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Press

I'm not sure what this is exactly, but it looks to be a printing press of some sort.
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that , or some kind of copier maybe, i dont know
anna
Wed 07-27-2005
A mimeograph. A duplicator that makes copies of written, drawn, or typed material from a stencil that is fitted around an inked drum. Used in schools and offices before the photocopier was introduced in the 80's.
yaggy
Thu 07-28-2005
As a former special ed teacher (in the years before the Great Flood that covered all the earth), we used to use these if we wanted to make multiple copies of anything. You could always tell school teachers (but you couldn't tell them much - har har!) because they had purple streaks all over their faces and hands because of the damnable mimeo ink. That was a true mess. Sigh . . . . .
Lynne
Thu 07-28-2005
I don't think I could resist taking a souvenir, you could start your own museum, it's sad they're just going to trash this stuff!
silkster40z
Sat 07-30-2005
Ah hah! My parents were just talking about these machines the other day...my mom was saying she always loved the smell of the ink. I was wondering what these things looked like!
Barbara
Tue 08-02-2005
Boo-hoo, you young punk! You make us decrepit oldsters feel positively aged! 8`-(

But yes, that ink DID smell good! :-)
Lynne
Wed 08-03-2005
Yeah it did smellgood, I remeber running copies off for a teacher in one o fthe grade schools I attended. If you could get this towork you should be able to see what was last ran on it.
~Me
Wed 08-03-2005
LOL Lynne. My apologies!

I forget to mention last time ~ thats old paper just sitting on the rack thing right? It's awesome how it was just left there, and that it hasn't disentegrated or been eaten away by vermin.
Barbara
Fri 08-05-2005
It may well be a piece of cardboard to mimic paper for the purpose of the shot.
~Me
Sat 08-06-2005
It was a large envelope, blank and empty.
Motts
Mon 08-08-2005
Ah, I love the smell of mimeographs in the mornng. Smells like...QUIZZES!
;)
HTuttle
Mon 08-08-2005
That's not a mimeograph. It's a duplicator. a very small Offset press that used oil-base ink and water with electrostatic plates. Almost every office building from 1920 to 1969 had a few of these in the basement. I ran one of these for almost fifteen years (this one looks like it might be made by Multi-graphic, AB-Dick, or American Type Foundry.) you put the ink in the tray that is close to the camera, with all the adjusting scews, paper in the other side, the plate on the large chrome cylinder

noisy and smelly, but a required element in a pre-xerographic office.
Exile
Mon 08-08-2005
I remember my elemantary school had a mimeograph. They used to send us home with mimeograph memos for our parents. Never called them "mimeograms."
Max
Tue 08-09-2005
smelled like plums.
at least that's what i thought
whatimagination
Tue 09-06-2005
I'd have to agree with Exile. It looks like an old offset press I used to run on occasion in college. My vote is AB Dick, Ex.
StacyMarie
Sun 09-25-2005
Not an AB Dick offset. No ink trays or suction devices. Clearly a mimeograph. AB Dick did make them as well.
http://pages.tias.com/ ... ge/1922038586.html

http://www.creativepro ... y/20050615_fg4.jpg

I loved getting those quizzes, still moist from the machine. Look around and every kid in class is sniffing the paper.
NurseCarmen
Fri 10-07-2005
Oh Yeah!


Inhales deeply, Miss those days.
~Me
Fri 10-07-2005
My father used to sell mimeograph machines to local education authorities in the days before schools could afford photocopiers. The smell of the ink was lovely... I remember getting the blue print all over my hands when our class teacher gave us worksheets that weren't quite dry :-)

I think we may still even have a couple of these machines (more modern, mid-80s versions of course) lying around in the garage or basement! Incidenally my old man moved on to selling photocopiers and laser printers as each subsequently superseded older technology...
rich_edwards79
Sat 10-08-2005
Come on guys, it's a ditto machine, get it right;)
MrSheep
Tue 10-11-2005
School department I attended used them until I was in middle school. As I recall the teachers made a big deal when we got a photo copyer. That was 1989 as I recall.
InSaNeBoY
Fri 10-21-2005
Looks like a machine we had to use in one of my high school classes. You would expose a metallic sheet to an image, run it through a developer, then load that sheet onto the drum, fill it with ink, and let it run. As I remember, ours broke down frequently, so part of the class was learning how to fix the more common things that could happen to it... Good to see one again after all these years!
Sketch
Tue 12-13-2005
I just can't figure out where the soap came out?
Danny Being Manny
Fri 03-24-2006
And where does the lightbulb go?
subcoolman
Sat 07-22-2006
This is a printing press, NOT a mimeograph.

The suction cups would have been on the other end of the machine. This is the end where pages would exit. The cylinder isn't big enough to be a mimeograph. Check out this photo for comparison: http://www.cottenaucti...i/images/press2c.jpg Notice the lamp, the lever and the large wheel to crank the press forward manually. Also, notice the row of screws below the lamp. That's the inkwell.

I worked on a similar contraption in graduate school.
bryan
Mon 09-11-2006
Are the compostied printing plates were saw earlier used on this.

I remember a couple of schools I went to used spirit duplictors similar to the ones mentioned above, with strange purple ink.
Richard Davies
Sat 04-28-2007
All this talk about "ink sniffing" makes me wonder about some of you = P

Still a very cool photograph though = )
Taubin
Fri 11-16-2007
It is an old model 1260 offset press. The ink trays were removable on them for easy cleaning and repair. I worked in a print shop with my father 25 years ago and there were 4 or 5 of these that were used to print job work on such as businessd cards, single sheet fliers, etc.
Tony
Sun 02-03-2008
That is a Mimeograph first patented by thomas edison in 1889 this one looks like it could be from the 30's
anna Tsykin
Fri 12-04-2009
"strange purple ink"?? In 2nd/3rd grade, my teacher would use "ditto sheets" with that old typewriter font and the print was always purple. (the sheets were always dry, though, and I never smelled ink like plums, or anything else)
STL girl
Fri 01-22-2010

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