Carbon Copies
For those of you mature enough to
remember carbon copies, a little trip down memory lane.
For the rest of you, a little history lesson.
Once upon a time, before email, before
laser printers, before computers, before word processors, letters and
memos weren’t printed, they were “typed”.
There was a mechanical device called a “typewriter”.
The operator placed a sheet (or sheets) of paper into a thing
called the roller and wound the paper into position.
The operator would press down on a button
with a letter of the alphabet imprinted on it.
This would cause a metal lever, also called a key, with the
corresponding letter, to spring up and strike against an ink-soaked,
cloth ribbon, which was positioned directly in front of the roller.
The key would strike with enough force to transfer ink from the
ribbon onto the paper. As
the key returned to its position in the “case”, the roller would move
one space to the left, and the ribbon would wind one space over.
If the operator needed to use a capital
letter, she (most operators were women) would depress a special button
called a “shift”. This would
raise the entire case of keys so that the capital letter would be the
one to strike the ribbon and paper.
If the operator needed to type numerous capital letters, she
could choose to depress a “shift lock” which would lock the case in the
upper position. This is why
small letters are called “lowercase” and capital letters are called
“uppercase”. (In fact, it
was printers who kept capital letters in a box, or case, on an upper
shelf and the smaller, more frequently used, letters in a box, or case,
on a lower shelf. The first
typewriter was patented as a Personal Printer.)
If duplicate copies of the letter or memo
were needed, this was accomplished by sandwiching special sheets of
paper coated on one side with “carbon” between blank sheets of paper.
When the key struck the ribbon/paper, the force would cause the
“carbon” to be transferred onto the blank sheet behind it.
This was called a “carbon copy” or “cc”.
(By the way, the “carbon” in carbon paper was no more carbon than
the “lead” in a pencil was made of real lead.)
If the operator made a mistake, such as
misspelling a word, an intricate ritual, involving erasers and small
bits of leftover carbon paper ensued.
As more and more copies were needed, it
took more force to transfer the carbon through to the last sheet.
So people started using lighter paper called a “flimsy” or
“tissue”. It actually was
much like the kind of tissue paper used in wrapping gifts these days.
And it wasn’t long before some enterprising stationery maker
started selling “carbon packs”.
These were a group of colored tissue papers with the carbon
sheets already sandwiched inside and the whole group held together at
the top by a tear-away header strip.
Different colored copies were directed in various ways.
The white copy might go back to the person who originated the
letter. The yellow copy
might become the chronological copy (kept in date order for a few months
in case it could not be found any other way than by date).
The green copy might become the file copy.
And the pink copy might go to the secretary of the boss who liked
to read everyone’s correspondence.
All of this typing and
creating various carbon copies meant that you could only get through a
certain amount paperwork in a given day.
In addition, you had to wait for your letter or memo to reach its
recipient. This could take
days in and of itself. Then
it might take several more days for the response to be dictated, typed,
proofed and eventually mailed back to you.
Ah, the Good Old Days.
Today, everyone uses
email. Responses are
virtually instantaneous. People
are far more productive. And
they’re wearing themselves out in the process.
Getting back to the
typewriter: If the operator
typed too quickly, as one key was returning to its place in the case,
and another was rising up to strike the ribbon/paper, they might get
caught in a “key jam”. To
prevent this from happening, the typewriter manufacturers researched and
developed a combination of keys deliberately designed to make typing
more difficult and slow the operator down.
This is known as the standard “QWERTY” keyboard, so-called
because the letters in the top row of keys, from left to right are Q, W,
E, R, T, and Y.
Over time, the
manufacturers solved this problem by creating an electronic typewriter
that didn’t use keys.
Instead it used a metal ball that spun around, striking the ribbon/paper
as it went along. The roller
and paper remained stationary and the typing ball did the moving. No
more key jams. And no more
need for the QWERTY keyboard.
One manufacturer even
came out with a new typewriter, one with a scientifically designed
keyboard that optimized the operator’s time and meant less wear-and-tear
on the operator’s hands.
They couldn’t sell it.
People who had learned how to type on a QWERTY keyboard didn’t
want to have to learn the new one.
Even now, decades later, everyone still uses the QWERTY keyboard,
the one designed to make typing more difficult because “that’s the way
we’ve always done it”. And
everyone does their own typing.
And with all the QWERTY wear-and-tear.
And life goes on…