School duplicating machines...

[Yog Sothoth 10]

I'm trying to get hold of one of those old hand-cranked duplicators (bander machines?) we used at school in the 70s and 80s, before photocopiers. You put ink in (usually purple) and hand-cranked it, and could make copies of documents.

 

Anyone remember what they were called and whether you can still get them?

[Womerry2 10]

Mimeograph, Gestetner or this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_duplicator ?

[liznospam 10]

I remember them being called cyclostyle machines but I think that is just a generic term for the kind of copying. I have no idea what brand they were.

[Obelix 11]

The generic term was also a Ditto machine. I think you will have issues now as they used to use alcohol for dye transfer which wasn't very nice and people have phased out suppliers for them as a consequence.

[Yog Sothoth 10]

Mimeograph, Gestetner or this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_duplicator ?

 

That's the one! Sounds like I might have trouble getting hold of one now, and the spirit for it.

[Berberis 10]

I thought they used nasty chemicals that have since been banned.

[medusa 16]

My mum's voluntary help centre used a Gestetner machine for all sorts of stuff to avoid photocopying costs and before they could afford a computer right up until about 8 years ago. Making the master copy needs a manual typewriter and someone who is confident enough not to make typing errors, which is pretty rare these days in the world of the backspace key.

[Yog Sothoth 10]

I thought they used nasty chemicals that have since been banned.

 

No chemicals are "banned" but some may be hard to get hold of. If I remember rightly the 'spirit' was mostly methanol, so methylated spirits would probably do the job OK.

[Ousetunes 10]

Used to love the smell of the print especially when 'hot off the press'.

 

Purple was the usual colour and wrong were my answers to the questions on the sheet, usually!!!

[Alien52 10]

When I was teaching in the 1970's the Gestetner machine stood in the corner of the staff room. It was filled with what I believe was methanol and surrounded by smokers!

[Hooverman 10]

I am also a great fan of the Banda duplicator. I used one of these when I attended Jordanthorpe School and thanks to the secretary (Mrs R. Smith) who explained the way these and others used at the school worked I got a job at the NHS offices at Fulwood in-charge of the printing dept. The two main makes in the UK were Banda (made by Block & Anderson Ltd) and Fordigraph (made by Frank R Ford Ltd). The colour pigment is in the carbon paper sheet used to make the master copy and there was 7 coloures the fluid used is clear and is a Methanol & Isopropyl alcohol mix. Methanol is highly toxic if drunk hense the strong wild rose cent but the fumes are only inflammable and the fumes may make you light headed so plenty of ventilation is required. The HSE data sheet is online for both alcohols. These machines do come up on Ebay and other auctions and car-boot sales etc. Mthanol and IPA are available at chemical suppliers I buy it from Durrant chemicals.

Edited June 27, 2018 by Hooverman
Additional information

[petemcewan 27]

They are called "spirit duplicators". I used one for years. Particularly when the Repro Room at college was too busy to do my reprographics.