I recently received a batch of original Hinton Hunt painting instruction sheets from Don including this one for the Hussars I featured in my last post. Whilst perusing these Mrs S commented that, as they had been typed on a manual typewriter (long before the invention of the word processor) the copies were all created using carbon paper. This meant that each time an original was typed only a maximum of four or five copies could be made and explains why the paper is so flimsy.I also have a couple of these sheets that are printed on normal paper and at first glace they look like photocopies but of course they can’t be as they date from the early 1970’s. Mrs S is sure that they were created using a stencil cut with a typewriter and then reproduced in a very messy duplicating process (she did this sort of thing at school apparently – glad I did woodwork). Making any corrections to either a carbon copy or a stencil is rather difficult so it’s no wonder there are a few typos on these HH sheets.
Well there you have it a little bit of office technology history. If you click on the image for a closer look and then take a glance at G & H on your keyboard, you will understand why they’re the 4th Gussars.
5 comments:
Indeed they were produced on a 'banda' duplicator. The typist used a skin which was pierced by the keys and then applied to an inked drum . The drum was spun by a handle and paper fed in to take the impression.
Must say your good lady looked too young to remember that sort of thing Ian
Roy - I have to be careful here and say that "of course she is" just in case she reads this. Her interest also stems from the fact that she has written 14 text books on Office Administration topics.
Ian
Just a couple of comments about copies. A copying process called a "Hectograph" used a tray with solidified gelatin to absorb ink from one master typed sheet. Then additional blank sheets would pick up ink if they were carefully placed on the gelatin. After making copies, the gelatin could be melted and re-solidified with the ink sinking into it, leaving a blank surface for re-use.
Also Xerox-process dry copiers were available in the late 1960s. I still have copies that I made at the university library in 1968 for 10 cents US per page.
I used to own a "Thomas Salter" print set. Indiviual letters had to be placed into grooves on a red handled block and then dipped in an ink pad. If you spelt it wrong at the beginning of a line you had to pull them all off again!
Think Dog fer tha keybeard!
Mutt
Hi Mutt - Thanks for that, I had the same thing but in my day (being a little older than you) it was a "John Bull" printing set!
Uan
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