![]() Perhaps in deference to a technology they replaced, most e-mail programs allow the author to send a carbon copy, or cc, to a secondary recipient.CUT TO MEASURE PRODUCTS (Fabrics, Trims, Ribbons, Elastic etc) However, the advent of word processors in the late 1970s accelerated carbon paper's descent into obsolescence. The yellow "customer copy" of some credit card receipts is an example of carbonless paper.ĭespite the encroaching technologies, carbon paper remained useful as long as businesses continued to use typewriters. Treated with chemicals that changed color under pressure, carbonless paper replaced its messier antecedent in most retail transactions. Around the same time, office supply companies developed carbonless paper. the copy machine enabled businesses to make an unlimited number of copies of not only outgoing documents, but incoming documents as well. Photocopying came into vogue in 1959, with the perfection of the Xerox Model 914. Three innovations were responsible for removing carbon paper from desk drawers. For more than 80 years, carbon paper was the cheapest and most essential tool for making copies. Soon, retailers found it convenient to create instant copies of receipts, invoices, money orders, checks, and other financial records. It became common practice for businesses to compose every outgoing form in triplicate, using two sheets of carbon paper to create three copies. The typewriter struck the paper hard enough to quickly produce both a professional-looking original document and a legible duplicate beneath a sheet of carbon paper. saw the demand for its carbon paper skyrocket a few years later as the Remington typewriter came into widespread use. Other businessmen feared that the new technology would facilitate forgery.Īround 1870, a grocery manufacturer noticed a sheet of carbon paper in the hands of an AP reporter and decided to form a new company. They bought their supplies from American Cyrus P. Initially, the only professionals who had much commercial use for carbon paper were journalists for the Associated Press. He built a machine, not unlike a mechanical typewriter, that allowed the Countess to correspond with him without dictating her innermost thoughts to a third party. When Wedgwood's intended market showed little interest, he modified the stylographic writer and repackaged it as a document copier.īy at least 1808, Pellegrino Turri had also developed carbon paper as a composition aid for the blind - specifically, his ladyfriend, Countess Carolina Fantoni. The top piece of paper, meant to keep the writer's hand clean, picked up a mirror image copy of the manuscript on its underside. Pressure from the metal stylus left impressions of the writer's penmanship on the bottom sheet of paper, which became the original document. ![]() ![]() The carbon paper was placed between two pieces of stationery and slid between metal guide wires. The device replaced the standard quill with a metal stylus and substituted a sheet of carbon paper in place of liquid ink. In 1806, Wedgwood patented a composition aid for the blind, the stylographic writer. The term "carbon" was, however, an accurate reference to carbon black, the standard color of ink.Įnglishman Ralph Wedgwood and Italian Pellegrino Turri developed the first manifestations of carbon paper independently around the same time. ![]() The smudge-prone substance on the back of the paper was actually printer's ink, not graphite. Read on!įrom the development of the typewriter in the 1870s until the emergence of photocopy machines in the 1960s, carbon paper was an indispensable office supply. It was so interesting that I wanted to share it with our readers. My friend Diana Rooks wrote this fun piece on the history of carbon copies, which originally appeared in History Magazine back in August '06.
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