For your consideration is a USDA National Forest Service storage box and spirit duplicator printer. This forest service green wooden box is constructed with four sections for designated items. It has metal handles on the side, and a latch system that can be locked if desired. Inside is the original packing list packed by "D. Delo" dated "10-16-1992". Inside this box is a A.B. Dick Model 212G Spirit Duplicator, two unopened reems of paper for the duplicator, an opened box of duplicating master purple paper with MFG. Date 4/88, two metal fluid cans, a packet of documents. The A.B. Dick Model 212G Spirit Duplicator, or "ditto machine" was widely used in educational institutions for making all sorts of documents in small runs. This is the machine that made those sweet-smelling, purple copies that teachers handed out when you were in grade school. The spirit dupilcator was invented in 1923 by one Wilhelm Ritzerfeld, founder of the Ormig Company in Germany (Proudfoot 1972, 36). The spirit duplicator master consisted of a smooth paper master sheet and a "carbon" paper sheet (coated with a waxy compound similar to that used in the hectograph) acting "backwards" so that the wax compound (we'll call it the "ink") was transferred to the back side of the master sheet itself. The master could be typed or written on, and when finished the "carbon paper" was discarded. The master was wrapped around a drum in the spirit duplicator machine. As the drum turned, the master was coated with a thin layer of highly volatile duplicating fluid via a wick soaked in the fluid. The fluid acted to slightly dissolve or soften the "ink." As paper (preferably very smooth or coated) pressed against the drum and master copy, some of the "ink" was transferred to make the final copy. A spirit duplicator master was capable of making up to about 500 copies before the print became too faint to recognize. This spirit duplicator is stamped "Property of USDA - Forest Service 013100-01293" and on the front and back of the green box is lettered "P/N 1293" "0311 Duplicator-Spirit / WT 105LBS. CU 6.9 / Return to R-1" and includes the US Forest Service logo. The fluid cans are dented and marked "Flammable" "Duplicating Fluid". The printer seems to be in good condition. The entire lot shows sign of age and use. The box is in good condition and measures approximately 22"Dx23"Hx25"W.