BS: Long gone stationery supplies

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Mr Red
Date: 23 Nov 18 - 03:44 AM

Sans Forgetica?

A curious juxtaposition of meanings. Sans is without - in this case serifs. But Sans Forgetica - no forgetting - sounds like the opposite of the purpose proposed above. And being designed as an aide memoire - it looks less like the one for the job to me, but what do I know.

call me a philistine but I am determined not to remember it!

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: BobL
Date: 23 Nov 18 - 02:51 AM

If you print your return address, either directly onto the envelope or via sticky labels, you can avoid the problem by using any suitably outlandish font. Such as Sans Forgetica. Sorry, I drift.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Jack Campin
Date: 22 Nov 18 - 11:14 AM

Remember how people sometimes put their return address on the back of the envelope? Word from the post office is not to do that anymore, because if the envelope goes into the scanner upside-down, the system will take the return address for the recipient's address and shoot your letter right back to you.

The scanner can't make that mistake if you do what I do - my return address is written in cursive script fitted into a single diagonal line corner to corner across the back. Only a human has a prayer of interpreting that.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: CupOfTea
Date: 22 Nov 18 - 10:15 AM

I grew up infatuated with all the stationery and office supplies. The family business was office machinery, and with all adults in my home working, I spent vacations hanging out there. It was bliss for art and creative efforts. Paper construction with odd bits trimmed off the huge paper cutter, watercolor pencils for drawing. Large pieces of brown wrapping paper off the roll & objects created out of the brown paper tape that came out of the hand cranked dispenser with a bottle of water to wet the glue. Plastic lettering templates that required a technical pen. Rubber stamps made to order. Sheets of carbon paper, in typewriters or transferring designs on craft projects. Typing Paper in colors!

Fluid duplicators were the main part of the business, and the smell, and chilly feel of freshly printed sheets lasted well into the Xerox copy years for me. Red and green were added to the common purple for us.

Burroughs was the local stationery supply store, a favourite place. Paints and brushes, fountain pens and ink. Pads of watercolor paper, blank books, folders, page dividers, hole reinforcers, hole punches, staplers, markers, erasers for pencil and chalkboards (still have a slate board in use in my kitchen) When Burroughs was gone, art supply stores took the place of much of it. Still have drawing templates (circle, square, oval, hearts, alphabets) French curve sets, see-through rulers in 1/16 inch grids, Exact-o knives and replacement blades. Rub-on lettering in interesting fonts (still have vinyl glue on letters on my bowed psaltery marking the notes) used for making fancy flyers and spiffy presentations.

The smell of paper and ink, paint, boxes of new crayons, all ambrosia to me; a big part of the charm of these repositories of supplies was the POSSIBILITY of wonderful things coming out of their use. Still feel that way.

Joanne in Cleveland

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Senoufou
Date: 22 Nov 18 - 04:12 AM

My grandfather wore a signet ring and my father inherited it. I think Prince Charles wears one. My father's wasn't very fancy, just his initials in a flowery style (they were fortunately the same as his dad's - 'ASR'). But they were worn quite a lot then.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Mr Red
Date: 22 Nov 18 - 03:20 AM

Years ago I owned sealing wax and a seal.

Years ago I had a ring engraved with my own logo, a combination of intials. Used it a few times to seal registered parcels.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: leeneia
Date: 21 Nov 18 - 10:51 AM

About long-gone stationery: Years ago I owned sealing wax and a seal. It had a rose on it. I don't know where they went;I don't have them any more. But they were fun to play with while they lasted.

Remember how people sometimes put their return address on the back of the envelope? Word from the post office is not to do that anymore, because if the envelope goes into the scanner upside-down, the system will take the return address for the recipient's address and shoot your letter right back to you.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 21 Nov 18 - 10:39 AM

100!

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Senoufou
Date: 21 Nov 18 - 08:44 AM

The prisoners I visited used frequently to order dental floss from the Prison Store when they filled in their order sheet.

One would imagine they were to be congratulated for their interest in dental hygiene, but the floss was used to lower/raise various drugs in a paper cup through the bars from one window to another on a Wing above or below.

