Roneo Machines

Once a must-have apparatus for every school/office where document reproduction was required, the Roneo machine has now become obsolete technology.
The Rotary Neostyle duplicator was one of the best-selling machines of its type and its name later become a generic term for the devices. I do remember a similar machine called a “Gestetner” they both were good at getting ink all over your hands.
Younger generations might not be familiar with the device and most likely have not even heard of it. But for us older generations, the Roneo machine provided copying technology as photocopiers were yet to be invented.

Stencil duplication was a low-cost printing method that worked by forcing ink through waxed-paper stencils on to target paper.

Who could forget the purple ink that rubbed off on your hands, the copies had a smell that was recognised by any 1960-70’s school kid.

The machine was suitable for reproducing a small number of documents such as school worksheets or exam papers or community newsletters.

Every large and medium-sized school would have a “Roneo room” which was a prohibited zone for students as it was where exam papers were produced.

Teachers would prepared masters by typing or drawing on stencil papers and bring the master documents to Roneo room.

The stencil papers would be wrapped around the drum of the machine, which forced ink out through cut marks on the stencil. You could be asked to turn the handle which was fun at first but after a few minutes became a bore.

The duplication quality varied, especially when used to reproduce a large number of documents.

Students found some letters or words unreadable because the stencil paper had torn, causing black ink to seep through the hole and create black spots on the paper.

This was why exam instructors would ask students to carefully check the exam paper before they started the test to make sure that every word and sentence was readable.

86 comments to Roneo Machines

  • Shabbir Hussain

    We want purchase from you second hand Printing
    Machine please send us your rates of Machines
    with model number

  • derek stocker

    When I emigrated to Rhodesia in the late 70s I went from the ‘sophistication’ of British Airways Shuttle Operations at LHR to an Air Rhodesia stifled by a decade or so of international sanctions.

    I had to be taught how to use a Roneo machine. The A4 sheets I copied onto were also such poor quality paper the liquid often blurred the copy.

    We also had those vacuum pipes that sucked a glass container from the check-in desks to the back office. The containers held the flight coupons removed from handwritten tickets.
    The girls in the office were busy typing the names and baggage weight on a passenger manifest. When the flight closed these were roneod and delivered to security, police, special branch, customs & immigration.
    Great days.

  • Hi everyone. My name is Robert Bruce. I thought I would google RONEO and was pleasantly surprised to find this site. I worked for Roneo, then it became Roneo Vickers and finally before it pulled out of South Africa it was called Roneo-Alcatel. That was round about 1981. Indeed I had 14 wonderful years serving as the service manager , as we were then called, for the Cape Town branch. Ken Fowler from the UK was the National Service manager and after he returned to the UK, Carl Ostendorf took over the reins. I enjoyed learning to rebuild and service all the models of Roneo duplicators. From the old model 150, 250, 365 (then 475) and the great 865. Also we had the electronic stencil cutter. Later Roneo took on the 220klg hefty Saxon ((from USA) plain paper photo copier. For us it was a WET disaster. Black developing fluids all over the floor and clothing! Before Roneo Alcatel departed from SA the company took another challenge. That was the Roneo desktop rotary printer. An excellent machine but with a high learning curve. I printed most of our branch business cards and letterheads. I can go on almost forever because I did not even mention the many models of Franking and Folding and Inserting machines. But that’s all for now. Thank you for your time..

  • I was a Roneo dealer in the Dallas area in the late sixties thru early eighties. We sold a lot of the model 865 to churches, schools and colleges in those days. Also the scanners. We won 3 trips one to France, our favorite, Hawaii and Jamaica. These were first class trips as Roneo spared not expense for their dealers. It was a good machine until Xerox made inroads in the coping business and teachers did not want to mess with duplicators.
    Gestetner and AB Dick were our biggest competitor in the duplicating field and I loved going up against them as I could out sell them with the Roneo.

