Mincey’s Musings
Year Two, Week Twenty-Two

I received an email a few days ago that referenced some of the phrases that my generation adopted as standard language that everyone in that time could understand. One of the phrases identified was “carbon copy”. The explanation of the origin of the phrase was: “Before photocopiers were a thing, copies were made by sliding a piece of carbon paper between an original document and blank paper. It’s also what ‘cc’ means in your email.”

The idea for copy machines dates back at least to the time of Thomas Jefferson, who invented the “polygraph” (for more information, reference http://thomasjeffersonleadership.com/blog/a-210-year-old-copy-machine-r…).

My first experience with duplicate copies consisted of the “purple copies” in elementary school. These were printed on either a mimeograph machine or spirit duplicator. I never knew there was a specific distinction until I accessed information on Internet (reference en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimeograph). Often our teachers would give us these copies damp and freshly printed, and we enjoyed smelling the duplicating fluid (perhaps the designation “spirit” duplicator?). The first copies would be darker than the later as the master or “stencil” became less effective at reproducing print with each copy made. These copies faded over time, especially if exposed to lots of light, but I have some from my elementary and high school years that have held up well in storage.

Barbara Mandrell had a popular song several years ago which repeated the phrase “I was country, when country wasn’t cool”. Well, I was a typist when typing was much more difficult. While mimeo or spirit duplicating could rather effectively produce multiple copies, typing generally could only produce the original and one copy.

My first typing class was taught by Janie Turnblazer (Conley) at Horace Maynard High School during school year 1981-1982, my junior year. We had the old manual typewriters. If you hit the keys too hard the letters would skip a space and leave a blank in the middle of a word. If you didn’t hit the keys hard enough, you would sometimes get the same effect, because enough contact was made to advance the platen (rubber cylinder onto which paper is rolled) one space but not enough for the “key slug” (for source reference https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-parts-of-a-manual-typewriter) to print the letter.

Carbon copies on a manual typewriter were made by placing a piece of carbon paper between two sheets of typing paper and rolling them all onto the platten. In some cases maybe two or three carbons could be produced (by placing paper-carbon-paper-carbon, etc.), but my experience was that each copy made became dimmer. The first sheet was actually typed on, and the pressure of the key slugs made an imprint onto the underlying sheet. Care had to be taken to face the carbon sheet correctly so that the imprint did not wind up on back of the top sheet of paper. Also, the carbon paper was very thin and easy to wrinkle—wrinkled carbon sheets caused problems with readability of the copies. The keys had to be struck hard enough to imprint onto the carbon copy so that it could be read, but not so hard that spaces were skipped.

Making corrections on typed sheets was difficult—I probably went through gallons of Liquid Paper®. Making corrections on a carbon copy was extremely difficult, in particular because erasers smudged the carbon copy and there was less carbon remaining to type the correction onto the copy, making it dim and hard to read. It was not as messy to use those little plastic correction sheets that were placed over a mistakenly typed letter. These sheets covered the incorrect letter with white material that could then be typed over.

During my senior year I took VOE (Vocational Office Education) under Miss Ada Mae Houston. In VOE we had electric typewriters. It was so much easier to type on them because the keys did not have to be pressed as hard as on manual typewriters; however, for the most part it was no easier to make corrections on electric as on manual typewriters, as the same materials were required for corrections on both.

There was a limited number of IBM Selectric typewriters in Horace Maynard’s VOE department. Many of these typewriters had a correcting ribbon that eliminated the need for the messy correction products mentioned above. I got to use the Selectric model enough to know it was a vast improvement over the manual and other electric typewriters I had used.

When I began teaching in Union County in 1987, the “purple copies” were still widely utilized. It was possible to type a “stencil” to create a “purple copy”, and I was thrilled to be able to use this wonderful, modern (at least to me) technology to create instructional material for my students. If it was difficult to make a correction on a carbon copy, it was extremely difficult to correct a stencil. When the first Xerox (this name was generically used for any black and white copier) machines were introduced into the Union County Schools, they were reserved for only duplication of the most important material. When these machines first became available for teacher use, the number of copies allowed per teacher was controlled by a counter attached to the device.

Now mimeograph machines, spirit duplicators, manual and electric typewriters are antiquated. I have typed this article for you on my computer using word processing technology that makes it so easy to produce written documents. I don’t have to worry so much about the accuracy of my typing. I just have to hit a few keys (backspace, delete, cut, copy, paste, etc.) to make any necessary correction. I can type in many different fonts and sizes. I can choose several different spacing, color, and many other options for my typing. I don’t even have to worry as much about spelling—I have spelling and grammar features available. (I still find it necessary to proofread, as grammar and spelling options do have their limits.) There are templates available on my computer to align my documents.

When I finish, I will have completely used computer technology to write this article. Not one bit of this article was written with pencil or pen on paper. I will add this to my computer files labeled as “Mincey’s Musings” in several locations, one in the “my documents” section of this computer and two additional copies on jump drives. If I so wished, I could tell my computer to print this and anything else I have written or pulled up on Internet. I could scan this and any other document and send it to my computer for emailing as an attachment or saving to my Google drive. Finally, I will email as an attachment to Aaron Russell for him to place on historicunioncounty.com for your reading pleasure.

Had a mystic told my fortune with a crystal ball thirty years ago and predicted that I would have this technology and even passing ability to utilize it, I would have thought him/her insane. It took me a while to “get on board”, but now I find myself with regard to innovations in technology in the position of the message of a gospel song referencing loved ones and memories of long ago—“I cannot bring them back, I would not if I could”.

Of course, the greatest carbon copies are humans themselves. Many times we can look at children and immediately tell who their parents are. I have been told on several occasions that I look just like my father. One gentleman told me, “Frank Mincey will never be dead as long as you’re alive.” For that I am grateful.