Ditto!!

‘Before there were photocopiers, scanners and printers, there was the Ditto Machine (a.k.a. spirit duplicator), produced by the Illinois-based Ditto Corporation; originally introduced in 1923.’ –mnn

Clifford the Big Red Dog was supposed to be red. But in the handout I got in kindergarten, he was purple.

So was my introduction to the Ditto Machine – a device used to replicate most of the paperwork I’d used in elementary school.

Some of my earliest experiences as a ‘graphics’ guy was playing with one of these machines – seeing what it could reproduce and what it couldn’t. It couldn’t reproduce much. The copies were so smudgy, Dittos were grunge before grunge was grunge.

And the smell of the purple ink was incredible. Fruity and chemically at the same time! Tho it turns out ink ingredients – isopropanol and methanol – are toxic substances. Who knew?

Cept for a few high school teachers who were holdouts (‘I don’t trust that newfangled photocopier thing’) all the dittos in my life were gone by end of grade 12.

Snag a tee here.

Images found via They Always Come Back, a tree grows in brookline, Zazzle, Jean&Vic

4 Responses to “Ditto!!”

  1. My mom apparently used to used use this when she worked in offices. She said that it was super messy and a pain to use. She compared it to the first copier she ever used and said that the ditto machine was a lot better. The copier broke all the time. Then she went on rambling about reel-to-reel camera’s, Tube Televisions (that only had 2 stations), and electric typewriters. I am glad that I wasn’t born in the stone-age…

  2. Re stone age: Ask her about the ‘pet rock.’

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