The Dodwell "Super Fax" Machine

[@jamesontheretrogeek4405]

Greeting from Taiwan. Your channel and videos are SOOOOO underrated!!! I enjoy it. Keep up the excellent work and thank you.

[@vintagecomputerca]

Very cool video @CelGenStudios.

[@davidararar]

Nice video. In the late 1970s I worked in our high school's duplicating service room. For short runs we used a Xerox 2400 copier. It was massive and could belt out copies very quickly (for 1960's technology). For larger runs it was cheaper to use a mimeograph. We had a Gestetner Stencil burner that looks nearly identical to the machine you have. They use special material on the stencils that can be punctued by a pretty high voltage spark. It was always mezmerizing to watch. Not only did produce a lovely purple spark I'm pretty sure it generated more than our recommended daily amount of ozone as a bonus. Thanks for a trip down memory lane!

[@wimwiddershins]

Behemoth fax!!! Great video, fascinating. Thanks Sir.

[@karlramberg]

Facsimile means copy, so I guess that is where they get the name. The more common use of fax is short for tele fax

[@SambalBij]

I seem to remember schools having machines like this back when I was a kid (probably 35-40 years ago) From what I remember those machines were used to create some sort of master for a duplicating machine (Which in Dutch was called a 'stencil machine' - I think the actual (English) name could be a mimeograph?) A source document (usually a page created with a typewriter) and a blank stencil were loaded on a drum, the machine scanned the document and burned it into the stencil. That stencil was then transferred to that duplicating machine where it was used to create multiple copies of that source document. edit: Ah... I should have watched the entire video before commenting... The stuff you mention at the 12:02 mark, is exactly the machine I remember from back then... :)

[@CelGenStudios]

That is correct. After I made the video I discovered this is very likely one of those machines.

[@diegolastra]

My elementary school used one of these in the 80s as well. They would make the stencil then use that to print dozens of copies of tests or reading materials or whatever. They phased them out in the early 90s as laser printers and photocopiers became more affordable. The quality of the copies was horrendous and they used this very cheap, tissue like paper to print. I guess it was very absorbent so it worked better with the stencil.

[@AiOinc1]

This is incredibly cool, the last thing I expected to see was a set of vacuum tubes! I think the implication here is "facsimile" in the manner that it is copying your document, rather than transmitting it via a "facsimile" line.

[@epakai]

Got excited from the tip yesterday. Was hoping for a Photo drum scanner, and this is... close. Neat stuff.

[@CelGenStudios]

Almost ten years ago I almost bought one of those form RE-PC. Really neat and high-end stuff but it was a huge piece of equipment.

[@code123ns]

Great video! The tubes didn't surprise me at all. It almost screams tube tech when looking at it. A facsimile, or fax is a copy. The idea that the copy may be reproduced remotely came later and was called telefax. That later got shortened back to just fax.

[@vwestlife]

Hey, I recognize that Video Professor music at the end!

[@CelGenStudios]

I had to change the outro music a few years back because I was unable to get licensing or permission to continue using a sound clip from a Com Truise song. I mean, this is no better, but it's a lot more vague, I guess....

[@Andrew_Sparrow]

Cool :) I picked up one of these a few months back and haven't had a chance to look at it yet (other than figured out like yourself that it was a copier not a fax machine)

[@mfbfreak]

The paper could also be based on an iodine compound that turns brown when the current passes through it. I looked into it once - i forgot which compound it was, but it was fairly easy to make. Just moisten the paper with the stuff and it'll work again, as long as the fax works on the basis of sending the current through the paper. Recapping the superfax seems trivial. An evening of work and you can have the coolest copier of the whole office. I'd love to have one like that. I used to have a hellfax when i was 15, but i gave it away because i didn't know how to use it :(

[@Ziraya0]

It's always interesting to see how the meaning of words shifts under culture. Looks like at the time facsimile machine just meant it copied stuff, the telephony requirement came later. I used to work at a major regional hypermarket that had retained the term "mimeograph" ("mimeo") but in absence of any actual mimeograph machines and nobody being old enough to remember what they were, it had come to mean something like "printed copies of documents sent to us by an authority outside the store, via the modern digital descendent of the company's original manual document control process"

[@MrRadar]

I like how the 8-Bit Guy has become the vintage techtuber go-to example for what not to do.

[@CelGenStudios]

It's okay to poke fun at other youtubers from time to time (especially on April 1st) but one shouldn't constantly use them as a Joke of the Week or it can become unappreciated.

[@AiOinc1]

It's a real shame that it's all he's become to most people. He made one dumb mistake, he owned up to it. I'm not gonna criticize Adrian Black for years because of his senseless destruction of vintage hard drives.

[@CelGenStudios]

@@AiOinc1 I'm going to be transparent here and also sheepishly add that the reason we don't see me try and defeat the interlock in this video is because during testing I was holding the interlock with a screwdriver and I discovered when the screwdriver slipped that inside the switch the contacts are NOT protected in case pokey metal objects are used to defeat it. Not only did I pop my breaker but I trashed one of my good screwdrivers! :C

[@chrissingleton6029]

That Xerox is super cool!! Well, they're both cool. I wonder if the larger unit was commonly used to create OHP transparencies as (as you showed the media for)... thinking back to the 50's-60's where this would have been used, any type of "xerox" photocopying machine (IBM made them back then too) would have been too "hot" to run a transparency through as it would have just melted once it it the fuser. Maybe people used this device as a stop-gap until photocopiers could handle traditional transparencies?

[@CelGenStudios]

There is a couple of ways they did it back then, including light transfer processes. Ultimately as long as the plastic film can handle the fuser it should work fine.

[@hattree]

This type of machine is from before xerography and was used into the 80's to create stencils for mimeograph and ditto (purple worksheets)

[@rplace8737]

True. We had something similar at my high school (Gestetner?) that made nice blue sparks when it "printed".

[@rubeusvombatus]

It looks quite cool at least, even if it's more likely than not completely useless (nowadays)

[@RapperBC]

@8:37 oh hell yes

[@funksterdotorg]

It's a cool-looking machine and it would be great to see it make a copy, but it's so huge that it would be a burden to keep around. Shame it needs so much work before it could be demoed.

[@codefeenix]

yo, its totally correct to test components while they are integrated into the circuit... -_-

[@yay4this]

Plot twist 11:10