A question for the older office geeks

[karohemd]

This came up in a post by belak_krin.

Before photocopying was affordable enough to be widespread, they used a different machine which involved typing the original on a special paper with a coated rear which was then used as template to make multiple copies on a machine. It was a special, smooth paper, the ink was purple and fresh copies smelled horribly of solvent. whiskeylover, I'm referring to Matritzen (matrices?).

What were they called here? I found an old one on the German ebay.

Update:
Thanks to the suggestions below and cross-Googling/Wikiing, I found this wikipedia page. The description of the process includes the fantastic line "Going outside to get away from the ka-chunk ka-chunk ka-chunk noise and to recover from the fumes". Heh.

It seems they were called "Banda machines" in the UK (not mentioned on that wiki page but here) and "ditto machines" in the US so full marks go to borusa and nina321. Honourable mention goes to lonewolfi for the mimeograph suggestion which was a similar process with more long-lived templates/stencils.

Many thanks!

Comments

[borusa.livejournal.com]

"Bander"

[borusa.livejournal.com]

Oooh. Apparently "Banda", in fact.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Cheers!

[nannyo.livejournal.com]

oooh, we had those at school, we all used to sniff the papers as they were handed out. Can I remember what they were called? Can I buggery. Will poke my brain tonight.
N.

[sue-b.livejournal.com]

Glad to know that I ain't the only one that is going its a....

[nannyo.livejournal.com]

maybe it was sniffing the fumes that stopped the memory eh? Only by seeing what other people suggested did the memory surface. I think we used to call them ditto machines too, ditto sheets where what got handed out at school.
N.

[sue-b.livejournal.com]

Xerox machines we used to call them

and considering that we used to get the sheets music room, that and the value oil made for some wonderful smells.....

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

We called them "Binder" sheets. They smelled more like vomit than solvent.

[nina321.livejournal.com]

old Banda machines!
I'm not old, and I knew that.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Considering the technology disappeared around the time you were born or a bit later, that's quite cool. :o)
Thanks!

[cryx]

aarrgghh.. i also used to know it as something beginning with R i think, and we had 2 at home!! arrghh!!! i can't remember the other name!

[lonewolfi.livejournal.com]

Over here they were called mimeograph machines, i beleive, though i'm sure my spelling is far from correct

Thanks!

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

The spelling is correct but it's not the machine I'm referring to (the mimeograph used more sturdy stencils).

Thanks to the mimeograph suggestion, I found this wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duplicating_machines) which calls them "ditto machines". The description is exactly right.

Re: Thanks!

[lonewolfi.livejournal.com]

all i remembered was the awful racket that they made, the fumes that would engulf everything that was in the building, and the purple ink

[susanofstohelit.livejournal.com]

no, that's right.

I couldn't remember that word

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Mimeograph machine - various manufacturers, in the UK Banda were the main one. I used them intermittently from about 1971 to the late 80s/ early 90s. The solvent was 66 OP industrial meths (still have a little left in our chemical store since there is no other use for it). There were typing and drawing master sheets for it, or if you were good at mirror writing you could get a special pen and write on the thing directly. Nowadays I'm pretty sure that the dyes are banned, though I could be mistaken.

[omentide.livejournal.com]

Ours was called a Gestettner (which I have probably spelled wrong).

I was once employed to work one. There was a tube of special stuff to get the ink off your hands afterwards.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

If the discussion on wikipedia is to be believed, the Gestetner used a different process.

[whiskeylover.livejournal.com]

Fascinating discussion- and the one thing that has not been mentioned yet is the translation of the "Matrizen" themselves (never knew the machines, but I do remember the paper, stuck between two sheets of ordinary paper on a typewriter)

In English they are called... *drumroll*

CARBON PAPER

The idea of these copies is nowadays maintained electronically, when an email is sent "cc." to someone; the "cc." of course being the abbreviation for "carbon copy"

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I believe you are wrong.

Carbon paper was used to make duplicates (usually one) on a typewriter (Durchschlag in German). It was a sheet of paper coated on one side with graphite (as in a pencil) and was usable ony once. You put it between two sheets of paper in the typewriter and could write two pages at once.
"Kohlepapier" in German.

Matritzen were different as they were used to run off multiple copies and you wrote directly on the front of the sheet. The back had the negative imprint of the text/whatever to be duplicated and was then clamped into the machine to be used as template (not too dissimilar to a modern printing press but obvioulsy, these didn't last very long).

[whiskeylover.livejournal.com]

Matritzen were a sort of sticky purple substance, and as a term were used interchangeably with Kohlepapier (both of which could be used repeatedly by being stuck between sheets of paper on a typewriter)

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

I always considered them entirely separate things. Besides, Kohlepapier was usable at home while you could only use a Matritze if you had the duplicating machine to go with it.