Erasing Typewriter Errors
Ralph I remember both of these types of typewriter erasers. As I've mentioned before, my aunt was a high school typing and business teacher (shorthand, bookkeeping, business law ect.). She always insisted that the carriage be moved all the way to the left or right before making an erasure, this was to keep the eraser rubber particles from falling into the machine and gumming it up. She also trained me to ALWAYS use two sheets of typing paper, to protect the platen from damage. The rubber platen is less apt to develop permanent key impressions by using two sheets of paper.
The other PITA about making typing errors and correcting them was when you were using carbon paper or stencil masters. But especially carbon paper. There were many instances in an office setting, especially before Xerox machines became common place, when a typist could be required to make up to five carbon copies. If you were using a manual typewriter you really had to strike those keys hard to get through that many layers of paper and still achieve legible carbon copies. And if you made an error, you had to erase the error an ALL the carbon copies, not fun! If you were typing a stencil master, you had to use a razor blade to scrap off the error, then place a small piece of fresh master stencil under the top sheet to retype the correction, very time consuming, and you needed to be careful and neat, so as no to spoil the entire master.
For those too young to remember master stencils. They were two pieces of paper. The top sheet was coated on the back with a layer of purple semi solid ink like material, with a heavy blank paper as the second sheet. You typed the copy that you wanted to make a master of, and the ink like substance transferred to the bottom sheet as the typed copy. Then the completed master with the purple ink type copy was attached to a drum like roller on the mimeograph machine, and there was a solvent like solution that was applied to the master with each turn of the drum, either by manual handle or electric motor and the blank paper fed thru the machine as the purple ink transferred to the blank paper, and voila, you now had several copies of a test, instructions, signs, flyers, you name it. This was old school copying, before photocopying machines were common place.
If you carefully stored the master stencil between sheets of wax paper it could be used again, maybe another one or two times, but then it would no longer have enough of the purple master ink left to still create a copy, and you had to repeat the whole process all over again. I typed more than a few of these masters back in the 60’s. Most of all our school tests were copied this way when I attended elementary, junior high and high school from 1956 thru 1969. I’m sure many other members remember those purple ink tests and quiz's.
Eddie
[this post was last edited: 3/7/2020-18:07]
