What is a carbon copy?

The term carbon copy refers to an outdated method of production of an immediate copy of a written or hand -written document. By placing the carbonized paper between two documents, whatever was written or written to the upper sheet was transferred to the lower sheet on the basis of wax carbon between them, which are impressed on the underlying paper.

Copy of carbon was the easiest way to conclude a duplicate contract, application form, sale confirmation or other note. But he had his disadvantages. The carbon paper was chaotic and the creation of more than one copy meant inserting additional carbon sheets between the subsequent sheets of the paper. After the carbon sheet was used once, it was generally fired, resulting in a lot of waste. The reuse of carbon paper could lead to bad copies. It is easy to read by holding the leaf to light and rpřenos. This was particularly problematic for government authorities dealing with sensitive information, but also became a problem where credit cards were used forand transactions with sale. The numbers and signatures were so often stolen that it became customary for customers to ask for a carbon sheet. Electronic "swipe" machines eventually replaced hard kick revenues, eliminating the need for copies of carbon at the point of sale.

Today, a carbon copy is rarely used. Copy machines, as soon as they are expensive, have become affordable and ubiquitous, built into the smallest office machines. In cases where a copy of carbon could still be useful, for example, for off -road repair shops, they provide copy paper without carbon made by chemical processes Copy without interfering with carbon leaves. One example can be seen in personal checks without carbon paper.

Maybe strangely, a permanent heritage of a copy of the carbon is his initials: c.C. are still used at the end of correspondence to indicate when copies are submitted or handed over to other partiesám. In the header of the e -mail "C.C." The field is used to enter the second addressee to send him a "carbon copy" of the original e -mail.