    Great years long gone

  • Andrea Green

    The roeneod (not sure of the spelling) worksheets of the 1980s my early years of teaching …

  • Stephen Murray

    Hi Mike Sheehan
    I ended up moving to Australia in 1974 and Roneo even arranged a job for me in their Melbourne branch but didn’t stay with them that long as the writing was on the wall for stencil duplicators and typically like many companies they didn’t move with the times and were doomed by emerging technology. Still alive and kicking here in Oz and made a career with Qantas Airways although retired now.Remembering we sold a lot of machines by bringing the old ones in for an inflated overhaul quote compliments of Mr Bibby.Hope you are well

  • Hi all, I’m trying to resurrect one of these machines for use in a class about the history of zine-making. Does anyone have experience in getting an old machine working, contemporary sources for stencils and ink, and other known issues? Is it a fool’s errand to try? Please advise.

  • Cristiano

    Hi, i would like to know the value of a roneotronic 400. I would like to sell.

  • Mirik Waszczuk

    I am looking for a good operating duplicator machine to pass onto a small school in Thailand,electricity is unstable so must be hand operated,thanks in advance

  • Paul

    I worked for a dealer in the Tampa Bay, Fl area from 74 to late 80’s. We had large populations of 350,470,750,865 and 870 models. I was eventually the service manager and had a learning curve with them, especially the stencil cutters. Most bolts were BA gauge and we had to purchase kits with wrenches (spanners) and gauges for shop and techs. Due to meter frequency differences we had Black Boxes that would adjust the frequency so out meters would read correctly. The 865 was our work horse. In later years Roneo USA was selling Echlund made stencil cutters and one really excellent cutter made in Maryland that Gestetner marketed too. Met a lot of very nice operators those days and learned a lot from them too. But moved onto copiers later as I saw the end of the era for mimeograph. Our company even won a trip to England for our sales and service. The owner gave my wife and I the trip and we spent a wonderful time travelling England in a private coach.

  • Loyeanne Wallace

    I have just found a small tool kit in my father’s garage that has Romeo Vickers on the front. There are a number of tiny tools inside. Is this something that someone would be interested in?

  • Lance

    I worked for Roneo from 1971 until 1983 as a service engineer. My favourite customer was the BBC television centre.They must have had over 200 machines in there.Great times and fond memories up to my elbows in black ink.

  • Frankie

    I have a roneo stencil hanging cabinet that has a pack of unused bloters in the drawer at the bottom is thos of intrest to someone.

  • Alan Gordon

    Wow, Just came across this page, it certainly brought back memories. I worked initially as an engineer in Roneo offices in George Street, EDINBURGH and then moved over to the sales team. The great people I remember were: Jim McDonald, Tom Bowie, John B9atten, Bill Simpson (Manager), Peter Longstaff (Manager).
    I still have the hard back book written to record the history of Roneo. In the sales team I remember were, Mike McIntosh, Drew Harper. These were wonderful days that goodness for memories.

    • Alison Laverick

      Hi Alan,

      I hope you don’t mind me contacting you.

      My Dad (Peter Laverick) used to work in the Roneo office on George street around 1975 and I’d like to see the actual building he was based in. Would you happen to know what number George Street it was please? I’ve seatched for it, but can’t locate it.

      Many thanks,
      Alison

      • Ian Booth

        Hi. Alison. I used to work with your dad Peter at Roneo in Newcastle as a salesman. I remember him as a very good looking and smartly dressed man who I always respected. I was in his car one day and he showed me the area in Sunderland where he grew up. The office was on Dean Street in Newcastle and we sometimes had a drink in the pub opposite the rear entrance which I think was the Telegraph.A fondly remembered person.

    • Alison

      Hi Alan,

      I hope you don’t mind me contacting you.

      My Dad used to work in the Roneo office on George street around 1975 and I’d like to see the actual building he was based in. Would you happen to know what number George Street it was please? I’ve seatched for it, but can’t locate it.

      Many thanks.

