Stencil
Manufacturing ( part 3)
The
coated stencils were mounted on a backing sheet. The backing sheet
was a piece of Kraft paper that had been lightly coated with mineral
oil so it would not absorb the oils from the coated stencils.
Originally, we bought this paper from Link in New Jersey. The top of
the backing sheet were printed with the name of the company selling
the stencils. While we sold stencils with the Polychrome label the
majority were sold to accounts that had their own label. Two
duplicating machine manufacturers Gestetner and Speed-o-Print became
our biggest customers. Holes were punched in the top of the backing
sheet to match the clamp on the duplicator to which the typed stencil
was fastened. The original Gestetner heading required a complicated
die. Later they simplified it. After printing the backing sheet was
perforated so that after the stencil was typed the backing sheet
below the punched stub could be torn off. The backing sheet was then
passed through a Pot Devin gluer and the stencil sheet which had been
cut to the proper size was glued on. The assembled stencil was then
imprinted with a ruler guides. Some special stencils, which were
mounted on an unoiled backing sheet ha a piece of parchment paper
inserted between the backing sheet and the stencil. To complete
eliminate the typewriter keys from filling with the stencil coating
the more expensive stencils were sold with a sheet of pliofilm, a
thin chlorinated rubber film made by Goodyear. This was attached to
the backing sheet stub with dots of a removable glue. To make
corrections the typist would pull the playful down the pliofilm and
apply correction fluid to the error and retype. We bought the
correction fluid from Starkey. We purchased styli and lettering
guides for resale were made by Monks operating as Technigraph. To
prevent the stencil oils from wrinkling the pliofilm a parchment
sheet was inserted between the stencil and pliofilm. Later the
pliofilm was glued on a short piece of paper a tab which was folded
over and could be place over the stencil backing sheet assembly.
These could be put separately in the package and used several times.
The stencils were packaged in quires. That is 24 sheets. Included
with the stencils were 8 or 12 carbon coated sheets enclosed in a
parchment folder which was sometimes printed. For blue and green
stencils the carbon coating was white. For yellow and white stencils
black carbon paper was used. These carbon papers made much easier
for the typist to see what was being typed.