By the end of the ’twenties, the League staff had duplicated more than ten million sheets of paper — about a million pages a year.
It is doubtful whether the League of Nations could have functioned without the invention of the duplicating machine which came to be commonly known by the company name of Roneo or Gestetner.
It was introduced into office work in 1899. It was a rotary duplicating machine using a wax stencil cut on a typewriter without the ribbon, or by hand, using a pointed steel stylus.
The stencil was stretched over a perforated drum and ink was supplied by a roller inside the drum as it was rotated.
As a sheet of paper was fed through in contact with the drum, an impression of the work cut onto the stencil was transferred to the paper.
The turn of the handle produced one copy.
This process was necessary to allow the circulation of multiple copies in an organisation. To print the copies using a printing press would have been too expensive and would have taken too long.
Before the duplicating machine, the original document from which copies were to be made was produced by ink to which had been added sugar or gum. A wet tissue was pressed onto the original.
From this developed the letterpress, where a strong aniline ink was used and the impression transferred by hand pressure to a tray of gelatine. Again, impressions could be made of the original by pressing damp paper onto the gelatine.
Carbon paper was then developed, which allowed up to six copies.
But the duplicating machine was perfect for an organisation the size of the League because a wax stencil could give up to 1,000 copies in a couple of hours.
Later heavy-duty stencils were developed which could give up to 5,000 copies without wearing out.