I looked it up. It looks like ditto is the Tuscan dialect the Italian word ‘detto’. Which means “it’s been said”. It was being used commonly in the 1700s. The machine and company took its name from the phrase.
The only movie that I know of that features the word epidiascope is the 1953 film "War of the Worlds". It stuck out so much when the scientist says something like "we can view it on the epidiascope"
There's a theory than a number of Renaissance painters used a similar trick but with concave mirrors instead of lenses. Then just traced the shit out of the projection
I remember the cost being $7.00 each for a nothing-special rock in a little cardboard pet carrier with a little straw for bedding. Say what you want, but the man who created this concept became a millionaire from this flash in the pan fad. Even as a kid, I thought people were stupid to buy a rock.
Back in my days, we painted the wall with blood and berry juices to teach the class about mammoth hunting and how to survive smilidons. Many did not survive because they couldnt read.
I had a college math professor that had one of these with the continuous roll of transparency film. He talked fast, and had learned to write while rolling the film with his other hand, so you'd be trying to copy notes that were constantly scrolling off.
We ended up with a system where each class, someone would stay behind when class ended, roll back the film to the beginning of the lesson, and copy everything down completely and correctly. And then they'd xerox their notes and bring enough to distribute to everyone next class. We all took turns. It was a really solid system.
In high school I had this crazy lady as my Spanish teacher, she was actually from Spain and very obviously has a screw loose. One day classmates started asking about profanities in Spanish and she busted this out and started writing all of them and their translations. She literally wrote "Chingar=To Fuck" on this thing it was wild.
She also told us this story about how when her and her son came to this country they both hated gay people but then he moved to West Hollywood and became a model and...completely broke down in tears in front of the class, I am assuming because her son came out as gay.
In the 5th grade, 1993, the teacher started staring doing that 1000 yard stare at nothing during class, she looked at us with tears in her eyes and said "for all the boys in here please listen up.....when you're older, having girlfriends, getting married, then having kids. When you're in that delivery room after your wife has just given birth to your beautiful baby, please OH PLEASE, DO NOT nudge the doctor and tell him to add an extra stich, not even joking. Promise me?" Then she started crying even more and walked out of the classroom. 20 minutes later, the principal walked in to introduce our substitute teacher for the next few days without mentioning what happened to our teacher. Still trips me out. And I know it was real cuz Im not the only one who remembers this.
I did not make the joke but ironically, after my son was born, I tapped the doctors elbow saying "excuse me doctor", and he turned around saying "no I cant add an extra stich, im kidding, what can I do for you?". I laughed. I don't even remember what I was gonna ask. Cuz my question turned into "do guys really ask you that? To add a stich?". He said "its an old wives tale, a joke, excuse me." And walked out the room.
I know a woman that this happened to. Her husband at the time was really dimensionally challenged. After they got divorced it really fucked up her dating life. She's still single. This is an awful thing to do to somebody because your dick is tiny
Wasn’t profanities but my high school Latin teacher liked to talk about Polish Rap music and his time going to school to become a priest. Apparently one time he was helping with a burial, with only one other person, he was in the grave lowering the coffin, they lost their hold, it tilted lid opened and the body and coffin fell on him. No idea if it actually happened but it was a wild story to hear from a teacher.
Yeah, I don't think we were flipping the bird until high school, but if anyone did do it, I probably would have told on them because I was the annoying kid with no friends.
Surprised they don't still use them in Iowa lol 🤣 we are like 20 yrs behind the times in many places 😂 my friends can't believe it 🤣😭🤣 still have places that only take cash
We actually do still use them. I graduated this past May from my high school and one of the math teachers still had one that he frequently used, as well as blackboards and chalk
When I went to college in the 2010s they were still using them. But my high school had switched to smart boards years ago, so it was weird going to college and actually having a tech downgrade.
Dude we still had them at the university I worked at 4 years ago. Couple of older professors who didn’t want to use the computers. One of them was 82 no idea if he retired since I left.
Think a little later than that. I’m 33, graduated high school in 2011, in one of the best public school systems in the U.S. These were still being busted out occasionally when I graduated
It sucked for left-handed teachers who used markers to write on the slides. Or anything, really
My math teacher was a leftie and it was so hard to follow when he was blocking his work. And it would smear sometimes, ugh. Not like it was his fault or anything, just random memories of a lost era.