I expect the Prison Officers were well aware. They turned a blind eye to much that went on Inside.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Thompson
Date: 21 Nov 18 - 06:42 AM

IRA prisoners used to write letters on Rizla papers for smuggling out.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Senoufou
Date: 21 Nov 18 - 04:30 AM

It did indeed Jack. We had to cut that bit off before the paper was any good for tracing.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 21 Nov 18 - 04:03 AM

The late Monty Parkin sang a pastiche blues song - 'All day, working on the Kalamazoo'.......(inspired by an office duplicator, not that he ever worked in an office, or at all.)

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Jack Campin
Date: 20 Nov 18 - 09:46 PM

There is a tradition of prison literature being written on toilet paper. I guess this is because it was tough stuff like Izal? If the Fascists had really wanted to silence Gramsci they'd have issued political prisoners with quilted Andrex.

British institutional shiny toilet paper used to have NOW WASH YOUR HANDS on every sheet.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 20 Nov 18 - 08:56 AM

We have 2 more “up to date” label printers both Brother.

I’ve not noticed any problems with labels with the plastic top layer (usage has included labelling plug tops and sticking to plastic tags to go in flower pots) produced by one.

The other uses a paper label. The first task I used this for (using the genuine Brother thermal paper) was to print labels for the A4 ring binders holding dad’s postcard collection. These labels have faded badly, going from black print to a pale brown in 2-3 years and I’ll probably need to re-print next year. They are OK for a more common usage here, ie. jam jars, which don’t normally hang around here as long and are stored in a dark cupboard but I’d have reservations as to their suitability for longer term use, possibly particularly when there will be some exposure to sunlight.

I suppose one advantage with the embossed type label is that there will always be something readable even if the plastic fades.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: JHW
Date: 20 Nov 18 - 05:36 AM

All my leaf tea jars have Dymo labels at least 40 years old still firmly stuck and entirely legible.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Jos
Date: 20 Nov 18 - 05:26 AM

It always amused me that the brand name of the toilet roll holders at Exeter University was "Dreadnought" - they were designed to prevent students nicking them for any nefarious purposes whatsoever.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Nov 18 - 05:13 AM

In the first school I worked at, in 1973, the rock-hard, non-absorbent bog paper had "Property of London County Council" printed on every sheet, and you couldn't begin to think of stealing the roll as the toilet roll holder had a lock on one end with a key that only the schoolkeeper possessed!

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Mr Red
Date: 20 Nov 18 - 05:03 AM

Did you have one of those roller things to spread the ink evenly on the surface?

No, I had the printing press, but the roller was needed to transfer ink to the platen. Adana sold mounted lino at "type" height. But you still had to emery down the stippled surface, I did that on a flat bed. For using in a printing press it needed all that attention. The wood carving tools were essential, they look like doll's tools. And I had a whetstone to sharpen them. The fine cuts and flat lino could print in a press because the pressure was more finely tuned.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Will Fly
Date: 20 Nov 18 - 04:17 AM

I often patronise this lovely shop in. Brighton - a cornucopia of goodies for the writer by hand...

Pen to Paper

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Senoufou
Date: 20 Nov 18 - 04:10 AM

Oooh Tattie, I remember comb-and-paper! We were always playing on them. It did used to tingle on the lips didn't it?

The teacher always issued each pupil with blotting paper at the beginning of term. Ink made enough mess as it was without having no way of soaking it up. Fancy people not knowing what it it nowadays!

Can one still buy Basildon Bond writing pads and matching envelopes? I used to buy them with some of my pocket money and write to my grandparents, numerous Irish aunts and uncles and so on. Letters were the norm and the Post was fast. I think stamps were thruppence.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Gurney
Date: 19 Nov 18 - 09:44 PM

Her Indoors wanted some blotting paper for use in her sometimes hobby of calligraphy. At several stationary-suppliers, we had to explain what it was. No-one under about the age of 60 had ever heard of it.
One attractive young counter-hand didn't even know what a fountain-pen and a writing-pad was.
Printer paper, even of high quality, doesn't take liquid ink very well.
Oddly, some shops DID sell calligraphy pens and ink. Old stock?
Paper kitchen towels will blot fairly well. If used with care.

