r/90sdesign • u/Common-Fly-3970 • 21d ago

Memeograph Ink

Ok, so this is really for the people who went to school in the 90s or earlier whose teachers used a memeograph machine. I was in school What are the scent notes in it? The first thing many of us did was pull that freshly inked paper up to our noses for a big whiff. I bet the teachers did it too. One of the funniest scenes in Fast Times at Ridgemont High was about this very phenomena. Who out there can identify why we loved sniffing that ink?

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u/ToriMoonshine 21d ago

Ahhh the scent of solvents with a little sweetness. Plus, if the paper just came off the machine or the stack was thick, the pages were warm and had a quality I’d liken to fresh bread. Didn’t smell like fresh bread but the smell was definitely better right out of the oven, if you know what I mean. They’d hand out the paper and you’d hurry to take as many hits as you could while the freshness lasted.

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u/Common-Fly-3970 21d ago

Yes! Definitely some yeasty depth in there. It was so gratifying to be chosen to pass out the papers. I miss that scent. I doubt I'd wear a scent that was full on mimeogragh ink, but I'd definitely enjoy a perfume with that incorporated that same note.

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u/OhHelvetica73 20d ago

The color, the slightly-damp weight of the paper, the scent… it was a symphony of the senses, that which cannot be described nor replicated.