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The original "copy machine" was a scribe with pen and ink who sat and made a copy by writing it out while reading the original. Then there was a mechanical device called a pantograph that held two pens. The writer held and operated one pen in the normal fashion. The second pen was connected to the first and moved with it, making an exact copy on a second piece of paper. With suitable adjustment to the mechanism, the copy could be made to a larger or a smaller scale than the "original." As a result, this was useful for drafting work. An early means of copying was "carbon paper," which was invented in the very early 19th century. This was paper with carbon on one side. A sheet of carbon paper (carbon side down) was placed between two sheets of paper. When the top page was written on , the pressure caused the carbon to transfer fro the carbon paper to the second page, making a copy. This required anticipation or planning and could only be done before a document was prepared, not after.

There was also tracing paper, which is translucent. This was used by placing it over the original drawing and then writing over the image that showed through.

Once Photography was invented, this process was used to make copies, but it was time consuming and costly and so was used only when the value of a truly exact copy was high.

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Q: What did people use to copy things when they didn't have a photocopier?
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