Duplication of railway and RMS documents during the 1890s

[NW Mailing List]

Hello!

Has anyone encountered "copying books?"  These were bound ledgers of thin, plain, yellow or white tissue paper.  The paper had the consistency a thin, soft, smooth-textured paper towel and wasn't like onion-skin paper.  Printed forms, typewriter ribbons, and writing ink were available to facilitate duplication long before photocopying or carbon copies.

To make a copy of the correspondence, the completed sheet was dampened, laid within a copying book with a blank tissue page over the sheet, and then put into a book press to make an impression onto the tissue page.  I am not finding much information about this approach to making business copies.  Some railway and Railway Mail Service forms from about the 1890s-1910s were printed using this "copying ink."

I'd welcome references to when this method came into use and later was generally discontinued.  Some information may appear in printer's supply and stationery catalogs which might illustrate these items.  I've purchased a book press and will eventially put it into the records room at Boyce station, although I think this approach to copying station records was on the decline by 1913.

Thanks for any information,

Frank Scheer
f_scheer at yahoo.com