Towards a History of Recording Technologies: The Damp-press Copying Process

Abstract

This paper offers an examination of the invention and development of James Watt's system for copying documents. This was the first technological innovation in the reproduction of documents in the industrial revolution. It spread rapidly and became used in all parts of the world and by all types of administration. It was replaced eventually by new copying technologies and by new systems of filing. This study examines the technical difficulties faced by Watt (paper standards, the chemistry of the ink, making and distributing the presses). It is based primarily on Watt's correspondence in the Birmingham City Archives, and refers to the proceedings of the Lunar Society.

Notes

[1] Brooke, ‘The teaching and study of diplomatic in England’, 133–6. See also ‘Thinking Records,’ http://thinkingrecords.co.uk. Viewed May 2010.

[2] Batterham, The office-copying revolution, 37–43.

[3] Reminiscences of George Bennett, clerk at the Marquis of Salisbury's estate office from 1928, information from R. Harcourt Williams, Hatfield House Librarian and Archivist, March 2006.

[4] Birmingham City Archives, MS3219/4/18, 16.

[5] Schofield, The Lunar Society of Birmingham, p. 154. Schofield is quoting from D.F.J. Arago, Historical Eloge of James Watt, translated by J.P. Muirhead, Murray, London, 1839, 93.

[6] Letter J. Watt to Joseph Black, printed in J.P. Muirhead, The origin and progress of the mechanical inventions of James Watt, illustrated by his correspondence with his friends and the specifications of his patents, John Murray, 1854, vol. 2, 109.

[7] Quoted in Muirhead, op.cit., vol. 2, 115.

[8] Birmingham City Archives, MS3219/4/127/13.

[9] Jones, Industrial enlightenment, 2009.

[10] Robinson, ‘The Lunar Society,’ 153–78.

[11] Muirhead, op.cit.,vol. III, 22.

[12] Bedini, Thomas Jefferson and his copying machines, 1984.

[13] Birmingham City Archives, MS3107/17-20, ‘The Copying Company.’

[14] Birmingham City Archives, MS3147/19/1, 1.

[15] Ibid., 8.

[16] Hills, ‘James Watt and his copying machine’, in The Oxford Papers: proceedings of the British Association of Paper Historians, 4^th annual conference, held at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, 17–19 Sept 1993, edited by P. Bower, London, BAPH, 1996, 85.

[17] An example is the letter-book from the estate of the Duke of Buccleuch, National Archives of Scotland, GD224/167/1.

[18] Boxes used by Watt himself can be seen at the National Science Museum, Garret Workshop.

[19] Bedini, op.cit., 10, quotes a letter to Benjamin Franklin, 1781, on how to take 3 copies.

[20] Birmingham City Archives, microfilm reel 15 JWP 4/49.

[21] Bliven, The wonderful writing machine, 6–8.

[22] Birmingham City Archives, MS3217/19/1, 52–4.

[23] Rhodes and Streeter, Before photocopying, 35.

[24] Birmingham City Archives, MS3147/19/1, 95.

[25] Birmingham City Archives, MS3147/19/17-20.

[26] Birmingham City Archives, MS3219/4/18/23, 1.

[27] Hills, op.cit.,85; Roll, An early experiment, 131.

[28] Journal Book of the Royal Society, vol. xxx (1780–2), 44, 58.

[29] J. Watt and Co's Letter Book, Birmingham City Archives, MS3147/19/1.

[30] Birmingham City Archives, MS3147/19/4.

[31] National Archives of Scotland, GD224/269/12, 26.

[32] Bedini, op.cit.,10–11. Rhodes and Streeter, 11–12.

[33] Birmingham City Archives, MS3147/19/1, 6.

[34] ‘Note sur les machines à copier, fabriquée par MM J A Bordier et Compagnie, successeurs de MM Ami Argand et Cie, à Versoix, Département de Léman,’ Bulletin de la Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie nationale, Année 4, 1805, 163.

[35] Birmingham City Archives, MS3217/19/1, 30.

[36] Ibid., 34.

[37] Directions for using the Machine for copying Letters and other Writings, Invented and made by James Watt and Company of Birmingham, MDCCLXXX. A copy is available at the British Library.

[38] Directions for using the Patent Portable Copying Machines, invented and made by James Watt and Company of Soho near Birmingham, Birmingham, printed at T.A. Pearson's printing office, High-Street, [1810].

[39] Uglow, The Lunar men, 307.

[40] Birmingham City Archives, MS3219/4/127/18, 1.

[41] Quoted in Correspondence of the late James Watt on his discovery of the theory of the composition of water, ed. J.P. Muirhead, 1846.