How did a banda machine work?

A pile of blank paper was placed into the feeder tray. The sheet with the mirror image was fastened onto the drum of the Banda, with the inked image facing outwards. Then you turned the handle. As the dampened roller moved over a fresh sheet of blank paper, some of the coloured wax dissolved and was left on the paper.

What is Banda fluid?

I still use a Banda 15 at school for running off handouts, it is a lot cheaper to run than a photocopier and the thermal transfer sheets and hand written sheets are still widely available as they are now used by tattoo artists, the fluid is just a 50/50 mix of meths and isopropanol.

What was the mimeograph smell?

With its rapturously fragrant, sweetly aromatic pale blue ink, mimeograph paper was literally intoxicating.

What was the purple copy machine called?

Both pieces of paper are stained with purple ink because they went through a machine invented in 1923 called a ditto machine, or spirit duplicator.

Why did the students smell the paper in fast times?

After the paper is passed out, the students put the page up to their noses and deeply inhale. This was a popular school ritual of the ’60s, ’70s and early ’80s as photocopying machines were very expensive, so ditto machines were used. The resulting copies did not get you high but they smelled good.

Why did mimeograph ink smell so good?

The output of the ditto machine had a special aroma. Students could tell when a class assignment was hot out of the machine by the strength of the odor of the pages. The smell came from the ditto machine’s duplicating fluid, a mix of methanol and isopropanol.

What is a ditto machine called?

A spirit duplicator (also referred to as a Rexograph or Ditto machine in North America, Banda machine in the UK, Gestetner machine in Australia) is a printing method invented in 1923 by Wilhelm Ritzerfeld that was commonly used for much of the rest of the 20th century.

What was a ditto machine called?

spirit duplicator
A spirit duplicator (also referred to as a Rexograph or Ditto machine in North America, Banda machine in the UK, Gestetner machine in Australia) is a printing method invented in 1923 by Wilhelm Ritzerfeld that was commonly used for much of the rest of the 20th century.