Hektoing

Using the hekto process for reproduction.

From Fancyclopedia 1, ca. 1944

The basic hecktograf is a pan of evil-smelling, rather firm gelatin, which has glycerin in it. The master sheet is drawn with special hekto pencil or ink or carbon paper, or typed with special ribbon or carbon paper, so that the original has a great deal of pigment in it. It has to, because all the pigment in all the copies must be on the master sheet, and then some. The master is placed face down on the gelaton (which Dollens says should not be moistened), and much of the pigment comes off on the latter, following the lines of the original. After a couple of minutes the master is removed, and the copy sheets are placed on the gelatin, smoothed, down, and removed. On each one some of the ink comes off; enuf (you hope) to make a legible copy. After the copies are made, the remaining pigment sinks in and is diffused thru the gelatin, so that it can be used again in a day or so. After many uses the gelatin becomes saturated with left-over ink (it is not good for the surface to wash this off), if it doesn't develop bubbles and other flaw-breaks first, in which latter case all you can do is melt it down again. The purple pigment is most common, but there are now several other brite colors available, which can be used very effectively -- an advantage of hekto over monocolorproduction methods. As indicated by it root -- 'εκατος -- the theoretical number of copies from Hekto is around 100. More usually it is 50 (the original FAPA membership limit), tho in the hands of various expertness, it may vary from 20 to 100, not considering Dittoing. Besides the primitive pan hekto, the Ditto Company (no, they aren't paying a cent for this!) has developed a number of other forms, such as a "film", a sheet of strong paper with gelatin spread on it, or a long roll of filmed paper, as well as complicated machines for doing the mechanics of duplication.

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Publishing