It was only in my last year of school (England, 1956) were we allowed to use biros/ballpoints. And only posh kids had fountain-pens.

There are DINOSAURS among you.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 19 Nov 18 - 07:27 PM

Since we're on to toilet paper, there us still a use for the Bronco/Izal type: the annual paper and comb championships at Stonehaven Folk Festival! Remember doong that as kids too: piece of toilet paper wrapped over a comb and then sing through it? You have to get the buzz on your lips, a bit like the sound of a kazoo. It's always hilarious, as there us often a theme, and people dress up to suit the theme. Negative marks for any attempt at positive musicality!
Don't know where they get the paper from each year, as it's impossible to do it with modern day soft stuff. But one year, it was stamped " Government property"!

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Senoufou
Date: 19 Nov 18 - 12:12 PM

Aren't memories like that poignant Jos?

I often had student teachers assigned to me during their Teaching Practice time. One young woman was very good with Art and had lots of lovely ideas. But she was terribly profligate with our stock.

One day, I left her in charge (they were supposed to be alone with the class for an hour) and came back to find she'd given out loads and loads of sticky coloured paper, and a single flower had been cut from the centre of each sheet by every child, and the rest slung in the waste bin!

The children had made a delightful Spring frieze, but after the bell I spent quite a time rescuing the bits, smoothing them out and putting them in a tin.
Later, I had 'A Word' with her. School stock was very precious in those days!

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Jos
Date: 19 Nov 18 - 10:15 AM

I can still remember the smell of the sticky coloured paper.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Senoufou
Date: 19 Nov 18 - 07:30 AM

I wonder if school stockrooms nowadays offer all those grades of pencil? When we put in our order, we could choose from HB, 2B, 2H, 3B, 3H and so on. I suppose it was because our pupils did a lot of drawing, and the grades of softness/hardness added to the effect.

I also remember the joys of 'sticky coloured paper'. A pack contained about eight colours, which after cutting out could be licked and stuck onto a collage. The teacher would always collect up the off-cuts and bits, which were carefully saved to make grass or flower petals etc. Nothing was wasted.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Jos
Date: 19 Nov 18 - 07:17 AM

Bronco toilet paper was better for tracing as it didn't stink, and I used to like the way 'Bronco' was written in loopy copperplate letters, a bit like my grandmother's handwriting.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 19 Nov 18 - 06:10 AM

I had Rapidograph pens, I think they are in a box in the loft now. They had replaceable nibs in various diameters to give different line widths from 0.5mm up to about 2mm (perhaps larger). I remember that the nibs were colour coded. Polygraph made compatible ones as well.
I used them for technical drawings but a friend of mine did remarkable intricate artwork with them in the style of the Pink Floyd "Relics" album cover.

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Senoufou
Date: 19 Nov 18 - 06:09 AM

As children we used to pinch Izal toilet paper from the school loos to use as tracing paper. Trouble was, it had a horrible carbolic smell.

My friends and I once laid Izal toilet paper under the keys of the music teacher's piano in our assembly hall. When he played the hymn for the whole school next morning, there was the most wonderful accompanying percussion, rather like a snare drum. He was livid, but we never let on.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Jack Campin
Date: 19 Nov 18 - 06:07 AM

For a couple of decades I've made and used pocket protectors for my keys. I have house, car and all sorts of other keys in a big bunch, including a couple of small padlock keys. These keys go through pocket material faster than a kid through candy floss if there is no protective pocket.

I keep my keys attached by a string to a souvenir-of-Corfu leather pouch which is finally falling apart after 25 years. It's to protect me, not my pocket. I have a nickel allergy and enough nickel gets through cotton to produce a raw bleeding patch on my thigh.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Senoufou
Date: 19 Nov 18 - 06:05 AM

Do you remember a pantograph? Hinged thing which enlarged a drawing when one passed the point along the lines, while the other end held a pencil?
Honestly, when one considers all the advances in technology today, it's astonishing what we made do with in 'the olden days'!

