Cracker: Flashback
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merc,
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Put those mushrooms down and listen to me!
Do you want to use my encyclopaedic knowledge of Gestetners or not?
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merc,
Of course, please proceed. We had not successfully moved the action from the hut house, nor had we moved forward with the G. Though as The Existentialist Cyclist was genius. I note we have about 5000 views though.
So John, where do you want to go from here? -
The first thing I learned about gestetners was that the ink was bloody difficult to get off your fingers.
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That was after discovering how heavy the damned thing was to carry home......
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merc,
Could you describe what it was like to use it?
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Sheer drudgery. It was hand cranked, one turn for each copy.
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As you can see, my expertise is on the hardware side. The copy was typed by others.
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merc,
On a typewriter?
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I think you typed directly onto these sheets, two membranes with squidgy black ink in between. The typwriter pierced the top membrane, allowing the ink to taste freedom
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Some sort of el cheapo portable. For even stencils, you were supposed to use an IMB electric. Could you see political radicals doing that, even if they could afford one?
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You could also draw onto the sheets. It was messy. And re: drudgery- that's why the form two kids were "employed" by the headmaster to do the turning. We could make it sing.
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The Gestetner has a fabric blind, which is an endless loop. The stencil is a plastic sheet, cut by the typewriter to give the text pattern. The stencil is fitted over the blind, the blind is inked, and a turn of the handle forces the paper (usually the coarsest newsprint, for cheapskates) against the stencil. Ink runs through the text holes on the stencil, and presto! Printed paper. One printed sheet per turn of the handle. Fancy commercial machines had electric motors.
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We didn't have dedicated radicals for the work. We were producing the Diamond Harbour Herald- a bit like the Auckland Herald, but more intellectual as it was produced by the Diamond Harbour School.
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Where did the meths smell come from?
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From the meths, dear hamish.
Which, now that I think about it, was kept in the headmaster's office. -
And the meths fitted into the scenario, where? Cleaning or thinners or light refreshments?
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I think Meths is in lots of printing stuff. We used to clean windows with newpapers- it works really well, if they're not too old. You dip a bunch in water and wipe the window with the; then dry it with dry ones. Someone who seemed to know said it was the meths, acting as a solvent for the stickier grime; fly spots or vermouth.
Technically, I was a very small cog at the Herald, and not allowed near the meths. It may have just been for cleaning up the machine. -
John will know about the meths. He is a sort of gestetner-google (but currently off-line?)
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If it smells like meths, then it's not a Gestetner, but a later iteration, the spirit duplicator, also referred to as a 'Banda' or 'ditto'. Lovely purple printing (usually), and (according to wikipedia), the smell of isopropyl alcohol and methanol. Mmmmmm
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Sigmund Gestetner of the Gestetner Cyclograph Company recently moved with his young family to Helensville to act as an advisor to mercProductions. Something is up!
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merc,
That is of course classified, however in due course you will all be required on set. It will be a meths free set, though those of you who need it, being newly back from BF, quinnine will be made available.
Helensville has been chosen due to it's proximity to Ruawai, Two Waters and the potatoe capital of teh World. Brush up people on your carving skills, we will be setting the new film in 1840, so potatoe prints. The Chermans also require Martin Luther in at least one appearance and possibly a Heidelburg.
Good, to work and goodnight. -
You're carving the new film on potatoes!?
A stroke of genius, and it can be easily mashed it up later. If the grants don't come flowing, we can always make soup.
But there are technical thingies that might cause excessive vibration when the tohunga whakairo start carving 24 potatoes a second. Don't say you weren't warned. -
Helensville eh? I'm seeing Dayle Jones as Von Krankenhausen! Whaddyasay!
Rob, we'll talk merc out of potato film stock thing, he's being artistic is all. -
Set in 1840? A subplot could be the looming shadow of the impending age of duplicators.
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