Carbon Copies.

The quickest and easiest way to make copies of out-going letters and other documents, if typewritten, is to make carbon copies. To make such a copy, place on the desk the page to be written on for the original letter; lay a sheet of carbon, face up, upon this and place another sheet of paper over the carbon. Place in the machine and write as usual. By adding more sheets of, first, the carbon paper and then the plain paper, as many as five or six fairly plain copies may be made if desired.

The Copying Press.

To make a copy of a pen-written letter, use copying ink. The letter book is a book having thin tissue leaves. Take a blotter the size of one of these leaves and dampen it uniformly. Then open the book to where the copy is to be made and place on the left page a heavy oiled sheet to keep the wet blotter from dampening the last copy.

On this place the blotter and turn the next tissue page down over it. Now place the letter face down on this page and over it another oiled sheet. Close the book and place it under pressure in the press.

Roller copiers, in which dampened paper and the original copy are passed between rubber rolls, are an improvement over the book copier. There is quite a saving in time, and the copies so made may be filed. It copies almost instantly. Remove the book, open it and remove the original letter, peeling it from the damp page of the book carefully, so as not to blot it. Allow it a few seconds to dry and it is ready to mail. Invoices are often copied in this way.

By using a copying ribbon on the typewriter, a typewritten paper may be copied in the same way, but the paper must remain under pressure for a longer time-from one to two minutes. As the original copy is always more or less blurred after being copied, it is usually preferable, in typewriting, to make the carbon copy.

The Mimeograph.

This is a machine for duplicating typewritten work where many copies are wanted. Place on the desk a sheet of thin tissue paper; on this lay the stencil sheet of waxed paper; on this place a sheet of thin silk; over this lay a sheet of heavy oiled paper. Remove the ribbon from the typewriter, see that the type are clean, and insert the papers. The tissue sheet prevents the wax of the stencil sheet from clogging the type; the stencil sheet has the form of the

letters cut out by the bare type; the silk back of it takes up the wax cut out of the stencil sheet by the type, and the heavy oiled sheet protects the platen, or rubber roll, of the typewriter. The keys must be struck with more than ordinary force to get a good stencil.

After the copy is made on the stencil, remove it from the machine and place it face down in the mimeograph frame and clamp it down. Put some ink on the slate and, after it has been spread out evenly by the inking roller, lay a sheet of paper under the frame, run the roller over the diaphragm, and the ink, going through the perforations in the stencil, will print on the paper underneath. With a good stencil, several hundred copies may be made in this way.

The Neostyle.

This machine is operated very much like the mimeograph, except that it is designed for reproducing pen work. It has a zinc plate on which the stencil sheet is placed. With a pen having at its point a tiny wheel, like a miniature cog-wheel, the copy is written on the stencil; the cogs on the wheel make tiny punctures in the stencil sheet through which the ink passes when the roller is run over it.

There are other duplicating machines, among which may be mentioned the rotary mimeograph, with which copies may be made more rapidly than on the one described; and the hectograph, in which a gelatine surface moistened with glycerine is written on. Paper placed upon this will take an impression.

GENERAL COMPOSITION

LESSON LIX.

The business man or woman is often called upon to write something besides letters, advertisements and contracts.

There are several magazines and journals devoted to explaining office methods and systems or designed to aid the bookkeeper, the stenographer, the clerk, the salesman, etc. Contributions to these papers come almost wholly from business men and women. They afford a medium for the exchange of ideas. They explain laborsaving devices, contain articles from people in active business telling what they expect from their employes, how they handle certain accounts in different lines of business, etc.

When writing an article of such a nature it is well to outline first the different points you wish to make; then place them in the order in which you wish to write about them, and determine approximately the space you can give to each.

Avoid the use of long sentences, and also avoid, as much as possible, the use of the personal pronoun.

Never write for the sake of filling space. Unless a person knows a great deal more about his subject than he can possibly tell in the space given him, he does not know enough about it to write at all. In the following exercises, if your information and experience do not enable you to meet the requirements of the work, then learn more about the things you are asked to write about before you undertake the work. If necessary, go into some office and ask about the work. If they know why you want information, you will find in almost every case that they will treat you courteously and answer your inquiries. However, with the bookkeeping, shorthand and typewriting work you have had in school up to this point in your course, you will probably have no difficulty in the following exercises.

Be definite and exact in your statements and descriptions. Avoid using the same expression over and over; vary the wording, sometimes, to express even the same idea.

Give especial attention to punctuation, paragraphing, penmanship and neatness.

(Note. The teacher should assign one of the following to the class, or part may take one and part the other exercise.)

Exercise 1.

Write an article of 350 to 600 words giving your views on the tendencies of modern bookkeeping and mentioning any changes in methods that have come to your notice. As a part of this article, state with exactness how you would change a set of books from single to double entry.

Exercise 2.

State in an article of 350 to 600 words the chief qualifications of a bookkeeper for a commercial or manufacturing business. As a part of this article, give a detailed description of all the books you would recommend for a large commission house selling both its own goods and goods received on consignment.

Exercise 3.

State in an article of 350 to 600 words the necessary qualifications of a bookkeeper in a business house. As a part of this article, show the use of a sales ledger and i's relations to other books, and also show what use you would make, in this connection, of a cash-book having four money columns on each page, in an establishment that both allows and receives trade discount.

Exercise 4.

State in an article of 350 to 600 words the necessary general and special qualifications of a bookkeeper in a business house. As a part of this article, describe explicitly the set of books you would recommend for a jobbing firm buying from a few large dealers, but selling to a great number of customers, giving time paper which the firm gets discounted at the bank. Be very careful in describing the cash-book.