Mimeo photos call center3/21/2023 ![]() Rather than spending all day typing out numerous copies of the same exam, for example, teachers could just crank the wheel on a mimeograph for a little while. ![]() This made mimeographs popular for distributing document variants - such as worksheets and tests - in the classroom, which saved teachers valuable time. In many ways, the mimeograph was ground zero for this, because it made possible the production of hundreds - even thousands - of document copies in a single sitting. ![]() We often talk about how modern technology concepts such as automation save us time. Why Was the Mimeograph Such an Important Device for Education? MORE ON EDTECH: Learn about the next-level printers of today. This meant that, before the mimeograph, such copies were produced by hand. Often, it was ineffective to produce small runs of documents - think 20 to 50 copies, about what a classroom might use - with large printing machines used for books or newspapers. This device solved a common problem for many printers throughout the 19th century. While a flat-bed version slightly predated Gestetner’s version, the hand-crank was significantly faster. The cyclostyle took the basic concepts of ink reproduction developed by the hectograph and Edison’s electric pen and tied them to a crank wheel, allowing for easy, inexpensive printing of documents from a stenciled page. While it could only make a handful of copies effectively, it was a useful tool for multicolor image duplication and has found modern uses in art and crafting.īut the most important invention that influenced the creation of the mimeograph is a device called the cyclostyle, which was developed by Hungarian-British inventor David Gestetner in 1887. One example is the hectograph, a common device in the 19th century that relies on transferring ink between multiple pages using a sheet of gelatin. Other technologies used for copying helped formulate some of the key concepts on which the mimeograph is based. The technology evolved from a series of similar devices over the span of a few decades, including the “ electric pen,” which Edison developed in 1875 to produce stencils for repeated use. While he can’t take full credit, Thomas Edison is partly credited with the invention of the mimeograph. As a result, both found common use in schools before the computer became prominent.ĭISCOVER: Read about the K–12 schools that are using 3D printers to make a difference. (Side note: This gave the resulting sheets quite the smell, as famously highlighted in the somewhat accurate 1982 documentary on high school life, Fast Times at Ridgemont High.)Īlthough spirit duplicators couldn’t be used once the solvents ran out, they were still inexpensive and easy to implement, similar to the mimeographs. This machine used a similar crank-based process, but involved the use of alcohol-based solvents, which dissolved the ink from a master sheet and transferred it onto other pieces of paper. Mimeograph machines shouldn’t be (but often are) mistaken for another technology widely used in classrooms of the time: the spirit duplicator or ditto machine. And while the mimeograph was utilized for printing all sorts of documents, it became popular among schools and churches in particular because of its relatively low cost and ease of use. This approach also made it possible to create numerous copies on the fly for repeated use. The ink was then forced through the holes in the master page, producing high-quality copies. Rather than using an additive process to make the necessary pages, the mimeograph relied on a master page, often made of wax, that had elements stenciled out. But the mimeograph effectively took the opposite approach.Įssentially, it was a stencil machine combined with an ink roller. The mimeograph machine arrived about the same time as hot-metal typesetting, a process commonly used in newspaper publishing that involved melting metal into different character shapes.
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