PR Tools See how communicators’ tools have changed in the past 60 years

During the 60 years that TSPRA has been in existence, the tools that we use have changed dramatically. You can only imagine how much more advanced things are today than when I was a child!

Am I the only one, or did some of you, dear readers, find yourself as a young child, fascinated by machines and devices that printed, projected or reproduced?

That was me. My first recollection of such an item was when I discovered a gelatin hectograph in a storage room at the little church I attended. Since the preacher’s kid and I were best friends, his dad said, “Take it. We haven’t used that in years.”

Now, let me tell you about the hectograph. It was nothing more than a metal tray, similar to what the wife calls a jelly-roll pan, covered from one end to the other with a thick, hardened gelatin-like substance. You used a special hectograph pencil to write what you wanted to reproduce on a sheet of paper, wiped the gelatin down with a very thin coat of water, and then placed the paper facedown onto the gelatin. When you lifted the paper, voilà! Your words were on the gelatin, in reverse of course, and you were ready to print.

A clean sheet of paper was placed on the gelatin, you rubbed it gently with the palm of your hand, and the image transferred to the paper.

This simple process would make about twenty or so copies before the copy became so light that it wasn’t readable.

Now, this was the next amazing step. To use it again, you simply placed the metal tray on a burner on your stove and the gelatin slowly began to melt into a liquid. It took about twenty-four hours for it to harden before you were ready to print again.

The gelatin hectograph evolved into those amazing spirit-duplicators with their purple images and addictive smell. I’m relatively certain that they would not be allowed inside the building today for a couple of reasons: 1) the fumes were probably toxic and 2) the liquid used in the machine was highly flammable. Next came the mimeograph, which utilized a waxy stencil that could be placed into a typewriter, and when the keys struck the stencil, it cut the shape of the letter into it. You then placed the stencil onto the drum of the mimeograph, the ink was squeezed through the cuts onto the paper and a copy was printed.

Xerox machines using toner eventually replaced the spirit duplicators and mimeograph machines. Today, you can have any style, color or size of font and easily add graphics to your presentation. Just amazing!

Thinking back, I guess I was always fascinated by such inventions. When I was about 10, I spent every penny I had to order a projector that would show a filmstrip onto a large wall. It had been advertised on the back page of a comic book, and I had fallen for its false claims. The "projector" was not much larger than the palm of your hand, made from plastic and the one little strip of pictures only contained eight or so images.

Nevertheless, the family was forced to take a seat in the backyard, where, as soon as it was dark enough, they viewed the pictures on the side of the garage.

Throughout my years as a teacher and later a public relations practitioner, I found myself showing images to groups using projectors of every kind: movie, slide, “overhead,” opaque, and now, computers.

At one of the TSPRA conferences, I learned how to use a stack of slide projectors, mounted together, to project images from one machine to another and “dissolve” the image as the next slide came up. Although it involved setting up a screen, speakers and rolling this monstrous piece of equipment to civic clubs, PTA meetings and other community events, this one skill I had learned helped pass seven bond elections in my school district.

Oh, the list of advances is virtually endless. Getting music from a record player is practically extinct, although it brought about eight-track tapes, then cassettes, later CDs and now streaming music electronically.

Am I still excited about printing, projecting and reproducing as I was as a kid? Oh, yeah! The technology that has come about over the years gives opportunities for us to communicate our messages with more impact and clarity than ever.

Keep learning! Keep growing! Don’t get left behind! I’ve done my best not to fall into that category of those who aren’t willing to learn something new.