This essay describes the experience of the author Ms. Usha Rao, in the use of low cost print media. She herself has moved on to organic farming and Philip Byrne, who manufactured these machines, has moved to England
My first experience with the Flat-Bed Duplicator (FBD)
It started as an interesting new thing to try out. I like to learn new things and I like to use my hands and see whether it comes out well. With great excitement and sense of achievement I watched the first print – of the illustrated nonsense rhyme, come out – clear and dark – of the home-made low cost FBD.
Post creation, many things happened. Philip Byrne worked on an improved convenient design and produced them in numbers. I helped several groups to learn its operation, to put it to use, in many different situations. All in all, it proved to be extremely useful.
The Flat-Bed Duplicator
Basically is a substitute for the cyclostyling machine. Operationally it is like screen-printing minus all the chemical processes. Instead, an ordinary stencil is used.
The principle on which the FBD works is very simple. So also is the construction of the duplicator.
· The basic structure consists of a wooden frame – 8” x 15” on the inside. The wooden pieces are 3/4” wide and ½” thick.
· Screen cloth is fitted to the frame.
· The frame is then hinged (from the outside) to a flat board slightly bigger than the frame. The frame moves up and down on the hinge like the lid of a box. When at rest, the cloth surface faces the board.
· There is an arrangement to fix the stencil below the screen cloth. When inked, this sticks to the cloth.
· The paper is stacked below on the board.
· A squeegee or roller is used to press out prints.
· Duplicating ink from the tube is squeezed onto the screen cloth. When pressed with a squeegee, it spreads over the length of the cloth, goes through the porous cloth and through the cuts in the stencil, makes home in the paper below to give us our print. The frame is lifted to remove the print and feed the next sheet of paper.
FBD at M. V. Foundation
M. V. Foundation is committed to elimination of child labour, and believes the best way to do it is by ensuring all children are in school. Come summer and they are busy conducting residential camps for girls and boys who otherwise work at home, graze cattle, work as agricultural labourers etc. In 3 – 4 months these children in the age group of 6 to 15 are helped to join mainstream schools from class 2 to class 6 depending on the scholastic competence accomplished.
All these children are first generation learners and there are many things about studying and schooling that are alien to them and their families. M. V. Foundation’s camps have succeeded in bringing them into school. One of the methods has been the use of children’s own language with content drawn from their lives - for the initial two months - then gradually moving onto standard prescribed texts.
A great amount of learning material - stories, songs, riddles, and anecdotes - all articulated by these children are printed and used as education material. To print these in relatively small numbers for immediate use, the flat-bed duplicator was used. A topic discussed in class on a particular day was available on the following in print – as worksheets, as reading material, as part of the child’s own growing textbook - a collective creation of the entire class. This helped tremendously in creating a live, interactive teaching-learning environment. Even children given to roaming free and wild felt at home with a hitherto alien activity of disciplined application.
Cyclostyling Machine vs. Flat-Bed Duplicator
What does this duplicator have to recommend for itself as against the cyclostyling machine?
1. Investment: A very basic and functional duplicator of this kind can be self made at a very low cost
2. Print Order: I have managed to print 200 copies off a stencil. After which, the stencil developed wrinkles. A commercial shop in Harda has used it to print 1000 copies off a single stencil (hats off to them!). That speaks of the range and scope for developing the skill.
3. Working together: The best part I like about using this duplicator is that it provides a very nice opportunity to chat with a friend. It takes two to print with the FBD easily. At a pinch, one can do it alone
4. User control: Better alignment adjustments are possible with FBD. There is less scope for making that kind of a shift in the cyclostyling machine.
5. Designing according to need: There is scope for making variations in the design and improving the design. Philip has tried a few. As more people use it and work on it the designs will get better.
A Dream
Once, while working with an NGO, I had a dream that every community worker, working with 5 villages, should have a duplicator and print a newsletter for the five villages in the local language with the involvement of local people.
Most NGOs bring out their newsletter in English. It is sad that the experiences they gain by interacting with people are written in another language and made inaccessible to them.
The flat-bed duplicator has great potential in making printing democratic.
You may write to me if you need help in learning to use the flat-bed duplicator.
Post Script:
This article was written in the mid nineties. Technologically, computers and photocopiers are common place today. However, its relevance may reestablish as application of low cost appropriate technologies could become a necessity in the near future.
-T. Vijayendra.
Reference
Low-Cost Printing for Development, Vol. 2., By Jonathan Zeitlyn, Published by Cendit, C1 Soami Nagar, New Delhi 110 017
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