Nowadays, with computers and printers you can print off as many copies off of a document as you like (paper supply and toner depending of course). However, what about in the days when documents were created on typewriters? If a copy was needed did you have to type the document twice?
No of course not, you used carbon paper. These were sheets of (basically) ink which you inserted between a couple of sheets of paper and then loaded into the typewriter. When the hammer hits the top sheet (through the ribbon) the impact also makes a mark on the bottom sheet. By magic you now have two copies of the document, one to send to the client and the other to languish in a grey filing cabinet.
I bought some carbon paper and had a play with it using my Silver-Reed SEVENTY. I think my copy needs only to be filed in the shredder. Carbon copy paper is not used so much these days with typed documents (though is used elsewhere such as on written order sheets) but the term has survived into the computer age. When you "CC" someone into an e-mail you are "carbon copying" them in. And everyone loves receiving those copies don't they?
