-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Friday Funny Revisited - 19 / 20 (Age: 50)
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 09:58:08 -0800
From: Charles V. Mutschler <[log in to unmask]>
Organization: Eastern Washington University
To: Scott, Paul (FPM) <[log in to unmask]>
References: <[log in to unmask]>
OK, I didn't get the puppet. BUT - there's an error in the exam.
Scott, Paul (FPM) wrote:
>
> 16. What did all the really savvy students d o when mimeographed tests
> were handed out in school?
> a. Immediately sniffed the purple ink, as this was believed to get you
> high
> b. Made paper airplanes to see who could sail theirs ou! t the window
> c. Wrote another pupil's name on the top, to avoid their failure
>
There IS a difference between a mimeograph machine, and a ditto or
spirit duplicator. Question 16 really makes sense if it applies to a
spirit duplicator. The ditto stencil was a waxy compound like a sheet
of carbon paper facing a sheet of slick paper that let one create a
reverse image on the master, which was placed on a drum, and cranked by
hand or powered by a motor. The drum rotated, and the master was
dampened by ditto fluid, which was about 50% alcohol, and some of the
ink transferred to the sheet of paper when it contacted the master as it
revolved. Eventually so much of the ink was transferred off the master
that it couldn't be used any more.
This is quite different from a mimeograph, which truly used a stencil,
and a gooey black oil based ink. The mimeograph stencil was a wax
coated tissue paper. The wax was impervious to the ink, but where the
wax was broken through by the typewriter or a rounded instrument (so
that the paper was not actually torn), the ink would penetrate through,
and mark the paper. Many typewriters designed for office use actually
had a stencil cutting setting, so that the ribbon was out of the way,
and the key struck the stencil directly. The stencil was wrapped around
the drum, and mechanically the printing process was similar to the
spirit duplicator - as the drum rotated, and a sheet of paper was pulled
through the machine and contacted the stencil, ink passed through the
openings to print on the paper. Because it was an oil based ink, it did
not really dry as much as blotted into the paper. For this reason
mimeograph paper was not slick, coated paper, but a fairly coarse paper
a few stages above newsprint.
For examples of material printed on mimeograph, check some of the old
WPA county records surveys done in some states (including Washington).
I have worked with both, and mimeograph work was always a case of
wearing old clothes, because the oil based ink tended to stain things,
and not come out. It certainly didn't offer much prospect of getting
high by sniffing, and id didn't seem to smell especially attractive.
Now the dittos from my public school days _were_ something that smelled
of alcohol, and we all did exactly as the first answer suggests - sniff
the fresh copies when the teacher handed them out.
As noted elsewhere, low cost photocopying and computer printing have
made both ditto and mimeograph processes largely obsolete.
Happy duplicating.
Charlie
Charles V. Mutschler, Ph.D.
University Archivist
Eastern Washington University
-30-
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