In addition to Edison’s electric pen the papyrograph existed, a device developed and patented by Eugenio de Zuccato in 1874 for the rapid copying of drawings and documents. The original to be reproduced was written with a sharp pen and a special chemical ink on the unprepared side of a paper whose other side was made waterproof; the ink destroyed the waterproof layer and thereby formed a type of stencil which could be used to make 200—300 impressions by means of a special apparatus in a copying press.1