Ditto / Mimeograph Machines

[michaelman2]

Hey anyone else used to love the smell of a fresh ditto copy. I am helping plan a class reuinion and we are thinking about printing the program (or at least an insert) on a ditto/spirit duplicator. I miss the kuh chunk kuh chunk of those machines

 

[veg-o-matic]

Oh, yeah!

The great smell was the only thing that could help take the curse off a Pop Quiz.

Thirty kids all sniffing the paper at the same time. No wonder we turned out like we did!

veg

 

[jasonl]

Ohhh... I caught the end of that era in the late 80s. I remember taking a "business machines" class in high school the involved typewriting on a stencil and then reproducing it on a Mimeograph machine. I distinctly remember it going ka-chunk ka-chunk ka-chunk ka-chunk and then the bell going ding! ding! ding! ding! ding! ding! at the end of the cycle. Of course, whenever I watched a teacher doing that I always thought the machine was saying "Homework homework homework homework..."

The "ditto" machines used a "Fluid master" that you typed on. It wasn't as fast and dramatic as the mimeograph machine but it had it's own sounds and smells. It was a kind of ka-chunk but slower.

At school we also had a HUGE Xerox copier that at the time was fast. It would go like "Weeeeeeeeeeee!" (the heads spinning up and then "hissssss-clunk hissssss-clunk hisssss-clunk" Like a laser printer.

I want to see one of those original fax machines where the paper rotated on a drum and you had to couple the phone to the machine. I've seen it on Secret Life Of Machines. Those shows are such a ride through time. And yes, I watched every minute of the washing machine episode religiously.

 

[Cybrvanr]

I remember those ditto machine copies vividly! That purple ink, and the smell of the freshly printed paperwork! A walk by the printing shop at the school always was great because of the smell too! I was too young to really use one of these machines. They fell out of use in the mid 80's as the photocopiers got popular, and by the time I was old enough to use one, they were all gone.

That was also right about the time that 16mm movies fell out of use, and were replaced with TV's and VCR's as I entered middle school. Nothing beats the clatter of an old Bell & Howell projector in a dim classroom while watching those flickery pictures! Fridays were movie day, and we would gather several classes together to watch films.

 

[jasonl]

This looks close to the machine I've seen in high school. This is a 1955 ad for an A.B. Dick machine. That was the brand, not the body part.

http://pages.tias.com/10720/PictPage/1922038586.html

 

[jasonl]

YOu gotta be over 30 and OT: Weird 16mm films

If the words Bell & Howell bring back memories of watching some underbudget educational film. They were the big brothers to the B&H Autoload Super 8mm projectors.

In Social Studies class we saw a film called The Ugly Little Boy. It was a SciFi (and a CHEESEBALL one at that) about some futuristic scientists "teleporting" a young boy from what would be like from caveman times. I would be interested to see that again now 25 years later.

One of the weirdest and the scariest I've ever seen come out of a Bell & Howell 16mm projector was a movie that was shown in church (and please let's not turn this into a Christian-bashing thread). The movie was The Burning Hell. I'm sure I would've laughed if I saw it again but I wasn't laughing when I was 9 years old. ACK. I had nightmares for weeks.

I don't remember a whole lot of other Cheese-U-Cational films except that some were cool, some were boring, it just meant "Woohoo! No work today!"

 

[ironrite]

When we graduated 8th grade we did a multi page ditto of all the things our class had done through the years. Most of the class started that school in 1st grade and went right on through to high school. It was a hoot rereading our "accomplishments" at our later high school reunions.

Oh, and my vote for favorite 16mm films. The one they showed in high school chemistry. Billy and Suzy are in the back seat of Mommy's 1957 Lincoln convertible, with 10 other kids going down Highway 1 in California. They're drinking Coke and asprin to get high. This, of course, leads to marijuana use. Susy becomes a prostitute to support her habit and Billy steals hubcaps (the small ones, not the deluxe large ones) from 1959 Fords to support his drug habit. Our teacher, half serious, threatened to flunk anybody that laughed during this film. I'd love to find a copy of it!

