Fotokopien 1942 ???

[Georges JEROME]

Hello,

in roll of correspondance of RFSS I noticed mention of "Fotokopien" dated 1942.

At my knowledge, this technology was developped after WW II.

Any clue on the technology used by the staff of Himmler on 1942 for copying documents ?

Thanks

[Sid Guttridge]

In the IWM library in London there are thousands of literal photographs of German documents. It might mean this.

As an aside:

I used to know an old guy, Frank Oliver, now dead, who became a vital cog in the Allied South East Asia Command. The copiers SEAC inherited from the Government of India were German Gestetner machines, for which spares ran out after the outbreak of war. Frank was only an armoured corps private but an engineer by trade and managed to keep them running for several years by making spares for them. He even got presented to the Viceroy for his services.

Cheers,

Sid.

[Hans1906]

In the 1960s, in the papershops of my grandparents, my mother offered the first local "Fotokopien" with a so called
"Nasskopierer", the machine probably produced by the "Olympia" company in Wilhelmshaven ?

At that time only one sheet at a time could be copied, two sheets came out of the machine, one "negative", and one "positive"...
The two sheets coming out of the machine had to be separated by hand, and the "positive" needed a drying time of several minutes.
The "Fotokopien" were expensive, very few customers could afford such a service in these years.

The quality of the finished "positives" was not very good, as far as I remember, long ago, sorry... :roll:

Liste von Druckereimuseen https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_von_Druckereimuseen

The machine looked similar like the one in the attached photo:


Hans

[Georges JEROME]

thanks for replies.
according glossy copy of doc this can explain the term "fotokopien" literally "copy by photo".
Some doc of low quality are also reproduced as carbon copies

[Hans1906]

Georges, for normal printing jobs for customers, my mother used a very good "Geha 300".

Geha - Automat 300 DA with interleaving device. The combination for perfect stencil reproduction equivalent to book-print.

See attached photo, so much about "printing" in the late 1950s, and early 1960s, I grew up with all this stuff.
Wishing to own the "Geha 300" nowadays, was thrown away, nowadays a german "Design-Klassiker".

As a little boy, I was fascinated about this machine, producing 3000 copies per hour, exactly, what little boys are fascinated about...


Hans

[Seppo Koivisto]

How about this Licophot from 1941. Exposed mildly light sensitive papers had to be developed separately. Prints were black negatives unlike blueprints. https://makroscope.eu/exponat-des-monats-1/

Develop and Copyrapid copiers probably came first after WW2. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Weyde