Paperwork in the Stone Age

Furface

Moderator
Supporter
Well, not quite...
There I was in the stationers, getting this seasons Portsmouth score-sheets copied, and I started wondering how they did this in years gone by. Back in 1948 (when my club started) how did they mass produce score-sheets? Or did they restrict the number of scored rounds, perhaps to those mythical beasts "Club Target Days"? Then I started reminiscing (with the young lady doing the copying) about those rolling things with a big handle that printed everything in purple and smelled divine. Or the things where you "cut a stencil" on the typewriter, or "Litho".
And what other processes are influenced by the ease of producing paper. Affiliation, I would guess, but how was that done 60 years ago? Is the Rule Book so much bigger now because we no longer need to cram everything on two sides of foolscap folded four times?
 

dvd8n

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AIUK Saviour
those rolling things with a big handle that printed everything in purple and smelled divine
I used to use one of those. They were called mimeographs. You made the stencils on a typewriter or you could use special tools to make them freehand. Happy days. Computers and laser printers have taken all the fun handicraft out of paperwork these days.

And like you say, the smell ............. :dizzy:
 

Matthames

New member
I remember the ditto machines when I was at school. Used to get copies of worksheets from the teacher as a purple ditto'ed copy. I would imagine that when these were all the rage that they were used to copy things like target lists, score sheets, etc...
 

dvd8n

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If the purpleness and the smell weren't enough, you could always spot mimeographed paperwork. All the letters with loops in them, like Os, As, Bs etc., had the loops coloured in. This was because the middles of the letters on the stencils used to fall out.
 

Strandline

New member
I used to use one of those. They were called mimeographs.
They were often known as banda machines, named after Block and Anderson, the company that made many of them in the UK. My father was an engineer with them during the 50's and 60's, travelling the country repairing them. I remember going in the van with him in the early 60's during school holidays, visiting a variety of places while he worked.

He also repaired adding machines and other mechanical office equipment, and I also remember him bringing home the first electric (not electronic) adding machine they produced. It was about 18" square and 8" deep, and could add, subtract, multiply and divide - and that was it!
 

mk1

It's an X
Supporter
Oh memories of latin vocabulary and grammer - they were handed out on the duplicated sheets off the banda. I inherited old Club minutes in a book and then there were the sheets where you could get 4 or 5 copies.

I've just been googling and the ball point pen only came into use during WWII - so think of all those smudged fountain penned score sheets on a rainy day though I expect in days of old the gentry were followed up to the target by a servant who wrote down the score - or maybe even said servant shot the bow for them!
 

JohnR

The American
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American Shoot
I've just been googling and the ball point pen only came into use during WWII
Hugh Jackson died this month. He was the peadiatrician who campaigned for ballpoint pen tops to be made with holes in them, to reduce the number of children's deaths from choking.

Just thought you'd like to know . . .
 

BillM

Member
I've actually still got some banda stencil sheets, left over from my office in Glasgow when it moved on to Xerox photocopying. Sad isn't it.

BillM
 

TJ Mason

Soaring
Supporter
Fonz Awardee
American Shoot
Hugh Jackson died this month. He was the peadiatrician who campaigned for ballpoint pen tops to be made with holes in them, to reduce the number of children's deaths from choking.

Just thought you'd like to know . . .
Oops! And I've been blaming Esther Rantzen for years.
 

Yew Selfbow

Active member
In a display cabinet at the Royal Toxophilite Society, there's a Victorian punch card score sheet. It's qiute a while since I've seen it but, (if memory serves me correct) the scoring numbers are printed on a card and with a small stylus you punched a hole through the corresponding scored number.
 

dvd8n

Supporter
Supporter
AIUK Saviour
In a display cabinet at the Royal Toxophilite Society, there's a Victorian punch card score sheet. It's qiute a while since I've seen it but, (if memory serves me correct) the scoring numbers are printed on a card and with a small stylus you punched a hole through the corresponding scored number.
That's actually not a bad idea
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
We called the purple things "spirit duplicators". I used one for years to make work sheets for the kids. I hand wrote most of mine as I didn't have a typewriter.
I did get the use of a typewriter to make a little booklet that was aimed at new archers, to help them get suitable gear etc.
I remember feeling good at the time.Then an old copy turned up recently and I saw how bad it was compared to a modern equivalent; and how much eeasier it is thees dayz to correct a misstake.
 

joetapley

New member
Cor this thread shook a few memory cells loose. My first job back in 1970 included generating geological reports which were produced by drawing (text & graphics) with a rotring pen on a transparent sheet. To make copies you laid the transparent sheet on chemically prepared paper and exposed it to UV light through a "printer" (an electric mangle type arrangement). The sheets were developed by putting them into a vertical plastic tube the lower end of which fitted onto a liquid ammonia bath. A step forward from the clay tablet & stylus I suppose but making multiple copies was a pretty slow process.
 

Trev L

Member
I remember a duplicating machine from my high school (early 1960's) and it was called a "Gestetner".
 

johnnybeta

Member
Ironman
My first job back in 1970 included generating geological reports ....
the geological consultancy where I first worked (I'm a geologist) were still using one of these as recently as about 2000 for duplicating wireline and sedimentological log plots... they did smell bad though. They've since switched to macs, adobe illustrator, and a big plotter.
 

JohnoFon

New member
Back in the early 70s the club I belonged to didn't have access to high tech options like a Bandagraph. We used a general-purpose score sheet (purchased from a supplier who no longer trades).

Each individual score was broken into blocks of 6, 4 and 3 dozens, and you could score any 'traditional' (i.e. non-FITA) round on them. I can't remember whether we had special FITA sheets, but on club days we probably just put the two long distances together in the 6 dozen block.
 
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