Pete mentioned the stylus that operators used to copy orders.
When ball point pens came into use they couldn't be used due to the combination of the soft tissue and the double sided carbons would clog the ball. Then came the first BIC pens, it turned out to be the technological advance the replaced the stylus.
Dick Haave
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From: "Jpslhedgpeth@ aol.com" <Jpslhedgpeth@ aol.com>
To: CBQ@yahoogroups. com
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2012 7:01 PM
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Newberry Archives Train orders
Thanks for mentioning that John...Just to add a bit more...The carbon paper used
was double faced therefore the ink was transferred to both the front and back of
all of the "intermediate copies of the order, thus providing a bit of protection
wherein if one side of the order got wet and the ink ran, hopefully the other
side was still legible.
You mentioned that the orders in that form were written with a STYLUS...I wonder
if the younger generation knows what a stylus is...If not FYI of the computer
age guys a stylus was a writing device resembling a "desk pen" with a long
pointed handle, but the point or writing end was a piece of stone which when
pressed against the top tissue of the "manifold" set up by the operator would
force the paper down against the top of the double faced carbon between the top
two copies and of course the downward pressure would carry all the way through
thus making the requisite number of copies for delivery and for the agent's
file. Most of those old operators carried their own personal stylus as well as
their telegraph "BUG"
