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Duplicating machines were the predecessors of modern document-reproduction technology. They have now been replaced by digital duplicators, scanners , laser printers , and photocopiers , but for many years they were the primary means of reproducing documents for limited-run distribution.
Some are mechanical and some are chemical. There is naturally some overlap with printing processes and photographic processes, but the challenge of precisely duplicating business letters, forms, contracts, and other paperwork prompted some unique solutions as well. There were many short-lived inventions along the way.
The best-known manufacturer in the United States and the world was Ditto Corporation of Illinois. Copiers in the United Kingdom were commonly manufactured by Associated Automation Ltd of Willesden, London NW10, a subsidiary company of the computer makers Elliott-Automation Ltd for the Block & Anderson company, under their "Banda" brand.
The company was founded in 1883 [1] in Chicago as a lumber company by Albert Blake Dick (1856 – 1934). It soon expanded into office supplies and, after licensing key autographic printing patents from Thomas Edison, became the world's largest manufacturer of mimeograph equipment (Albert Dick coined the word "mimeograph"). [3]
The patent covered the electric pen, used for making the stencil, and the flatbed duplicating press. In 1880, Edison obtained a further patent, US 224,665: "Method of Preparing Autographic Stencils for Printing," which covered the making of stencils using a file plate, a grooved metal plate on which the stencil was placed which perforated the ...
The Gestetner is a type of duplicating machine named after its inventor, David Gestetner (1854–1939). During the 20th century, the term Gestetner was used as a verb—as in Gestetnering . [ 1 ] The Gestetner company established its base in London, filing its first patent in 1879.
Gestetner allegedly perceived the idea of the duplicating method after an ink-spill accident whilst vending kites in Chicago. After a pot of ink spilled over a pile of kites, he found that the same ink pattern remained throughout the pile. This inspired him to find a way to replicate the process for commercial use.
The rotary press itself is an evolution of the cylinder press, also patented by William Nicholson, invented by Beaucher of France in the 1780s and by Friedrich Koenig in the early 19th century. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Rotary drum printing was invented by Josiah Warren in 1832, [ 3 ] whose design was later imitated by Richard March Hoe in 1843. [ 4 ]