A.B. Dick Company

The A. B. Dick Company was a major American manufacturer of copy machines and office supplies in the late 19th Century and the 20th Century.

The company was founded in 1883^[1] in Chicago as a lumber company by Albert Blake Dick (1856 – 1934). It soon expanded into office supplies and, after licensing key autographic printing patents from Thomas Edison, became the world's largest manufacturer of mimeograph equipment (Albert Dick coined the word "mimeograph").^{[citation needed]} The company introduced the Model 0 Flatbed Duplicator in 1887.^[3] Later on, the flatbed duplicators were replaced by devices using a rotating cylinder with automatic ink feed. Basic models were hand-cranked while more elaborate machines used an electric motor.^[3]

The company had a new headquarters built in 1926, the building at 728 West Jackson now called Haberdasher Square Lofts, and remained there until their move to suburban Niles in 1949.^[4]

The company virtually created the business of "quick printing" via storefront shops that printed from disposable plates on duplicators.^{[citation needed]} Tens of thousands of its Model 350 and 360 duplicator were sold, many of which are still in use.^{[citation needed]} A. B. Dick also produced machines using the competing spirit duplicator technology. Starting in the 1960s, xerography began to overtake A. B. Dick's older mimeograph technology.^[2]

John Stetson was president of A. B. Dick when he was appointed Secretary of the Air Force in 1978.^[5]

In 1979 the company was acquired by the General Electric Company (a British firm, not to be confused with the American company General Electric).^[2] In 1988 the company acquired Itek Graphix, a leading manufacturer of plate-makers for duplicators (small format offset presses). By the late 1990s it was a division of the Nesco company of Cleveland.^[2]

In the 1980s, A. B. Dick was involved with GEC Computers in the production of the ill-fated GEC Series 63 minicomputer.^{[citation needed]}

The company filed for bankruptcy in 2004 and many of its assets now belong to Presstek, a manufacturer of prepress products.^[6]

References

External links

• A. B. Dick Company history at Funding Universe (mirrored at answers.com)

Further reading

• Glen Buck. Fifty Years 1884-1934, A.B. Dick Company. (Chicago, IL: A.B. Dick Company, c1934). (Written by Glen Buck, with drawings by Rockwell Kent and photographs by Torkel Korling. Printed at Lakeside Press, Chicago, 1934)