Sitting out bags were essentially wearable sleeping bags, and could be used by students at open air schools who were taking their lessons in chilly weather. They accompanied the early 20th century open air school movement-an outdoor education initiative which was started to improve students’ health, specifically to protect against tuberculosis. Sitting-out bags were a strange and short-lived school supply. But many students from the ‘60s fondly remember the distinct aroma, cool feeling, and distinct purple haze of papers fresh off the ditto machine-an experience the students of today are missing out on.
The machines worked by using a solvent to dissolve the wax on the back of the ditto master during its creation. The predecessor of the copy machine, the Spirit Duplicating Machine (more commonly called the Ditto) was a small, inexpensive printing press invented in 1923 and used by students and teachers through the early 1980s to print everything from school newspapers to tests and worksheets. The process of dipping the pens into an inkwell, and making sure not to smudge or stain paper while writing, ensured that handwriting was more precise. But dip pens, which have no internal reservoir of ink, also fostered better penmanship. These may seem less practical than today’s writing utensils-they’re messier and more cumbersome to be sure.
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