Talk:Spirit duplicator
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[edit] Images
The Ditto and its likes bring nostalgic memories in all of us, but this article really deserves some images! Photos of ditto machines are surprisingly hard to find online, and once I've found a few, I really stumbled on the wiki copyright procedures. (This was my first time trying to post a photo, and after an hour of reading wiki-legalese I was as stumped as before. Are snapshots of products creative works? Are published advertisements in the public domain? Well, that discussion doesn't belong here..)
So here's what I found:
- Most useful ones are from the Early Office Museum, which claims copyright for all work but does acknowledge fair use. Scroll down Copy Machines, for a photo of a Bell & Howell Ditto E-41 circa 1950, and two ads (also here).
- And here you can find a self-published R. Crumb comic, a great example of the renown purple look and of the machine's popularity and cultural value..
Hopefully someone that's better-versed in wiki image procedures can conclude their addition. Binba 22:10, 4 November 2007 (UTC)
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[edit] General
We used these at my school in the early 1980s where we called them "purple perils" regardless of the colour. Ahh, the memories…how they still grate on the brain :-) --Phil | Talk 09:10, Feb 8, 2005 (UTC)
- Ha, I can still hear the kachunkathoonk, kachunkathoonk, kachunkathoonk of the machine near my 5th grade classroom. Does the 2nd to last paragraph, comparing the mimeograph machine to the spirit duplicator, seem a bit POV to anyone else? To me, it totally reads like a mimeo fan dissing the ditto machine. FreplySpang 07:18, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
- One thing I recall was that newly-printed pages on a ditto machine were cold to the touch, which sometimes prompted me to call them "Cold off the press!" *Dan T.* 14:11, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
- And let us not forget the heady aroma of freshly printed dittos. 207.93.200.3 16:13, 8 August 2006 (UTC)
- The spirit duplicator vs. mimeography material seems fairly balanced to me, as a sometime spirit duplicator owner who never owned a mimeo; but of course it's no longer the penultimate paragraph. --Orange Mike 16:45, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
- I'm pretty sure my schools were using them in the early to mid 1990s. At least, we got a lot of blurry purple copies. I was surprised to learn they were supposed to be mostly out of use by then, but I imagine ours didn't get replaced until it pretty much broke. Persephone Kore 21:26, 14 September 2007 (UTC)
- We used them in my school in the early '80s too. I think there was a xerox copier as well, and teachers might use one or the other, but they were in use. The "few were in use by 1985" statement had been tagged with citation needed since February, so I just removed it. It could probably be safely changed to "declined in use through the 1980s," but whatever is said should be factually verifiable, not just extrapolating from someone's personal recollection. -Agyle 12:08, 26 September 2007 (UTC)
These were called something else in australia, a name starting with 'S' or 'C' not unike 'mimeograph'.... anyone who can follow this up, it would be greatly appreciated...Lou777 (talk) 12:48, 21 April 2008 (UTC)
These were still occaisionally used when I was at school in the mid or even late 1990s in England and I was intrigued by the antiquated process and smell. It would only be used when the budget for photocopying had been used up. I'll have a look sometime to see if I have anything printed on one to scan in. Booshank (talk) 13:31, 21 May 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Scan
If someone has a scan or can scan one of these in, it would be interesting to see what a page from one looked like! Isoxyl 16:35, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Banda
The article explains about the Ditto corporation, which explains the name Ditto machine. What about Banda? Presumably this was a tradename too, at least in the UK. When I was at school in the UK, these were universally called Banda machines. Can anyone shed any light on the Banda company?? Mooncow 19:36, 8 April 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Highly toxic substances?
Methanol and isopropanol are toxic at some dose, as for any substance. I don't think they fit the technical definition of "highly toxic", though:
A chemical that falls within any of the following categories: a) has an LD50 of 50 milligrams or less per kilogram of body weight b) a chemical that has an LD50 ≤ 200 milligrams per kilogram of body weight when administered by continous contact with the skin for 24 hours c) a chemical that has an LC50 in air of 200ppm by volume or less of gas or vapor, when administered by continuous inhalation for one hour
so I deleted "highly" from the article.--Joel 00:05, 9 August 2007 (UTC)
- Good call; thanks. --Orange Mike 01:22, 9 August 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Color
The link to Aniline Purple says it is a dye. This article calls it a pigment. Which is it?
