Thomas Edison Revises His Contract With A.B. Dick to Produce and Sell the First Mimeograph

Since the 18th century, inventors had been trying to discover a method of mechanically reproducing documents, so that they would not have to be tediously hand-copied. Some, like Thomas Jefferson’s polygraph, worked but were impractical for wide-spread office use.  In 1876 Thomas Edison came up with his first solution and patented his "Edison Electric Pen" which was based on a stencil system for copying handwritten documents. It was successful, but sales were constrained by the fact that many office clerks did not have the skill to maintain the complicated battery that was required. In 1884, basing his work on Edison’s and experimenting with a file and waxed wrapping paper, A.B. Dick discovered the mimeograph process. His company acquired Edison’s copying system patents and, with Edison’s active support, began manufacturing and marketing Edison Mimeograph systems in 1887. Models were sold in rectangular wooden boxes that contained a hand printing frame and a hinged frame that held the stencil. The boxes also contained an ink roller, an inking slate, ink, varnish and a brush for making corrections, waxed stencil paper, blotters, a writing stylus, and a writing plate with a file-like surface. 

Typed Letter Signed on his early, scarce Wall Street letterhead, New York, December 30, 1887, to the A.B. Dick Company, amending their contract to set the timing for payment of royalties for the first mimeograph machines. “In reference to our contract regarding the Edison Mimeograph, which provides that reports of your sales shall be sent to me on the first of each month as specified therein, I hereby authorize you to tender these reports on the 15th day of each of said months instead of the first.”

The Edison/Dick relationship was successful. Dick sold over 80,000 Edison Mimeographs by 1892 and over 200,000 by 1899. The mimeograph was not merely the first practical office reproduction technology, but it remained the primary one until it began to be supplanted by photocopying in the 1960s.