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START- HISTORY. The Edison Mimeograph, taken from an advertisement in the late 1880's. All histories have a starting point, and the mimeograph’s is normally Edison’s patent for “Autographic Printing” in 1876 (the image above lists the 1876 patent as the first of four). Below, in an excerpt of his 1876 patent, you will notice the prominence of the electric pen, the main innovation described in this patent. But figure three in the lower right-hand corner is the technology that stuck around for the mimeograph, not the electric pen.

The Electric Pen “Autographic Printing” used the electric pen to cut a stencil and the other machines helped to create the impression. Lisa Gitleman reminds us, however, to stop and look at the electric pen before trudging on with a history of successes: Electric pens and the rest of the objects in the discard pile are no less worthy of study than mimeographs. From Edison's 1876 Patent for Autographic Printing Making the move to the first mimeograph, A. Print Resources: Edison's Electric Pen. Electric Pen - The Edison Papers. Edison and his laboratory staff developed the electric pen and press during the summer and fall of 1875. The key feature of this copying system was the electric pen, one of the earliest consumer uses of an electric motor. This motor drove a small needle up and down the shaft of the pen, and as the user wrote, it created a stencil.

This stencil was then placed in the press, and a roller was used to squeegee ink through the holes in the stencil, creating a copy of the document. Edison had high hopes of finding a ready market among merchants, lawyers, insurance companies, and other firms that "seem to have a great deal of reduplication. " While the battery continued to prevent some sales, the electric pen and autographic press proved to be a successful product, and Edison quickly established an office in New York. Copyingprocesses.pdf (application/pdf Object) Copying Machines. Plates4-6 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). Sharp explained that before using the new press, the office had to decide how to organize its letters. Plate 6B, Wells Fargo & Co. Plate 4, Coalbrookdale Press 1851. SingleDoc. The Edison Mimeograph - Graphic Arts. Before the laser printer, before the Xerox, and before the carbon copy, there was the mimeograph machine.

In 1876, Thomas A. Edison (1847-1931) filed a United States patent for autographic printing by means of an electric pen. A second patent further developed his system to “prepare autographic stencils for printing.” Albert Blake Dick (1856-1934) licensed the patent and began manufacturing equipment to make stencils for the reproduction of hand-written text. In 1887, the A.B. Dick Company released the model “0” flatbed duplicator selling for $12. Dick’s hinged, wooden box, measuring 13 x 10 ¾ x 4 ½ inches, has a large stenciled label on the top reading “The Edison Mimeograph invented by Thomas A. The Edison Mimeograph Machine (Chicago, Ill.: A.B. Edison Mimeograph. Edison Mimeograph Typewriter. Popular Mechanics. 7/27/2006 - Remembering the Ditto and Mimeograph - Memories. 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. In contrast, the ditto machine used no ink. Though other colors of ditto sheets were available, purple was commonly used. The output of the ditto machine had a special aroma. Risograph. Risograph is a high-speed digital printing system manufactured by the Riso Kagaku Corporation[when?] And designed mainly for high-volume photocopying and printing. Increasingly, Risograph machines have been commonly referred to as a RISO Printer-Duplicator, due to their common usage as a network printer as well as a stand-alone duplicator.

When printing or copying multiple quantities (generally more than 20) of the same origin, it is typically far less expensive per page than a conventional photocopier, laser printer, or inkjet printer. Printing historian Rick O'Connor has debated that the original, and thus correct, name for the device is RISSO and not RISO. This debate spawns from the notion that an extra 'S' is added because the inventor's wife found it more pleasing to the ears. Operation[edit] The underlying technology is very similar to a mimeograph. The key master-making thermal head component is manufactured by Toshiba. References[edit] External links[edit]