison's patents, came up with the name 'mimeograph'.

But Edison's birthday is February 11 and Dick's is April 16, so I'm not sure where you're going with this.

Answer 6

Thomas Edison

Answer 7

Four names are associated with the early history of this technology: Thomas Edison, who invented an electric pen that cut stencils in 1876; Eugene Zuccato, who came up with an improved method of cutting stencils the following year; David Gestetner, a Hungarian immigrant working in London, who came up with an even simpler and more effective stencil cutter in 1881; and A. B. Dick of Chicago, who came up with a device similar to Edison's and persuaded him to collaborate in marketing it as "The Edison Mimeograph" in 1887.

Answer 8

I thought it was Thomas Edison

Answer 9

Sal Mimeo?

Answer 10

Jess and Jim's is OK.......Strouds is better.

who ever invented the mimeograph must have kept quiet about it.