Gratitude for copy machines
A current facebook meme is to post a gratitude in your status. Today I am grateful for copy machines. I have to return comments on group projects to students today and I don’t have to rewrite the comments for each student. I can simply copy them on my magical combo printer/fax machine/copier/scanner. This morning I remembered the days where this sort of task was impossible.
I remember carbon paper, ditto machines, and mimeographs. I remember members of the academic generation before mine telling me that they had to type their dissertations on carbon paper and store copies in the freezer to ensure they would survive a fire. Editing and revising under those circumstances were herculean. Carbon paper gave us the origin of the phrase carbon copy. Does anyone use that term anymore?
I remember my life as a work-study student where making copies was the bulk of the work. The big mimeographs, ink everywhere, standing for hours while the drum rotated and churned out papers, the smudged papers, the sticky stencils that folded in on themselves, and the rest of the messy, messy problems.
I remember dittos from my childhood all the way to graduate school — their purple ink, which I didn’t know had a special name, aniline purple. Analine purple is the first “synthetic organic dye,”an oxymoron to be sure. Dittos had a distinctive smell that I always associate with purple. My students today have never experienced the spirit aroma of a pop quiz. I doubt I will ever smell this scent in my life again. Incidentally, I always thought the idiom ditto came from ditto machines, but actually it actually dates back to 1625.
I remember the early copy machines. Their copies lose their quality over time as whatever ink they use fades and disperses into something like dust.
Even though copy machines have prolonged our transition to paperless offices, I’m still grateful for them.
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