I always remember that unique, sweet smell of mimeograph ink when they passed out freshly printed tests. Decided to buy some on Ebay just for the reminiscent value. Crazy.
Remember smell of mimeograph ink?
- Thread starter LuxLuthor
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LOL... that's pretty crazy, but not crazier than trying to change one's mood with alcohol.
Sometimes it is just a pleasant memory that lightens one's day.
Good for you.
Sometimes it is just a pleasant memory that lightens one's day.
Good for you.
SCEMan
Flashlight Enthusiast
To paraphrase; "Who doesn't love the smell of mimeograph ink in the morning?"
IMA SOL MAN
Flashlight Enthusiast
Back when I was in school in the '60s and 70's that was how they reproduced all the school stuff, except our HS newspaper was actually printed on a press. I have a lot of memories of special holiday papers with holiday items to color with crayons. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, etc. there was a coloring page or pages for each.
Yeah, it is so funny to think how far just the technology of printing press to mimeograph machine to copy machines to scanned documents sent as pdf. But most kids in class would all grab their tests and smell them before the ink all dried out...making writing your test answers almost irrelevant. It was the thought of that smell that for some reason triggered enough nostalgia to buy some left over on Ebay. Wasn't that expensive either.
knucklegary
Flashlight Enthusiast
I can remember watching the printing running at military hq waiting for orders to be cut and printed. Very messy operation especially when machines broke down. Windows and doors were always wide open
WOW...they did orders on mimeograph machines? Back when I was in the Navy, I was always amazed that they had a 12 page carbonless form that would send copies to sit in obscure file cabinets in God knows where locations.
Guitar Guy
Enlightened
I remember the smell of that ink very well. It was kind of a deep blue / purple, wasn't it?
And I remember the peppermint taste of the paste that they had us using for construction paper projects. We all ate some of it, but Donald M. would eat gobs of it, tryin' to show off for the ladies. It must have been child safe, because no one got sick or poisoned.
And I remember the peppermint taste of the paste that they had us using for construction paper projects. We all ate some of it, but Donald M. would eat gobs of it, tryin' to show off for the ladies. It must have been child safe, because no one got sick or poisoned.
pnwoutdoors
Enlightened
Vaguely. I do recall the crappy quality of the output, though, and how the ink got all over everything. The change to "desktop publishing" resulted in such excellent printed output, it's hard to remember stuff like mimeographs, Wite-Out, etc.
Of course, I learned to type with an older Olympia manual, a bit tank of a device. Long before the IBM Selectric models popped up everywhere. Gotta love the feel of them. A bit tougher to press the keys, and keys would jam together occasionally, but oh so smooth. And that great ergonomic rise of the keyboard ... "Ding!"
Speaking of anachronistic gizmos ...
Anyone recall the old Osborne 1 computers? Luggable 30lb "tanks" in all their wondrous glory. CP/M operating system, too. You could drop 'em on concrete and they'd still function. Heck, breathe too hard on a modern-day laptop and it's toast.
Ahhh, memory lane.
IMA SOL MAN
Flashlight Enthusiast
You might want to switch to non-alcoholic beverages when near modern lap-tops.Vaguely. I do recall the crappy quality of the output, though, and how the ink got all over everything. The change to "desktop publishing" resulted in such excellent printed output, it's hard to remember stuff like mimeographs, Wite-Out, etc.
Of course, I learned to type with an older Olympia manual, a bit tank of a device. Long before the IBM Selectric models popped up everywhere. Gotta love the feel of them. A bit tougher to press the keys, and keys would jam together occasionally, but oh so smooth. And that great ergonomic rise of the keyboard ... "Ding!"
Speaking of anachronistic gizmos ...
Anyone recall the old Osborne 1 computers? Luggable 30lb "tanks" in all their wondrous glory. CP/M operating system, too. You could drop 'em on concrete and they'd still function. Heck, breathe too hard on a modern-day laptop and it's toast.
Ahhh, memory lane.
PhotonWrangler
Flashaholic
I loved that aroma! I always looked forward to receiving a freshly printed mimeograph in school. I also liked that purple color.
Apparently the enjoyment of the mimeograph smell was a real thing in it's day. The unique aroma came from a combination of methanol and isopropanol according to this article.
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idleprocess
Flashaholic
One has to be of a certain age to even know what a mimeograph was. Recall them throughout elementary school; by the time I reached middle school the photocopier had taken over.
BVH
Flashaholic
Hmmmmmm..... You crack me up Lux! 😁 Now where have I seen that lately??? 😁
SINCE this is CPF,
let me point out that (at age 70)
I still remember the SMELL
(and the SOUND)
of camera FLASHBULBS going off !
:-D
In 1964, I received a Kodak Brownie Fiesta
camera, with its add-on Flash attachment.
Can still remember how AG-1 flashbulbs
smelled and sounded upon activation !
< sigh >
let me point out that (at age 70)
I still remember the SMELL
(and the SOUND)
of camera FLASHBULBS going off !
:-D
In 1964, I received a Kodak Brownie Fiesta
camera, with its add-on Flash attachment.
Can still remember how AG-1 flashbulbs
smelled and sounded upon activation !
< sigh >
PhotonWrangler
Flashaholic
I remember this smell and sound also. I also remember having a few of the larger flashbulbs with the bayonet base and even a couple with the Edison base.
LOL....another great memory flash.
My new wife said that ever since she was a young girl, she always loved cotton candy at the local fairs in New Orleans. So I bought her this cotton candy machine. The amazing thing to find out is that a typical wand of cotton candy only uses a single tsp of colored sugar, so is only 15 calories!!!
Spirit duplicator or "ditto" made the slightly blurry purple copies. https://groups.google.com/g/alt.fan.cecil-adams/c/hMUEaAiCykY
Other colors were available but nobody used them, apparently since purple was capable of making more copies.
I remember the smell from grade school in the 70's, and wondering why they were purple.
Other colors were available but nobody used them, apparently since purple was capable of making more copies.
I remember the smell from grade school in the 70's, and wondering why they were purple.
Yeah, the Ditto was the purple two part wax master that typing or hand drawing transferred the wax to the other page. That wonderful smell came from the fluid that saturated the paper and pulled the purple wax off the master page as it wound around, leaving the saturated paper to evaporate in the air. After about 50-60 copies the wax lettering was depleted.
That fluid was composed of a composition composed of 10% of trichlorofluoromethane and 90% of a mixture of 50% methyl alcohol, 40% ethyl alcohol, 5% water and 5% of ethylene glycol mono-ethyl ether.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_duplicator
That fluid was composed of a composition composed of 10% of trichlorofluoromethane and 90% of a mixture of 50% methyl alcohol, 40% ethyl alcohol, 5% water and 5% of ethylene glycol mono-ethyl ether.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_duplicator
PhotonWrangler
Flashaholic
So it was the solvent, not the wax master, that was responsible for the aroma?