      • Alan Gordon

        Hi Allison,

        I think the building was number 49 George Street EDINBURGH. It was right next door to Lyon & Turnbull (Auctioneers) and directly across the road from from what I think were called the “Assembly Rooms”.
        Before Roneo took it over it was a large bank and there was VERY steep narrow spiral stair down into the vaults where all the supplies ( Ink, stencil, paper) were kept. Also down in these vaults were the workshops where we used repair and overhaul the various machines. With Health and safety as it is now there was no way were these vaults safe to work. The stores were kept in good order by the storeman Jim Peden who was X army.

    • Graham Smith

      Only just seen this site but notice you mention Peter Longstaff. I worked at the Reading office from 1973 as an engineer then onto sales until it closed around 1976 so transferred to Bristol branch but still covering my Oxfordshire patch. Ron Sheasby was the manager a absolute gentleman but he retired and Peter Longstaff joined us from his South London branch. My patch then moved to Reynolds office Equipment in Oxford so continued with them until 1980. Bristol branch I remember the beautiful office manager Hellen, Mrs D, Tony Briant, Pete Deedy, Brian Sage, John Mayer (sales manager). Happy Days.

  • I worked for Gestetner in Robbinsville, NJ for Gabe Rensky in the late 70’s as a salesman. Best boss I ever had and I learned a lot from him. He’s in his 90’s now and we’re still in touch. The duplicating machine was an antiquated technology and I moved on to word processing sales. Great memories as we had a great crew and a lot a fun together. We remained close and are still in touch. The Gestetner was a great machine in its day. A far superior quality print to the spirit duplicator. It did require request maintenance and when the plain paper copier entered the office it’s’ days were numbered

  • Lyn Evans

    Just read all the comments on roneo machines.I worked as a demonstrator at Kingsway from 1965-1970.After marrying David Evans a manager on the furniture division we worked at Croydon head office. I was supervisor then in the print room. Good memories of how good the machines were..Happy days!

  • Kevin

    I have a Roneo Vickers model 770 with manual I need to move on. Looks all there but will need attention.
    Shame to scrap it.

  • vespazari

    I am the new custodian of two gestetner 120 machines. Seeing as I have just witnessed a wealth of knowledge in these posts, can anyone tell me how to get the paper to feed properly, Any Tricks? I put standard a4 white paper in the machine , and can not get the rubber feed pads to get it into the rotary. was there a specific paper thickness used ? or is there a tension adjustment that can be made? Anyone have a manual? –
    As far as Joy’s question surrounding asbestos? I am a museum conservator , and have been trained and work extensively in hazards and asbestos. and love old machines, I would say it is unlikely , that manual mimeograph machines would contain asbestos, as the process does not require the properties of asbestos(heat insulation, or bulk filling) it may be possible that electric machines could have it, in the form of insulators or gaskets. bakelite handles could have it as a bulking agent inside, but it would be contained, and not considered hazardous, unless it was deteriorated. is there a risk , yes. minimal, perhaps.

    • Maurice Buxton

      Speaking from my experience as a salesman for Gestetner in the early 60’s working mainly with 260 and 360 duplicators I would add I am not sure what you are doing but…load a ream of paper onto paper tray after rifling or fanning the pages. Raise the paper tray and hey presto dial number of copies and off you go.

      • Jean louis

        Hello, I am managing à smal’ muséum in France.
        I have been given an old Gestetner. Does anybody knows where I can find ink and stencil.
        Rgds.

        • Gérard Vandenabeele

          Bonjour,
          il se situe où ce petit musée?
          Je recherche des photos et des docs sur les photocopieurs Saxon commercialisés en France par Roneo.
          Bonne journée

    • Brian Hatch

      Paper size may be an issue. A4 was not used. We used then standard paper sizes called Foolscap or Quarto. Foolscap is longer and narrower and looks different to A series papers. Quarto is similar in dimension to A4 and can be mistaken for A4.

    • Timothy TreffryShe

      In old printing machines the rubber pickup rollers get hard, smooth and shiny. Try roughing them a bit with fine sand paper and sponging with a little paraffin (kerosene)and allowing to dry overnight.This should soften the rubber a little and restore its resilience.

