Dalkin CP
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One outcome that Watt found from his increased business was an increase in paperwork! While he was living in Redruth, Cornwall, close to where many of the mines were situated he told a friend that he was having “excessive difficulty in finding intelligent managing clerks”. In 1780 Watt solved his paperwork problems by inventing the first method of making copies. This was the subject of a Patent entitled “A new method of copying letters and writing expeditiously”. Watt’s invention involved making ink out of gum Arabic and carbon black.
Gum arabic, also known as gum acacia, is a natural gum made of the hardened sap taken from two species of the acacia tree; acacia senegal and acacia seyal. Carbon black is a form of amorphous carbon that has a high surface area to volume ratio it is commonly produced by the incomplete combustion of heavy petroleum products such as coal tar.
Watt’s ink would stay wet for 24 hours. Writing with the ink and then pressing the result against another piece of paper created a copy. Initially there was great resistance to the copy paper. In particular banks believed that this form of copying could result in forgeries. However, by the end of its first year on sale, Watt sold over 200 examples. The real commercial push came after Watt demonstrated his process to the House of Parliament.
The resultant consternation amongst the Members of Parliament resulted in their having to be reminded that Parliament was still in session! By 1785 copies were in general use, however, Cyrus P. Dalkin made the biggest advance in 1823. By using a mixture of carbon black and hot paraffin wax the back of a piece of paper was coated. The carbon black was transferred to another piece of paper underneath by the pressure of the pen. Dalkin had created carbon copies. Both Ralph Wedgwood(cousin and business partner of Josiah, pottery) in England and Pellegrino Turri in Italy had developed forms of carbon paper between 1806 and 1808, but it was Dalkin’s version of carbon copy paper that found usage.
(See also p 136)
Circles: Fifty Round Trips Through History Technology Science Culture By James Burke
Initially there was almost no market for this new carbon copy paper, until in 1868 when American Lebbeus Rogers was talking part in a balloon ascent. Rogers was an owner of biscuit and greengrocer companies, and was intrigued when a reporter for the Associated Press who was interviewing him used Dalkin’s carbon paper. Rogers gave up his biscuit business and founded a firm to sell carbon paper. In 1873 he talked with E. Remington and Sons the typewriter manufacturer, and it was this application that created a success out of the carbon paper business.
Interestingly, carbon black is still used today in modern photocopiers and laser printers. One of the attributes that allow its use is the ability for carbon black particles to become charged. This is related to another application of carbon black in early communications: its ability to conduct electric, and the changes that occur as a function of external pressure.
Extra Connections:
Carbon paper was the principal medium of reproduction for samizdat, a publication method used in the former Soviet Union in order to publish books without having to use state-controlled printing houses and risk the censorship or imprisonment that was commonplace at the time.
The term “CC” commonly used in e-mail programs today grew from the use of carbon paper and means carbon copy.