Ditto machine
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, the Ditto Machine was a printing method that transferred ink onto a master copy made of smooth, waxy paper. An alcohol-based fluid (hence "spirit") was then applied to transfer the image to a copy. Primarily used by schools and churches, the Ditto became less and less commonplace as other copying technologies were brought to market. Its decline began in the 1970s, and by the mid 1990s, the Ditto was virtually extinct — although it can still be found on rare occasions, its appeal being that it does not require electrical power to run.
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Let me first say, I'm not an audiophile. I'm more of a bibliophile as the home is over run in bookcases. But I grew up listening to records, tapes, then later CDs and now purely digital. It was a interesting read about the Steve jobs discussion on the iPod and makes a lot of sense to me. I have been listening to CD's and digital for many years now and I have to say when I put on the first record on my player in years the only thing that stood out was the pop,crackle and hiss.Although I find it.... More
That it did not use electricity was NOT the big appeal.....remember the fresh off the press sheets? What was the first thing you did the second it got in your hot little hand? It was like catnip for gradeschool kids! Kinder Crack!
Someone said radio stations are still using 8 tracks for commercials. Close, sorta, but no. These units (lovingly known as "Carts") are 2 track (stereo) sometimes 1 track (mono) that typically have only 30 to 360 seconds worth of tape. Neither will play in the other kind of player, the size is actually not the same, but they do look similar...
The versatility and re-recordability and re-usability of Compact Cassettes for sound and VHS for video will always keep them and the machines in my home. CDs and DVDs cant compare, especially when tapes play while disks and their players love to give error messages.
One thing that had been obsolete for a few years was the projector screen but now it's back even bigger with DLP projectors hooked up to computers and video machines.
One technology that predates all but real.... More
I beg to differ with the notion that vinyl LPs sound better than CDs or MP3's. First, that's largely a matter of opinion. Vinyl LPs wear out quickly and get scratched, and when they do, they sound awful--and again it doesn't take long for that to happen! I much prefer the clear, clean sound of a CD to vinyl or cassettes, or even 8tracks. Those dinosaurs I do not miss, and with digital audio files online now, that's even better than CDs. I really think we have better now than before.
Audiophiles knew the only way to preserve the quality of a record was to record it onto reel to reel tape, and store the record for future use. A vinyl record will lose its quality after about 50 plays, a tape will lose it after 500 or so. So you had the potential to listen to your favorite record 25,000 times before that 51st recording you made was degraded from the first. A true accurate analog recording will always surpass any digital rendering, no matter how many filters you might.... More
A digital recording depends on its sample rate. If this is low then the some of the information will be missing. The analog recording will have ALL the information but included in the information will be what is know as wow, flutter and noise. Analog recording devices all suffer from the inclusion of noise and recording tape has a problem with "hiss", high frequency noise that is a by-product of magnetic recording. In the by-gone age there were many techniques to control this problem.More
Having worked for several high-end audio manufacturers over my career, I would like to offer some input. I won't get drawn into an LP vs. CD debate, I've heard wonderful and horrible examples of both. CDs are 16 bit, 44k recordings. Around 10 years ago new high resolution digital formats appeared (DVD Audio, which was a big improvement as it was 24 bit, 192K, and SACD from Sony) DVD Audio never caught on but the wonderful SACD format caught on, sort of. Sony didn't release many titles (3 -.... More
I can't begin to estimate how many pairs of shoes lost their shine, and how quickly I STOPPED wearing fingernail polish. That ditto fluid could remove anything (except the blue stain from skin), and the vapors from the stacks of cool damp papers couldn't have been healthy to inhale....but then, who cared?
My greatest error while student teaching was running stapled papers through the Thermofax machine, tearing the belt. I was NOT on anyone's best friend list for the two weeks it took for the.... More
Did anybody like the smell of ditto paper ?because i did , always brings me back to grade school..
I kind of liked the smell. Can't remember if I ever caught a buzz or not.