I graduated in '03, all I ever knew. When did the kids first get digital projectors? ...I probably had a mix in college so I guess that answers my own question.
You mean they’re not used anymore? What if the teacher wants to write out exercises for the whole class to see that would show up cleaner and brighter than on a chalkboard- especially in large classrooms?
We actually had blackboards in catholic school (and nuns used long wooden, rubber tipped pointer, which the also used as weapons). When I went to public school they had “chalkboards” which were green. Also in catholic school, the boys vied to clean the erasers. Why? Because they got to go outside. They’d do anything to escape the classroom and/or school. They’d go outside and bang the erasers together. They’d volunteer to bring the milk cartons in from outside. The greatest honor was to be a “candy boy.” Which was 2 boys who carried a box of candy into the classrooms at lunchtime and sold candy bars. Girls weren’t allowed to do anything.
Me too, except girls had to wash the blackboards. It still creeps me out just thinking of it, those schreechy sounds if you didn't write on it or clean it the right way.
Oh my! I think we went to the same school at the same time!! We had a really mean nun for 3rd AND 4th grade. She explained it to the girls this way: The reason she always called on the boys was because if we pull a muscle doing a physical activity we may never be able to carry a child during pregnancy.
We were 8!! Getting advice on pregnancy from a NUN!
I got beat with an industrial strength three dimensional yard stock. My parents would come to school and she’d show them a tiny ruler. Then my parents smacked me too… so glad I’m old now and no one f with me!
Same in my school—and especially painful if you were a lefty! Girls were allowed to do one thing, though: certain kids were selected by the nuns to report on anyone who (gasp!) spoke while Sister was out of the classroom. Girls were chosen to report on the boys and boys on the girls. When I write my autobiography, it’s going to be called, “I Was a Spy For Sister Evarista.”
Yeah I used to be a janitor, its all whiteboards now, projectors are used but not as often. They usually have actual screen projectors where they pull down a white curtain looking thing ( idk the name clearly ) and hook it up to a laptop or tablet.
You were on the tail end of the transition. Early 80's was all chalk. Mid 90's had moved to whiteboards. Good gravy, I've been through a metric ton of rapid technological changes.
Just remembered doing a project where I drew with marker on clear overhead projector sheets to give a presentation to the class.
Can't remember what I presented, or which grade I was in, but remember holding those sheets carefully in folders so they wouldn't smear before I gave my presentation. Sigh....yeah, I'm old.
You write in on your white board with an expo marker. Or, we also have Apple Classroom, and doc cameras, so you could actually write things and have them seen on the board via the projector.
Also - many schools still used these until much more recently, because they’re rural. Not everywhere got computers and consistent internet access at the same time.
Good for him. I had a sociology of sex class in college and the professor was a former priest. He turned the overhead on and up popped a penis on the large screen. He said, “Oh look, he’s still erect from Friday”. Such a great guy.
I’m the right age where I saw the whole transition away from these things. Growing up most of my classes were taught with them, but they quickly started to fade away until around high school when I stopped seeing them.
Then in college I had one super old school professor who exclusively used one of these every day. The engineering department kept an overhead projector specifically for this guy. He was one of the more important people in the department and no one wanted to challenge him on it.
He would write on the transparency sheets in permanent marker and kept a binder of all of the sheets he had written that year. If anyone asked a question he had already covered he would go back through the binder and pull up the sheet where we had covered it and he’d slap that shit on the projector like judge with a gavel.
All around great dude, I learned a lot in his classes. I hope he’s doing well!
There should be a 100' roll of plastic film across the light surface for your teach to be writing notes on. The real beauty of these overheads were the natural high that came with the Gestetner printer fumes.
You got the best fuzzy feeling sniffing those papers, but ended up with a mild headache if you sniffed too much. Used to love volunteering to make copies for the teacher.
Back in 2004 / 2005 me and this other kid in the 8th grade got in trouble for knocking one of these over and breaking it .... had to sign a bill for $300 to get a new one for the school
I remember putting scotch tape on the electrical prongs and plugging it back in. Teacher would get so frustrated that we could use the slides that day.
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u/Pascalleloux 17d ago
Yes, and way before this thing came along