Mimeograph Machine

The stencil duplicator or mimeograph machine (often abbreviated to mimeo) is a low-cost duplicating machine that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. The mimeograph process should not be confused with the spirit duplicator process.

Mimeographs, along with spirit duplicators and hectographs, were a common technology in printing small quantities, as in office work, classroom materials, and church bulletins. Early fanzines were printed with this technology, because it was widespread and cheap. In the late 1960s, mimeographs, spirit duplicators, and hectographs began to be gradually displaced by photocopying.

For printed copy, a stencil assemblage is placed in a typewriter. The part of the mechanism which lifts the ribbon must be disabled so that the bare, sharp type element strikes the stencil directly. The impact of the type element displaces the coating, making the tissue paper permeable to the oil-based ink. This is called "cutting a stencil." A variety of specialized styluses were used on the stencil to render lettering, illustrations, or other artistic features by hand against a textured plastic backing plate. Mistakes can be corrected by brushing them out with a specially formulated correction fluid, and retyping once it has dried.

Mimeograph Machine in The Gladiator
Mimeograph Machines, along with copiers, were under strict control of the Communist Party in an alternate where the Soviet Union won the Cold War. For instance, Hoxha Polytechnic kept their machine under lock and key only allowing teachers to use them to duplicate test papers and assignments. This was due to the fear that counterrevolutionaries could use them to duplicate harmful propaganda.