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 19 Nov 18 - 05:47 AM

For producing multiple copies of a notice, before we had access to the necessary machinery, our Scout Group used to use a Hectograph
A system where the original was written with special ink, placed face down on a gel pad, and copies made by placing fresh sheets of paper onto that same pad to pick up the writing/image.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Jos
Date: 19 Nov 18 - 04:35 AM

Spirographs needed a steady hand and a goodly supply of paper - our house was scattered with discarded swirls abandoned halfway through, when the thing slipped.

I used to like the Etch-a-Sketch, until someone slipped and broke it. We got a replacement but the screen on the new one was plastic. It suffered badly from static and clearing the screen never quite worked properly. It was soon abandoned.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Will Fly
Date: 19 Nov 18 - 04:15 AM

Yup - had a Spirograph - great fun.

A graphic designer friend of mine from London days (1960s) worked in a trendy advertising firm near Carnaby Street. He designed his own card one year - 'twas a cartoon of Father Christmas, trousers down, screwing one of his (startled) reindeer. The caption?

"Santa is coming..."

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Senoufou
Date: 19 Nov 18 - 03:37 AM

I used to do lino cuts Mr Red, but the very sharp tools would slip on the shiny surface of the lino and I must have slit my fingers dozens of times. But the advantage of lino cuts was that one could add more detail to them at any time. Did you have one of those roller things to spread the ink evenly on the surface?
Love your Cezanne's Greetings! One could also make Birthday cards with 'Monet Happy Returns'.
Does anyone remember Spirograph? I adored using that - it was an ingenious toy.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Mr Red
Date: 19 Nov 18 - 03:26 AM

anyone remember the Rapidograph pen? And you could buy plastic templates/stencils separately which amounted to your Leroy set. The Rapidograph was more like a fountain pen but used the same hollow nib and wire plunger, but you shook the pen and the internal weight pushed the wire to break the seal on congealed indian ink. (remember that?)

ADANA flatbed printer

I bought one too. Then in later life I had a larger one given to me. Printed all my Xmas cards. At one time I carved lino cuts with the image of brass rubbings, using miniature woodworking tools and sanded the lino dead flat.
A retired art master was incredulous that anyone could carve lino in such fine detail, but the trick was those woodcarving tools. That and young eyes.

I now print my Xmas cards from the PC and still make (steal sometimes) the jokes. The best one (I claim entirely as my own) is a picture of Mount Victoire and underneath
Cezanne's Greetings


Ho ho ho ho.............

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Stanron
Date: 18 Nov 18 - 08:59 AM

For a couple of decades I've made and used pocket protectors for my keys. I have house, car and all sorts of other keys in a big bunch, including a couple of small padlock keys. These keys go through pocket material faster than a kid through candy floss if there is no protective pocket.

I bought a length of plastic leather material from a flea market some years ago and also a large reel of what might be called knicker elastic. A pocket of the material is attached to a key ring with the elastic. Even if a small hole appears in a pocket the keys wont fall through.

A protector lasts between six months and a year. This reminds me I'm just about due to make a new one.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Jack Campin
Date: 18 Nov 18 - 08:44 AM

I've read Americans writing about them on the web since before the Internet was invented, but reading this thread yesterday was the first time I've realized what pocket protectors actually were.

Seem to have been exclusively American. Do Americans have the world's leakiest pens?

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 18 Nov 18 - 08:28 AM

Pocket protectors were invented in 1943 & are still around - This fashion-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.


Wikipedia knows it's a fashion item & so does this bloke - The Fashion Accessory for the New Millennium

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Gallus Moll
Date: 18 Nov 18 - 06:02 AM

Can't remembèr the exact year, but when we returned to school for the two day inservice after the summer holidays, the Business Studies dept had received their order of super duper new electric typewriters (enough for two classrooms - 40?). However in the interim pcs had been delivered - by the government? - to every school, brand new technology etc - and the now defunct electric typewriters were never unboxed!

