NEW GOVERNMENT BRANCH

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28887, 6 May 1959, Page 21

NEW GOVERNMENT BRANCH

Photo-Copying Of Documents

If any Government department in Christchurch needs a plan or document copied in a hurry it can now get it done by another Government department or rather by a new specialised section of a department—now that the Government Printing and Stationery Department in the city has been extended to take in a photographic branch. The branch has its photographic laboratory in the printing department’s new building on Peterborough street. Concentrating at present on photo-copying plans and documents the laboratory has equipment that can turn out one copy or many hundreds of copies. In charge of the branch is a young Englishman, Mr P. Fry. He is known as the photographic supervisor. Working alongside him is Mr G. Matthews, the assistant supervisor. The aim of the new branch is to streamline work that used to be done by individual departments in Christchurch or that used to be done for the departments by commercial firms. It means that all copying work for the departments can be handled speedily by specialists in the new photographic laboratory. Speed can be very important when documents or plans are urgently needed and the branch can have a single copy ready within five minutes of getting the original. The dark room has two electric reflex printers. One can handle documents up to 30in by 40in: the other, a smaller printer, is coupled with a chemical-transfer process machine. Copy In Two Minutes The machine can produce a photo-copy of a document in roughly two minutes. The method used is to make a contact negative of the document on the reflex printer and then the negative and printing paper are fed together into the machine. The darkroom has three large sinks for the developer-rinse-fixer process for when the large reflex printer is used or when a greater number of copies is needed. The sinks are plastic-lined instead of the conventional leadlining. Waste-pipes from the sinks are made of polythene. After fixing, the prints are passed through a light-trap slot for more washing, squeegeeing and drying on a rotary, electric dryer. The finished photo-copies are then sorted ready for sending to the different Government departments.

The branch also has a micro-film unit for photographing documents on to 35mm film. Christchurch is the first South Island town to have a Government document reproduction branch, but similar branches have long been established in Wellington and Auckland.

The new photographic branch will mean better, faster and more efficient service for Government departments based in Christchurch.