I can't begin to estimate how many pairs of shoes lost their shine, and how quickly I STOPPED wearing fingernail polish. That ditto fluid could remove anything (except the blue stain from skin), and the vapors from the stacks of cool damp papers couldn't have been healthy to inhale....but then, who cared?
My greatest error while student teaching was running stapled papers through the Thermofax machine, tearing the belt. I was NOT on anyone's best friend list for the two weeks it took for the.... More
I can't begin to estimate how many pairs of shoes lost their shine, and how quickly I STOPPED wearing fingernail polish. That ditto fluid could remove anything (except the blue stain from skin), and the vapors from the stacks of cool damp papers couldn't have been healthy to inhale....but then, who cared?
My greatest error while student teaching was running stapled papers through the Thermofax machine, tearing the belt. I was NOT on anyone's best friend list for the two weeks it took for the.... More
While mostly noting that many of these items were gone 'by' certain timeframes, in reality you would virtually never see them except in instances where newer technology adoption was EXCEPTIONALLY slow, or there was some extenuating circumstance.
8-tracks, for example, were considered antiquated relics even by the very early 1980s. I was a kid in the late 1970s and even then virtually everything that was an album was on cassette tape unless you had an older car with an 8-track player,.... More
I disagree about ditto- I saw them in my very current, well-funded school district throughout the 80s. I remember that fresh ditto sheets smelled like buttered popcorn; we kids would sniff them eagerly when they were handed out.
I do agree about 8-tracks, though, we had a few left over by the early 80s but we had switched to cassettes by then.
However, Brad, if you were a child in a rural 1970s school district, I doubt you had any notion of what was current and what other places.... More
I'm not sure how your comment showed up in my email box but I'm not Brad and my comment had to do with digital audio formats, nothing about ditto.
I am a child of the eighties and I remember having used every single one of these technologies at some point in my life. Our grade school used a ditto machine up until I was in at least 6th grade; my mother and I were explaining to my baby brother the other day what an 8-track system was; and I first watched Superman on a rental laser disc.
It wasn't that in our rural area technology adaptation was EXCEPTIONALLY slow--many times these were used side-by-side as I grew up-especially as I.... More
The author is not trying to write an autobiography here. All this is about is just an FYI
Some stuff is really never gone. Eight track tape is still used in some small radio stations for playing comercials. LP records are coming back because they sound better than a MP3 or CD. You can still get a DVD player with a built in VCR tape deck. Reel to reel tape is still used in both video and audio production and of course Kodak "film" is still used to make movies. So are things gone forever from the world? No, they are just gone from the consumer market.
mimeogragh machines, Ibm selectric typewiters you changed the ball to change fonts, dul cassette dubing decks, lp turntables, ( which I still have) blenders, salad shooters, and pug in drip coffe percolatoers. c7 christmas bulbs and zipppo or ronson lighters. wow.
all these things were used by me also I remember the Christmas we girls got a 8 track player and our dad took us out to buy tapes. A realy good memory. I find myself telling my grand daughter about some of the stuff we used She was fasinated when visiting my great aunt who is in her 90's and looking at all the old stuff she still used and had along with the new. A great history lesson for her.
The peculiar sweet smell of the fresh blue ink on a ditto-machine-produced worksheet handed out in an elementary school class in the mid 60s is as strong a memory as the smell of Crayola crayons, Play-Doh, or newly-cut grass on the playground to bring back memories of childhood.
Wow you hit the nail on the head with that one. I can smell it right now, brings back memories of slightly blurred purple-blue "hand-outs"... I'd add the smell of white paste glue ("paste") to your list, and the peculiar smell of a school gymnasium. Oh, and the smell of drying woolen mittens on top of the steam radiator that would burn you if you touched it.
The Ditto is way out of place in this group and doesn't belong. It belongs with techology like punchcards. An Atari 2600 would have been a better addition.
The Risograph machine is the technological heir to the duplicator throne.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risograph
I have plenty of this stuff at www.FreeRecyclingQuotes.com if you need it
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