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ImageMemory Lane of Old Copiers

Please help name this system

Please help name this system

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They were called Dual Spectrum marketed by 3 M In USA they were marketed as Thermofax I have a booklet that details all about them from 3 M if you are interested I can email it to you. Perhaps some other dinosaurs might be interested

I sold them in UK started at a budget level called a 3M scotch copier for 59 UK ponds

the first office model was the 3M 051 then all the way up to a twin roll machine. They used a two paper system One sheet was a pink flimsy sheet with a corner cut out of the top right to ensure you put it the correct way round. You laid it on top of the original then put both together face to face under the lid and set an egg timer for the correct length of time as it pinged It was finished You then peeled the pink sheet away from the original and palced it same styel against this time a white sheet of paper (almost palin paer) well it looked like plain paper But was a positive sheet. Again it had to be faced against the flimsy sheet the correct way round. To ensure you did it the right way Not only did the pink flimsy negative have a corner cut out of the top right but the copy paper had a tulip watermark on the back. You then fed the two sheets sandwiched together through the set of heat rollers in the front and after about 30 secs both sheets would exit . You peeled the pink flimsy off the white sheet and disposed of that and you were left with a dry copy.

It also doubled up as a transparency maker which made it great for schools I also sold the 3M projectors to go with it. The range was priced from 59 pounds up to 199 for the flatbed ones The difference was in the power of the lamps the more expensive ones used a longer lasting exposure bulb which was a consumable as the more it was used it wore out and had less ability to expose the negative. The full office version was similar looking to the electrostatic type machines such as the SCM 132 or The 3M magna Dry machines But had one roll of pink negative paper and the other was the white positive paper. 3M had this market to themselves. But stayed with the technology for too long. They did get into the market with OEM machines from  a few manufacturers in the electrostatic market then later with OEM'd Toshiba machines The secertary I and II But sold the copier business to Harris eventually.. I started in general office equipment sales 1973 products I sold were  dictation machines from Grundig and Philips typewriters Triumph adler Imperaila SCM Olivetti copiers from SCM, Eskofot, Imperial, 3M Mita Copystar, nashua/ AB Dick  and duplicators Both spirit and ink duplicators. Even Facsimile way before they took of much later. This was when the telephone lines were hard wired and we had to wait for the telco company to wire it up for us. usually we sold them to a single company that userd them either internationally or between branches. Quite laborious and time consumimng As it was designed similar to a electronic plate/stencil maker.

You had two cylinders - One you clamped the original around thewhen sending and when receiving you wrapped a special paer rond the second drum. The drums would spin at high speed then a stylus like on a record player woud either read the original and transmit the information at a speed of about 10 minutes a page or would carve into a waxed sheet when receiving. Seems unbelievable now But remember there was no other option to send pictures other than post. For text at least there was telex But no good for drawings pictures Signatures etc. The facsimile I sold was Kalle Infotec. Which were Bright Orange and OEM'd with Ricoh being the original manufacturer Kalle Infotec had the sole distribution rights right up to the mid 80's even Nashua who were the other Ricoh OEM;d branded copier company could supply themIn fact in the UK even after Ricoh started selling copiers direct in the early 80's they couldn't sell their own fax machines and this was in the hey days of fax when you couldn't get enough stock to supply your orders. 

Sorry I waxed on so long But at 58 I find it fun reminiscing and find it funny the way office products are sold nowadays. When I started I recall going on a 3 day sales traing course with Philips to learn about their range of Dictation machines  Ta full day on the two versions of pocket Memos the 185 and the upmarket 195 followed by the in between pocket and desk top machines (basically a big pocket memo. Followed by two more days covering the desk top models. We were trained how to upgrade the old tape on spool type machines I can still recall all the benefits and was introduced for the first time to FAB selling. Which really opened my eyes to a new way of selling and used it to my advantage every single time I dealt with a customer Feature Advantage Benefit

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