 

[jasonl]

There's a Beavis and Butthead episode called Driver's Ed. They make fun of those cheesy 16mm movies. God, I'd wish somebody would release those on DVD, but add the projector noise and laughing kids in the background.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Ironrite, do you suppose the title music for that flick could have been Highway to Hell? "Signal 30" was shown to us in Drivers' Ed. Carnage for real.

The old style fax with the paper clipped to the drum in the early 70s was what we used at the department store. If a customer bought a grill and wanted to pick it up at the warehouse, it would be written up on a BIG TICKET like furniture or a major appliance and then one of us would have to go up to the executive suite and clip it in place, turn the machine on, call the warehouse fax machine, get the tone, put the receiver in the headphone-like cups and then the drum would start. There was like a needle marker or line that slowly moved from one side of the whirling page to the other and then it would be done and you undid everything.

I loved the Bell Telephone Science Films with the authoratative yet kind Frank Baxter narrating and talking to the various animated characters. We watched them from the big B&H projectors around which all of the female teachers were just so out of their element. Either the principal or one of the seventh grade boys had to set them up and there was always some glich in those non-self-threading machines. Do you remember the swing out speaker?
My junior college had a huge coin operated XEROX machine in the library. The thing was huge, like 4 feet X 4 feet.

The smell of the Ditto ink on the handouts was devine and all of us kids were pickling our livers and brains on the fumes. Some time in the 60s, they came up with a way to burn a mimeo master with something like a photo-copier and lazy teachers no longer has to type the masters for tests. They could just copy them from the questions in the teachers' edition of the text. For a while in college, I was one of the student assistants who had to operate the ditto and mimeo machines. I remember that horrible thick black ink that went into the drum and the DISASTER if the cap was not tightened before it was started. The only bigger mess was if the lid was not tightly replaced on a can before it was put on the paint shaker. I notice that those are in closed plastic cases now.

 

[Cybrvanr]

Hey, here's a site if you all want to purchase DVD copies of some of those old educational films!

A/V Geeks – We got over 36,000+ 16mm films. Watch them with us!

We got over 36,000+ 16mm films. Watch them with us!

www.avgeeks.com

 

[michaelman2]

Cybrvanr..thanks for the site!!!
Man as a kid I always wanted things that were, well not the norm..One year it was of course the Suzy Homemaker Stove, dishwasher, the whole shebang..then one year it was a Cord Switchboard, that really threw my dad for a loop..they did not sell telephone equip then, so he had to really dig for this thing (still have it)...then the Ditto machine..I killed more trees with that thing and the smell, was addicting..hummmmm maybe that is the problem

 

[jasonl]

Learn Not To Burn

I remember seeing that as a kid! Also, Tom mentioned Signal 30, it's on the DVD Those Naughty Drivers. So there really were "shock" films that showed mangled bodies in car accidents.

Like Butthead would say "WHoa! huhu huhu huhu that was cool"

 

[brisnat81]

Gestetner

Hi Guys,

Tom Turbo was talking about Mimeo Masters, the machine was made by Gestetner. We had those at school up until the late 90's when the last ones were finally retired.

I dont know how the technology worked, but you'd put the original through the machine like a photocopier, it'd make a duplicate onto another piece of paper which would then make the copies.

It seemed to be an Ink/Toner hybrid, with the master made of toner and the copies all Ink.

They were noisey and complicated, their only advantage was a very very low page cost. But when they were knew, they would've been very exciting compared to the manual way

 

[roto204]

A difference?

What's the difference between a ditto and a mimeograph? I know the ditto machines used a purple ink-laden template to transfer the ink onto fresh sheets of paper via methyl alcohol (ergo, the great smell, and fresh coolness of the copies)...and, the sixtieth copy was way lighter than the first...but wasn't a mimeograph different?