    • Andrea

      Does anyone here have a date of production for a Gestetner 410? I have one and not sure if it can still be used today, with all the current technology, or it should be a museum piece.
      Ta

  • Melissa Christensan

    I was watching the 1985 season of Channel 7+ streaming of the series A Country Practice where Molly Jones uses one to reproduce the Wandin Valley community newsletters. It’s always breaking down and yet the quality of the end result is surprisingly good.

  • Jenny Jenkins

    If you made a mistake when typing out the stencil, you could apply some red waxy liquid from a small bottle over the wrong letter, This sealed the waxy surface and when it was dry,you could type the correction.

  • kay connolly

    Would anyone like a Roneo 350EVS photocopier. It is in need of some cleaning and I am not sure if it actually works. Pictures are available if required.

  • Ken Oxland

    Does anyone know where I can get an ancient Roneo portable valued?

  • […] worked in an office you would have been familiar with the mimeograph machine, sometimes called a Roneo, or Gestetner. If the boss wanted to tell everyone something, a typist would type the news onto a […]

  • andrew ward

    Does anyone want a working Roneo Number 2 machine ??

  • Anisha

    Suddenly thought of this while lounging around on a public holiday over here. I haven’t thought of the term in close to twenty years, but thought I’d Google up what a Roneo machine actually looked like.

    Forget this being 70s tech 🙂 We used to have all our exam papers in Sri Lanka’s largest public school (10,000+ kids in all from grades 1 through 13) done up on Roneo machines at least up to when I left back in 2003. I wouldn’t be surprised if they may still be using these if it’s cheaper than a photocopy/ Xerox and the machines are serviceable with stencil paper still available.

    And you’re right. The Roneo prints definitely had a unique smell to them.

    Thanks for posting this. Very interesting.

  • Bill Martin

    I worked at the Roneo research labs at Romford in the late 1970s as the ink research chemist. The inks were based on turkey red oil which is a derivative of castor oil. The site is now Tesco’s petrol station. Best regards to all.

    • Louise Sargent

      Would you be able to tell me anything about the Roneo Printing Works please? I have been turning out some boxes of books left to me, & one of them cannot be found anywhere on the internet! It’s called ‘The Admiral’s Thousand & One Tales’, no author shown, but shows ‘Printed At Roneo Printing Works, Great Eastern Street. 1914. I can’t seem to find any details of Roneo.

    • Dear Bill Martin – we got hold of a perfect working Roneo double size-cilinder and a electronic stencil cutter. Problem is: where can we get inks? Is it possible to make it ourselves or is this rocketscience?
      Everything is cleaned, shining, in perfect condition, paper is available but:…. no ink. Hope you can help us somehow. Thanks for reaction, John ter Marsch, Sint Antonuiesluis 38, 1011 JB Amsterdam Holland.

  • Rosemary

    I worked for Roneo Office Equipment Ltd in Auckland, New Zealand during the 1960’s in their duplicating department. I worked with the electric duplicators and addressograph machines. We also had a double-cap machine for large paper. We had typewriters that had inter changeable type faces which we used for things like wine lists etc. We also did menus for several Auckland hotels, including the one the Beatles stayed in on their visit to Auckland. I enjoyed working there but alas it no longer exists. They built the Sky Tower where Roneo once stood.

  • christie

    I am in the US and just looked up the name after it was mentioned on SWMBO’s new favorite show, “CALL THE MIDWIFE”. We guessed it had to be a mimeograph machine. The wiki entry on the machines was a great read. From there I stumbled onto this site.

    I wish I had found out about these and Xerox Copiers back when I was in High School. A good technician I gather made a good buck. And always traveling had to be better then being an office chimp, which I did for many years.

    But time is a one way flow, and the only exit to the time line is final, no reboots.

    Still, I remember the smell of newly minted copies as we were all smelling them, we were told it was toxic and deadly.

