BOYS' OWN COLUMN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 223, 20 September 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

BOYS' OWN COLUMN.

PRINTING WITHOUT INK,

A "MIRACLE" THAT IS NEARLY A FACT

Dear Boys,— Printing without ink—impossible you say; but it is no more impossible than our latest wireless invention was but a few year* ago. Miracle though it may seem, printing without ink is nearly an accomplished fact and it will not be unexpected to learn that electricity is the agent. The underlying principle is simplicity itself (now that some one has thought it out). First one or two explanations to help the uninitiated. Every kind of current embraces two kinds of electricity, positive and negative; in fact positive electric current cannot exist without an equal quantity of negative. Now when an electrician has two "live" wires, i.e., wires carrying current, and he is in doubt as to which is positive and which is negative, he can apply the wire to a piece of what is called pole finding paper, which is made damp so that it will conduct or carry the current. As soon as the wires touch the paper the positive wire makes a violet or brown mark, the other makes no mark at all. Now if a piece of wire can make a brown mark on paper, why could not a piece of type metal make a black mark on a piece of printing paper and so print without ink? asked the inventors. As long as thirty years ago one man made experiments along these lines, working on this principle in conjunction with the principle of electro plating. The type in the printing machines was attached to one wire from a powerful battery, and when the "paper was pressed against the type part of the metal came away in the form of ions, united with some of the chemical substance in the paper, and produced a black impression. For practical purposes, however, this was a failure, for but a limited number of impressions could be gained before the type metal was entirely worn away. But setbacks like this do not baffle exerimenters, who have now succeeded in treating the paper so that when it comes in contact with the electrified type a chemical reaction is set up, causing a visible impression to remain. It has been found that different metals cause different reactions, with resulting different colours. Now it is but a matter of time before high speed multicoloured printing without ink is no jZZft longer a dream but an accomplished «. fact. * sj/ r^ii^S^ 0^ Will printing without ink be the next "miracle" to startle a world already I^^ on tip-toe awaiting new marvels? *^^