Found an item in Shrewsbury MA

[michaelman2]

Hi all. I have been trying to find a Ditto Machine for a while now and there is one listed on the Worchester, MA Craigslist in Shrewsbury. I am trying to contact the seller and if I am able to make a deal, is there anyone that might live in this area that could pick the item up and help me get it shipped? I would of course compensate whomever...below is the post:

ditto machine (shrewsbury)
Date: 2012-02-22, 9:33PM EST
Reply to: [email protected]
selling a antique ditto machine. this is a model d10 that came out in the 50's, also known as a spirit duplicator as it used alcahol. the ditto machine was basically a predacessor to a copy machine. most commonly used in schools (when new) and is recently becomeing popular in the tattoo industry. this machine is complete and to my knowledge nothing is missing

 

[whirlcool]

Do they still sell the chemicals that these machines need to work? I still remember the smell of freshly ditto'ed pop quizzes from school!

 

[tomturbomatic]

Allen, I think we all lost brain cells and suffered liver damage from those highly aromatic sheets. I remember the cool dampness of them when they were fresh from the machine.

 

[toploader55]

Wow Tom

You're right.

I remember they did have a chilly feel to them. Forgot about that.

 

[westie2]

Just thinking of the smell and the cool feelin brings back increditable memories.  My High School had the morotr driven ditto.  Was a new school my class ws the first to go all 3 years thoughit.  Old HS burnt in 62 and we went to old elementary for the rest of tht year and 9th grade there also.  New school opened fall or 1964.

 

It was built as a V shaoe behind the old elementary.

 

[polkanut]

Michael,

I had completely forgotten about your quest for a ditto machine.  The mimeograph machine for sale in the link below is located only about 15-20 miles south of me.  It may be quite a bit older than what you're looking for though.

http://wausau.craigslist.org/atq/2853268249.html

 

[michaelman2]

Worked a deal with the very nice seller. He is making shipping arrangments.

Tim, yes, I have been on a quest for a Ditto brand spirit duplicator as you mentioned. Thank you for the heads up on the Mimeograph. I actually need a Ditto machine that works...and I believe I have found one...

 

[jetcone]

We all used to try

to be the one's to hand out the fresh ditto quizzes as the smell was that much stronger fresh off the press!! How many brain cells did we kill, I wonder!

Yes if you got them quick enough they were damp!! GAWD!!!!

What was the chemical they used anyway??

 

[michaelman2]

Jetcone, the Ditto/Spirit fluid was Methanol...hence the name "Spirit Duplicator". The fluid (Methanol) would dampen the sheet of paper via a wick inside the machine and then the aniline dye (looked like carbon and was purple) on the back of the stencil(master unit) would be pressed against the dampened sheet and the transfer occurred creating a copy.

You could generally run about 200 copies from one master unit, but could stretch it to 300 at times if you controlled the fluid being transferred to the sheet.

I plan a good deal of events where the age group that remembers that "smell" and color of the Ditto sheets are present. When you give them a program that has been printed with this process....it really takes them back. You hit that olfactory sense and that sense is powerful for me and apparently a bunch of other folks as well.

 

[whirlykenmore78]

Ditto machines

I remeber seeing one in the school office and watching how it worked. I loved the smell of the papers that came off of it. About 4th grade (1989-1990)though the school bought a high speed photocopier and the ditto machine went away.

 

[rp2813]

The hand-crank model was still going strong at my vintage 1941 high school well into the 1970's.

 

Mike, your programs are going to be a big hit, and likely the most talked-about aspect of the event.  I'm glad you located a machine.  Persistence does pay off!

 

It's hard to find anybody who didn't dig Dittos.  The smell, and the cool moist paper cold off the press, as it were.  From first grade phonics papers to high school English exams, who knows how much Ditto fumes I've inhaled?  Mike, you have me jonesing for a fix!

 

I doubt this was a unique experience, but I remember one jaded high school teacher who immediately after handing out Dittos instructed, "OK, everybody smell it first . . ."

 

 

 

[whirlcool]

Our teachers must have dittoed their quizzes over their lunch hour. It seems like we always had a quiz immediately after returning to class from lunch. And the quizzes were always damp. Our school had a hand cranked unit and the elementary school secretary always typed up the stencils.
There is no other color that is that specific kind of purple as the print on a dittoed page.

If people are concerned with the Menthanol fumes, how about the trace particles of laser ink toner on today's laser printer which replaced the ditto machine?

 

[polkanut]

Some of the music in our choir music files at church was dittoed in the 60's & early 70's by one of our former directors.  It makes me wonder if they had a "high" ole time when that music was passed out for the first time at rehearsal.