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| Company type | Defunct |
|---|---|
| Industry | Graphic Arts Equipment |
| Founded | Chicago,Illinois, United States, 1883[1] |
| Founder | Albert Blake Dick |
| Defunct | July 2004 |
| Headquarters | Niles,Illinois, United States |
Key people | Albert Blake Dick, Founder Albert Blake Dick Jr., second president A. B. Dick III, third president Karl Van Tassel, president John C. Stetson, president Ed Suchma final president and CEO |
| Revenue | $268.62 million (1998 est.) |
Number of employees | about 900, mid-1930s[2] about 1,200 in 1996 |
| Website | http://www.abdick.com/ |
TheA. B. Dick Company (later stylized asABDick) was a major American manufacturer of copy machines and office supplies in the late 19th century and 20th century.
The company was founded in 1883[1] inChicago as a lumber company byAlbert Blake Dick (1856 – 1934). It soon expanded into office supplies and, after licensing key autographic printing patents fromThomas Edison, became the world's largest manufacturer ofmimeograph equipment (Albert Dick coined the word "mimeograph").[3] The company introduced the Model 0 Flatbed Duplicator in 1887.[4] Later on, the flatbed duplicators were replaced by devices using a rotating cylinder with automatic ink feed. Basic models were hand-cranked while more elaborate machines used an electric motor.[4]
The company had a new headquarters built in 1926, the building at 728 West Jackson now called Haberdasher Square Lofts, and remained there until their move to suburbanNiles in 1949.[5]
AB Dick model 350 and 360 small duplicator presses, paired with Itek Graphix plate makers, were instrumental in the beginnings of instant or "quick" printing shops that proliferated between the 1960s and 1980s. These early plate makers first used paper plates and later used polyester plates made by Mitsubishi. They revolutionized plate making for small press printers with the introduction of digital plate makers in the early 1990s. A. B. Dick also produced machines using the competingspirit duplicator technology. Starting in the 1960s,xerography began to overtake A. B. Dick's older mimeograph technology.[2]
John C. Stetson was president of A. B. Dick when he was appointedSecretary of the Air Force in 1978.[6]
In 1979, the company was acquired by the BritishGeneral Electric Company (not to be confused with the American company General Electric).[2] In the early 1980s, following this acquisition, A. B. Dick was involved withGEC Computers in the design of the ill-fatedGEC Series 63minicomputer.[7]
In 1988, the company acquired Itek Graphix, a leading manufacturer of plate-makers for duplicators (small formatoffset presses). By the late 1990s, A. B. Dick was a division of the Nesco company ofCleveland.[2]
The company filed for bankruptcy in 2004, and its assets were acquired by Presstek, a manufacturer ofprepress products.[8] Presstek sold its ABDick division to Mark Andy, Inc. in 2013. Mark Andy continues (as of 2024) to market products under the ABDick brand.
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