Re: old school

[Janice Gelb <Janice -dot- Gelb -at- Sun -dot- COM>]

Peter Neilson wrote:
> Fred Ridder wrote:
> 
>> I don't know exactly what the mimeograph technology was, but 
> 
> Google for corflu, follow to its wikipedia article, and then follow to 
> the mimeograph article. All you need to know about mimeography in the 
> science-fiction fanzine world.
> 

*raises hand* Corflu was appalling blue smelly stuff
that functioned sort of like liquid paper does today.

Totally non-scientific, user-point-of-view definition:

Mimeography works by typing on a stencil: a thin sheet of
(usually blue) waxy-inked paper with a thicker white sheet
behind it. You take off the typewriter ribbon and type on
the stencil directly. As you type, the force cuts away the
ink on the blue part. (If you make a mistake, you use the
corflu to fill the hole in, wait for it to dry, and type
the correct letter there.) Once the stencil is done, you put
it on the mimeo machine drum, which turns the stencil so that
ink is forced through the parts that you typed. Messy, smelly,
and requiring lots of effort to turn the mimeo before there
were electric cranks.

Some fans still use this technology today, and I know some
who produce really wonderful stuff by using different colors
of ink. (You can also draw on the stencil with a sort of
rounded-ball-end stylus.)

More than any of you wanted to know, I'm sure...

-- Janice the Geezer

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