    • Jim Hopper

      I was just watching the Christmas 2020 episode of Call the Midwife on Dec 25 and heard the name Roneo. I remember the light purple ink with the distinctive smell. But the name Roneo didn’t ring a bell from my grade school days in Montana in the 50s. Seemed like the paper was not standard. I was wondering if it was a British machine. At the church it was an older technology I think that used black ink on normal paper

  • Nick Higgins

    I was an export sales representative for Roneo in 1966, trained in sales by Ron Berman and first sales patch was out of the Kingsway showroom. My esport sales region was Latin America, from Chile to Mexico, as well as the Caribbean. I moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1968 to join Roneo’s Brazilian distributor. We had great battles with A.B. Dick, an American single drum duplicator, as well as Gestetner, Rex Rotary, Geha and Roto. We increased Roneo sales 500% in four years. The 865 was our star machine, but we also sold the smaller 350 (electric) and the 250 (portable, manual), as well as the Roneotronic electronic stencil cutter. One of these was installed in the Army Officer Training School. A Roneo 865 was installed in the office of the President of the Brazilian Post Office. Quick change colour printing, using different colour drums and accurate registration, was a key selling point. We also had a number of 865 machines in the print room of the INPS (Institute of Social Security), a very big Government department. My best to the great export team at Roneo Croydon in the 60’s, including Arthur McCutcheon.

    • Paola Prado

      There was a spirit duplicator in use at the American School in Rio de Janeiro. I recall the purple ink and the handle we turned to push the paper through, but we referred to it by a different name in common parlance. Would you have any recollection of what that name might be?

    • Unbelievable!
      As I was idly reminiscing about Roneo duplicators, reading all manner of posts from people who ought to have known the difference between a stencil duplicator and a spirit one, whose name do I come across but one Nick Higgins…contemporary of mine, in the mid 60s, working at Roneo Vickers as it became, in Landsdowne Road, Croydon.
      If your memory is as good as mine (thank the Lord, so far!) you might remember that while you looked after the Americas, I looked after the Middle East and Africa…and we made that memorable multilingual advertising 45 rpm record, under the guidance of our then boss, Pat Paterson.
      We are talking of 55 years ago!
      Anyway, I hope that you’re keeping well…be nice to hear from you!
      Best regards,
      Philip Esposito

    • Seems like a real blast from the past, seeing your nape on this post!
      While you were gallivanting around Latin America, I was your colleague running the Middle Eaat and Africa, and doing my own bit of gallivanting around, teaching salesmen in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Nigeria ( in the middle of the Biafra war then!), the demonstration sequence for both the 750 and the later 865 machines.
      I well remember, under our then boss, Pat Paterson, organising a promotional audio 45 rpm record, in which we all spoke to our respective audiences…you in Spanish, me in Arabic and in Italian, Derek Blunt in German, Frank Scholefield in French, and Graham (can’t remember surname), in Mandarin Chinese!
      Very interesting days, as we were all embarking on our new careers as international salesmen!
      Roneo Vickers, as it was then, in Lansdowne Road, Croydon…In fact, years and years later, I happened to obtain a Roneo offset litho machine – the next step up from the stencil duplicator, commonly known as the ‘galloping pig’ because of the noise it made as its rubber rollers fed the paper through…essentially an offset machine with a duplicator paper feed.
      The advertising for this showed a young lady in an office context operating it while wearing white gloves!…Unbelievable!…in real life, one had to wear something like a spacesuit to avoid being covered in ink!
      Those were the days!
      Be nice to touch base, Nick.
      Best…

  • Sinead

    Hello,
    I’m looking for some information please on these machines. I read that they were mostly used by schools. I am researching a project based in London 1977. Would anyone know if these machines would have been still in use by offices at that time ( 1977 ) i.e. print out payroll notices etc or by then would most businesses have moved on to the photocopier? Thank you

    • Henry Robert Felgate

      Hello, I worked for Roneo, (later Roneo Vickers). I still have a couple of machines including a No.2, and an 865 with cabinet. I have a large quantity of Black ink plus lots of spare parts.