 

[jetcone]

Oh Second Grade Mrs Malone

was addicted to ditto we would get reams of them in the morning. It always helped me take that test!!

If you were lucky you'd get the middle copies because they were still damp!

My mind is fried!

 

[jasonl]

Mimeograph vs. ditto

Mimeograph used a stencil to make the master. You typed on (sans ribbon on the typewriter) and the typewriter head would cut the letters onto a green wax sheet behind a cardboard backing. When you were finished typing, you brought it to the machine. As far as I remember, you take the backing off of the stencil and CAREFULLY load the stencil onto the drum. You held the stencil in both hands. One the top part was on the hooks, you slowly crank the drum until the stencil stuck to it. I think you were supposed to give it a few turns without any paper just to prime the ink. The next part is the fun part. Load your paper, set # of copies, flip the lever and enjoy the show.

The "Ditto" used kinda the same principle but with a purple kind of ink. You typed on a "Fluid master" that I think was two pieces of paper, one coated with alcohol to attract ink (or something like that). Same process, load it on the drum, give it a few turns, load blank paper, watch the show.

KA-CHUNK KA-CHUNK KA-CHUNK KA-CHUNK KA-CHUNK

As far as which one I like better? Mimeograph. It's faster and more dramatic. It looks like it will take a finger off if you get too close.

 

[tlee618]

You are correct about the process of the ditto machine Jason. I know I am dating myself here but when I first started teaching in 1970 all we had were the ditto machines and they were hand cranked. Then about 4 years later along came the electric machlne and we all thought we were in heaven. I have spent many of hours running those machines. You are all so right, nothing like that smell from fresh ran copies on the ditto machine. Terry

 

[tolivac]

Mimeographs-16mm projectors-yes remember those-Remember printing items on the mieograph-the teacher would let the class run the machine--can you imagine that now??She would probably get into big trouble on that-kids using and operating moving machinery!!also the projectors-have a Bell and Howell classroom projector in my collection.also a beat up Kodak "Pagent"The Kodak needs some work.Remember'em both-I was the "AV GeeK" at the time-threaded and ran them-acted as the class "projectionist"any of you get that when it came to "movie day" at your school?In many of my classes-the teacher gave everyone a turn at it.Was fun.In shop class-had the job of hanging the pull down screens in the classrooms of the new High school I attended.Never seen so many screens in one place before!They were sent to the shop class for the shop students to tend too-I suppose in shop classes they had lots of "handymen" for those jobs.Made it fun and a good excuse to get out of many classes!!

 

[jasonl]

Kodak Pageant and B&H

Kodak Pageants were manually threaded I remember. I always liked the B&H better because of it's "automatic" loading. We had the Supe8 little brother to those machines. The difference was on the 16mm version, you could thread the machine automatically but you still had to roll it onto the takeup reel.

On the Super8mm version, it was done automatically but you had to hold down the tension button so wouldn't flutter.

The Kodak super 8s at the time were better in that you insert the film into the hole and it did the rest.

The best movie projector I've had was a Kodak moviedeck. It was as automatic as it got. It's one of those weird ones where the film sat horizontally on top (like a record player), the film snaked through the machine, and wound up on the takeup underneath. Had an uncle that died and left us his stuff. He had a Moviedeck in his closet with a red reel of film. I tried it and it worked. The film was a porno (go figure). So to make sure the machine worked I viewed the entire film >. The film wasn't a blockbuster (maybe another kind of 'buster'). Started out with 2 kids smoking pot and then it got bad from there. So I brought it home (the machine, not the movie) and got a chance to investigate it more. I found out you can fix the film to loop around the reel such that it holds on, and when it comes to the end, the projector will sense that and start the rewind process... TRULY AUTOMATIC! Unfortunately, Katrina took both the B&H, the Kodak Moviedeck and all our home movies. At least we have memories.

I found out the movie "The Ugly Little Boy" was an Isaac Asimov story, only dumbed down and cheesed up for 16mm classroom viewing.