One Man’s Short History of the Printer

Some of us have very short memories when it comes to remembering where we have come from. Printers in my youth were actually people. They were not the electronic devices made today that can come with all the bells and whistles you want. Then, it was plain old elbow grease. If you needed something reproduced and you needed 2 copies, you copied it twice or if you needed 3 copies you copied it 3 times; it was just that simple.
Now who can forget the advent of the Cheap Printer of the day; the hallowed carbon paper? This was really advanced copying for the time. You could tape or paperclip the carbon paper to the back of what you needed copied and trace over or type over it and like magic; another copy was produced. Or even better you could add more then one piece of carbon paper and produce multiple copies. Of course you’d have to press down really hard for it to come through onto the carbon paper. This multiple copy system became a real time saver.
But the real advancement in technology was the mimeograph Printer. This technique borrowed from the carbon paper idea. First you would take a special sheet of mimeograph paper which was almost like a piece of carbon paper, then type or draw or type your original on it. Next you wrapped the paper around a cylinder filled with special ink and when you turn the cylinder ink would bleed out the holes in the mimeograph paper like a stencil. This technology would let you produce hundreds of copies as long as the mimeograph paper didn’t become too saturated. This method was our Laser Printer of the day. It’s funny that everyone could always tell who the office worker was operating the mimeograph machine that day by the telltale blue ink on his or her fingers.
Recently I bought a Brother laser printer at Superwarehouse.com and I am very happy with the design and the standard features. I can produce fine photos and documents right from my computer. I used to have to go to the print shop in order to get those in the past, but no more. Today the technology has come so far it is light years from the past most of us remember.