    • Gina King

      Hi Sinead, We had one at our school in the UK in 1982. We always wanted to be the one picked to turn the handle

    • Hi Sinead,
      I started work in Kensington in 1969. And I worked at the London Borough of Barking ( not then Barking and Dagenham ) 1975 to 1980. Both placed used these machines to produce Engineering Specifications. Each copy could be more than 100 pages.
      As a junior engineer, I would quite often spend time rotating the handle to produce a copy. Not trusted with the stencil, I would have to get the typist to change each when I was finished. We always produced extra copies of each stencil, as it was almost impossible to them a second time, as they would split.
      We used to call them Gestetner – but that may have been a generic name.

    • George Gowing

      I started my first job with Grand Metropolitan Hotels plc (a large FTSE 100 Co, now Diageo) on 1st Jan 1976 in their HQ’s just off Oxford/Bond St. at Stratford Place. My actual office was around the corner in Mandeville Place a building part of the Mandeville Hotel. It was the Internal Audit Dept. Our audit reports had to be circulated to lots of people so were often typed up on stencils & Roneo’ed. It was a pig of a job typing on an electric typewriter if you made a mistake. We didn’t have a secretary so had to do typing & Roneo’ing ourselves. At some time perhaps end 1976, more likely 1977, H.O in Stratford Place got a photocopier but the key to the machine had to be got from a senior secretary & one had to show what was to be copied.

    • Victor

      I worked for Roneo in the late 60s and I can assure you that duplicators were still being used well into the 80s it developed into the copy printer which you placed the original on the machine the stencil was produced from a roll and automatically fed into the duplicating section. I eventually worked for Gestetner Roneos main rival. Gestetner were taken over by Richoh of Japan in recent years. I retired from Gestetner in 2000

  • I repaired Roneo mimeograph, spirit duplicators (ditto machines) and stencil cutters into the late 80s when they tried to reinvent them as ink duplicators making them as automatic as possible with built in thermal stencils with auto ejectors.
    I miss working on the mechanics. Not so much the ink spills.

  • Barry Barnes

    Hi, I was a service engineering for Roneo in the early 70s and worked out of the Kingsway, Holborn office, servicing machines in central London area. I have mostly fond memories of servicing and repairing the 750 and 865 machines apart from the dreaded ink floods. It wásn’t so bad if the client caused the ink floods, because we could send it into the workshop to be cleaned up, but if it was the service engineer that did while changing the ink pad we were expected to clean it up on site ourselves. You always knew you were having a bad day if you accidentally flooded a machine!

  • Anne-Louise Luccarini

    Nobody mentions the trials of the typist. When you’d cut your stencil, you’d have to go over the typeface or daisywheel of your typewriter to clear out the wax remnants. Otherwise your beautifully typed page had the g’s, a’s, o’s and e’s filled in. Another thing about the copied pages: if you’d been typing papers for a meeting, you had to lay them out, a group per page, around a long table, put on a rubber thumb, and sprint round and round the table gathering single pages into a set, which you then stapled with a long stapler. If it was urgent, it was all hands to the pump, and you might have three or four girls running round the table. And if a magazine article was to be copied for information, you had to type it out, then read it back to someone who error-checked it for you. We worked. But there was still plenty of time for pleasant chats with the Office Boys whose job was to deliver stuff from other floors. Our typing pool was high up on the sixth floor, with a good view over the shot tower and Dudley Flats to Fishermen’s Bend. Anyone else remember Melbourne?

  • Erwin Blok

    On the first picture my Gestetner 180B is showed after refurbishing. This is an A3 version with enlarged printingsurface to print papersizes of 46 x 50 cm !
    Found this machine in Belgium and is now part of the Gestetner museum collection here in the Netherlands…. Another treasure I found in France, the famous Roneo 750 with a stand.

    Best wishes, Erwin Blok, “King of Gestetner”, the Netherlands.

  • Rita Harris

    In the early 1960s I worked at the Ford Motor Company at Dagenham in the Typists Training School. We used to use a duplicating process using purple “ink”. I seem to remember this as an Ormig (?) can anyone tell me if this is right.