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: robomatic
Date: 17 Nov 18 - 09:00 PM

Sandra in Sydney:
The 'pocket protectors' you refer to were in fact worn from junior high school thru to NASA, but not by the 'cool' kids. They put one in the same social class as those who wore white socks outside of gym class!

Me? I'd've rather stained my shirt than worn a pocket protector. Which didn't happen too often.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Senoufou
Date: 17 Nov 18 - 01:10 PM

I 'did' Music at grammar school for two years before I had to drop it for German :(
Our exercise books for Music were printed with staves on the left-hand page and ordinary lines on the right. (verso and recto if we're being pedantic!)
I was heartbroken to have to give the subject up, as I was beginning to learn Theory, the different scales etc, and we were played records of the more famous composers' works.
Amazon sells stave-liner pens. (I think it's called a 'staff' in USA).

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Jack Campin
Date: 17 Nov 18 - 01:05 PM

I've got one. Never found an occasion to use it though.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Jos
Date: 17 Nov 18 - 12:27 PM

I have a vague memory of seeing somewhere, maybe at school, a pen with five nibs for drawing your own manuscript paper.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 17 Nov 18 - 10:48 AM

I know this is below the line, but how many people still use manuscript paper? I still have a big block of it, which has hardly been touched for years, as well as a couple of beautiful bound books with Florentine covers and manuscript paper, just made for you to write your songs and tunes into.
These days, if I hear a tune I like, I'll either record it and then transcribe it direct to music editing software on computer, or jot it down in my own variant of ABC until I've got time to put it on computer. And of course, now you can just convert ABC direct to notation.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Jack Campin
Date: 17 Nov 18 - 05:38 AM

I have heard of those but never seen one.

The ickiest writing material I know of is indelible pencil - the "lead" was clay impregnated with purple dye, which got everywhere. The first job I was ever paid money for was counting votes in a local election, where voters were issued with indelible pencils to tick with. My hands ended up purple to the wrists for days.

They use an ink with somewhat similar (but less aggressive) properties in those medical pens for writing on people's skin ("irradiate this bit", "infection got this far by Tuesday" or grids for allergy patch tests).

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 Nov 18 - 04:18 AM

In the 90s I knew a retired Engineer who said when he was working, he wore a plastic pocket containing pens/pencils in his shirt pocket. This was the sign of an Engineer in his day. Did your engineers have this plastic pocket that protected their shirts s from ink & pencil stains??

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Nov 18 - 10:33 PM

Those ammonia sheets would off-gas when they got warm and my sinuses took a real beating. I used to ride a bus home from work and there were a couple of times I was getting so sick from the motion after a day at the planimeter that I'd have to get off to walk in the fresh air.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: robomatic
Date: 16 Nov 18 - 03:45 PM

I used to run a machine that duplicated masters from the plastic sheets on which the drafter had plotted them to blueprint copies for the work folders that would be taken to the field. It was inadequately ventilated and one got a good whiff of ammonia whenever one used it. I don't know what that did to my lifespan. Then along came a XEROX large scale copier which did the same job without the chemicals. Now you can't find those much anymore as the modern plotters are so dam big.

I took drafting classes learning skills which are hardly in demand anymore but there was good discipline in much of the material one had to turn out. And a skosh of creativity.

And I used to love browsing in stationery stores looking at the variety of pens and particularly mechanical pencils. You could sometimes tell an engineer's importance, self-importance, or place on the food chain by the make and model of (usually) his mechanical pencil. That is not a euphemism.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Will Fly
Date: 16 Nov 18 - 01:15 PM

The rarest fountain pen I ever had belonged to my father. It was made of solid aluminium with an incredibly thick body - used by him as navigator in the RAF in WW2 and supposedly indestructible.

Alas, I swapped it for something in the late '60s.

Subject: RE: BS: Long gone stationery supplies
From: Jack Campin
Date: 16 Nov 18 - 01:02 PM

My father was one of the earliest users of a fibre-tip pen - I remember it from no later than 1958. He used it for architectural visualizations (those impossibly clean and tidy plazas in front of shiny new glass and concrete palaces you have probably seen in planners' fantasies of the period). It was as fat as a cigar and made of spun aluminium.