I came across this somewhat old (February 2004) article today, and it was fun to revisit some of the obsolete paste up methods that I used to spend a lot of my day using! I drew blood many times while wielding my X-acto knife, and spent many hours cleaning out my Rapidographs. (Wax and pens weren’t a good combination!) Border tape — ugh! I never liked that stuff!
In every profession people date themselves by the work practices or technology in place at the time they entered their chosen field. We say things like “but then, I was a surgeon before they invented anesthesia,” or “my first computer filled three rooms, and generated enough heat to power a small city.” In the rest of our lives we tend to want to minimize our age and experience, but in things work related, longevity is a badge of honor. That is until you become a cranky old whiner. Read more…
I think this may be the actual waxer that I used back in the 80’s!
Thanks for this look back, helping me realize I don’t miss that equipment ONE BIT! And to think I resisted buying that first Mac because I just couldn’t believe. I still have some waxable paper on my shelf but the waxer is long gone.
I hesitate to say that when I started teaching, for multicopies we made a master copy with a “hectograph pencil” We had a gelatin mixture in a cookie sheet. Then we layed the master copy face down on the solid gelatin and used a brayer or our hands to transfer the copy to the gelatin. Each copy had to be put on the gelatin to pick up the print.
I know there were carbon copies from typewriters, but there was no way to transfer diagrams, diagonal lines, boxes, etc. on the typewriter. Later schools had “ditto machines.” We called them “the purple plague.”
I remember my Dad and Mom using stylus pens on mimeograph masters for the church bulletin.
How’s this for nostalgia? Thank you for coming to my aid when I need something “fancy” now, or helping me with simple “duh” things when the computer stumps me.
I remember ditto machines too, from high school. And I remember my first IBM word processor that we called the Space Shuttle because it was so huge. The floppy discs were 10-inches.