    • Henry Felgate

      You were using A SPIRIT MACHINE, These were predominately used in schools, you could produce short runs. They became the main product for Banda, who didn’t enter the ink market,

  • Jo Abrantes

    Hi, I have a Roneo 475 – Stencil Duplicating Machine and I need to part with it. Does it have any value? Could I sell it? Any help would be much appreciated. Regards, Jo

  • Phil

    Remember using these in primary school .. loved the smell .. will always remember that smell .. this was the light blue copying .. I think the spirit duplicator .. I would love to just have a whiff of whatever that stuff was again .. it would take me back for sure

  • Chris

    Curious as to the origin of the photograph with the teacher attending to the Roneo machine. Is it just me, or does he look like every English teacher I had in mid-seventies high school?

  • Tony BELSHAW

    What a pity there can be no communication because there are a lot of half truths and confusion in some of these articles.
    I worked for Roneo Vickers from 1970 to 1977 at the Sheffield branch,(all the guys I worked with were so proud to be consistently out performing the Leeds branch and the branches in the South).
    I worked as a Service Engineer thro’ different positions to Senior Machine Salesman.
    With regard to Charlotte’s enquiry about the 250.
    Good luck because the only way to clean a 250 cylinder is to immerse the whole machine in a bath of spirit based cleaning fluid,and as for the ink pad,well,it is 40 years since that particular portable,manual only machine was made.I have some ideas that may help,but contact ??
    Sincerely,
    Tony the Roneo Bear.(Still proudly my nickname!)

  • Ken Berry

    Roneo machines used a linseed oil based ink which was contained inside a perforated drum which had a pad wrapped around it with the wax stencil ontop of the pad. Gestetner machines used a glycerine based ink which was forced onto the surface of two metal drums which had a silk belt with the stencil on it running over them. The Roneo would run all day without adding ink but the Gestetner had to inject a squirt of ink every two or three revolutions.

  • Hi. Great article. I just found a roneo 250 on ebay. In the process of doing it up. David would love some advice on things like replacing the felt and cleaning the ink drum. sadly I have never seen one in action. Nor a spirit duplicator.. also regarding the stencil maker. Would the same effect be acheived with a lasercutter?

    • Henry Felgate

      The 250 was the baby of the RONEO Range, The stencil cutter was not laser, but used an arcing process, the wax stencil was replaced with a carbon based stencil, (still made from tissue paper). Laser technology wasn’t around in those days, if want any spares or ink please advise.

    • LOOK ON YOU tUBE. I HAVE ABOUT 12 VIDEOS OF DIFFERENT MACHINES I REPAIRED OR RESTORED. DID IT FOR A LIVING YEARS AGO. LOOK FOR “THE ORIGINAL HECTOGRAPH” THAT SHOULD SHOW YOU MY ORTHER VIDEOS. LOOK FOR MY NAME SAM

  • Helmujt van Emden

    I would be grateful fo rpermission to reproduce the first picture of a Roneo on this page in an article I am writing for “Antenna”, the house journal of the Royal Entomological Society, on doing a PhD before computers.

    • Henry Felgate

      I have a Roneo No. 2 a very early machine. If you would like a photo or the machine itself please make contact. I worked in the Devon & Cornwall areas from1965 until 1977. There was good comradery, Mr. Porter was a different story, I witnessed his demise in Manchester.

      • Stephen Murray

        Hi Henry. Was the Mr Porter you refer to possibly the same one that was Central London branch manager about 1973 who was an ex policeman and a bit of a hard nut?
        Regards Stephen

