The Mimeograph Library

The mimeograph library consists of digital and physical items. Click on the dropdown menu to see the categories where you’ll be able to access everything I’ve been able to find that has been digitalized.

The physical collection does not circulate at this time, but you may contact me if you’d like to know details about their contents.

8 replies on “The Mimeograph Library”

Hi! I have a Heyer Conqueror Stencil Duplicator Mimeo/ Model 1770 that I’d like to sell. It appears to be in great condition. A friend bought it six years ago then left for Europe. It’s of course, very heavy so picking it up locally would be best but I’m sure shipping could be arranged. I have plenty of photographs.

I live in the Cleveland, Ohio area.

I was a service representative for A.B.Dick of Great Britain company from 1964 for twenty five years. I serviced Mimeographs at USAF sites in the UK and three Azograph machines at Firestone factory Brentford.

Hi Michael, it sounds like you have a lot of experience! If you’re interested in sharing your experience and happen to use facebook, I recommend joining the Mimeomania facebook group. We can always use experienced repair folks to advise people who have machines in need of some TLC.

Do you have any examples of an Azograph copy? I’ve always been curious about what they looked like. I’m told they were blue rather than purple? I wonder why that technology didn’t last…

Azograph was a chemical process similar to spirit duplicating exclusively offered by the A B Dick Company. Instead of using purple aniline dye in the master carbon sheet, it employed a chemical which was normally not visible, eliminating the purple stains that were sometimes viewed as a drawback of spirit duplicating. When the dye on the master came into contact with special azograph duplicating fluid, which I am told contained ammonia, it turned a bright blue, yielding a visible copy on the paper. The process was not popular, however, and A B Dick eventually gave up on it. Firstly it was more expensive than spirit duplicating, secondly the number of copies that could be produced was much less than spirit duplicating, thirdly the only color possible was blue as opposed to the five colors that a spirit duplicator could produce, and fourthly, the first copy from a master usually had to be run on a special accelerator sheet. Also if you ran out of supplies, they could only be purchased from an A B Dick dealer; stationers would not be likely to have them. I have an A B Dick 220 duplicator that is labelled as an Azograph, but like most other such machines, it is used as a spirit duplicator. I have never actually seen Azograph masters or fluid; school boards here never purchased anything Azograph because of the higher cost relative to spirit duplicating.

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Mimeograph Revival