  • David Lomas

    Hi Sue, A very interesting article on Roneo Duplicators. I was a service engineer for Roneo Vickers in the 1970’s and worked on these machines on a daily basis, based at Roneos Norwich office. The purple ink and smell you mentioned, was actually that of a “spirit duplicator” which was a different process to the Roneo (and Gestetner) Spirit duplicators were only used for very short runs, and as you said, the more copies you did, the fainter they got! The other two systems had ink inside the drum, which was constantly fed through tiny holes to a felt blanket beneath the stencil, thus giving constant copy quality from the first copy to the last. It was not unusual to do runs of several hundred copies. The later machines were electric, so no more standing there turning the handle, which was a blessing. The photo with the man in it, appears to show a Roneo Model 865 which was electric, and one of the white knobs was the speed control. A duplicator in full flow was actually much faster than photocopiers at the time. Another useful piece of equipment that most school print rooms had, was a “stencil cutter” This was used for creating stencils from drawings or pictures. The machine had two drums, on one cylinder would be attached the original for example a map, and on the other a black carbon stencil. The machine would be started with both drums spinning at a fast speed. A sensor would scan the original moving across similar to the old Edison cylinder gramophone, and the differences between light and dark would be converted in to an electric spark which would jump across a small gap to the surface of the carbon stencil on the second drum, thus burning through it to allow the ink to come through. The darker the original print, the deeper the burn and therefore more ink for that portion of the stencil. Once done, the stencil would be used the same as a typed one. Used stencil could be re-used if carefully removed from the drum, and they were stored in a stencil cabinet which had clips and a hanging rail. Similar to hanging your washing up to dry! Stencils could be corrected using “stencil correction fluid” which was very similar to Tippex if you made a mistake whilst typing it.
    In later years I myself moved on to being a Photocopier service engineer, and spent the rest of my working life doing that. I often look back with affection at those early Roneo Duplicators and marvel at the later technology of the digital monsters I worked on in later years which were capable of producing hundreds of copies a minute in full colour, as well as stapling, binding and making booklets.
    I hope you found my comments interesting, and thanks again…..David

    • Stephen Murray

      Hi Davis. I was a supply salesman with Roneo until I emigrated to Australia in 1974 and remember the 865 fondly and the push button 870 not so fondly. I was recently trying to find some info on the single knob offset duplicator which we marketed about that time. I have a feeling it was made by some other company but was rebadged Roneo as was the Remington electrostatic roll fed copier. Do you possibly have any more knowledge about the offset machine?

      • I was in sales with Gestetner in 1959 – and later became a Roneo dealer. When Roneo ceased production of duplicators in the 1980’s they began to market Roneo-Alcatel stencil duplicators and Scanprinters. The latter being a duplicator and stencil maker all in one, Gestetner versions and others were called digital duplicators or copy-printers if that helps. Brian Phillips.

        • Stephen Murray

          Thanks Brian. I only had a few clients with these machines but they were a lithographic offset machine. Although somewhat automated in operation they still required a moderate amount of skill to obtain a decent result and operators didnt like the clean up that was required at the end of every job to avoid ink drying out.Regards Stephen

          • Ruud

            I have work as a engineer. In Holland For roneo vickers and Alcatel i have also work on Ricoh offset machines for Many years .later the stencil machin became copyprinters like sp9000

          • Mike Sheehan

            Hi Steve.
            I sold a few offsets and I think they were Ricohs . We knew each other in the 1970s. I left Roneo in 1973 to sell plain paper copiers.
            Hope you are keeping well,
            Mike Sheehan

      • Adrian Hillyer

        I worked as a compositor at the Roneo manufacturing plant in Romford Essex England from 1967 until 1978 and remember this machine being tested in the litho department by skilled litho machine minders. You are correct in believing that this machine was ‘bought in’ and rebadged but for the moment I cannot remember the manufacturer – German I think. I remember it being all shiny white with black knobs and a skilled litho minder bemoaning its limitations!

      • Henry Felgate

        The RV 2000 was the name of the offset machine, which utilised a mono knob control, as with offset process the damping ink etc had to be applied in the correct sequence, by using a single knob everything happened in the correct mode

      • Vic

        The Offset Litho machine was built by Mattias Bauerle of Eschbronn in the Black Forest region of Germany. Roneo Vickers bought the company in, I think, the early seventies.
        Their original machines , RV 1000, 2000 were very good but then they introduced the RV 3100 intended to compete with photocopiers, which was less successful. The CP 3000 followed; a monstrous thing intended to compete with high volume copiers, but it had so many design failures that it was dropped. Roneo Vickers disposed of the company which switched to building Folding Machines under the MB brand which were of excellent quality.

    • Joy

      Would you happen to know if these early machines in the late 1950’s would contain or have any involvement with asbestos?

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