Editor's Note: The email below was forwarded to IRgA from reprographics veteran Joel Salus. We felt it was interesting enough to share with other IRgA members, and Mr. Khalil, the writer, agreed. If you would like to respond to Mr. Khalil, write to the email under his name below.
Dear Mr. Joel Salus,
My family owns a diazo coating factory in Egypt. We are the second oldest in the country, founded in 1949. As in so many parts of the world, the reprographic industry died in our country and we have not coated a "meter" of paper in over 8 years.
We have moved on and we are working in industrial chemicals. However, our coating machine is taking up space in our factory and my desire to uninstall it has been with me for a very long time. I just cannot push myself to make that final decision.
If we do remove it, we would sell it as scrap which is a complete shame. It is a 1976 Andrews-Knowlten two sink coating machine. It is in excellent condition. I thought of donating it to a museum but, from your blog, I discovered that there aren't any museums for the reprographic industry.
The reason for my communicating with you is two-fold. First, is there any place which you know of that can take it and use it for any purpose? Second, can it be converted to any other type of coating/sensitizing or "useful" purpose? (I have not looked in this point, admittedly, but you may know off hand.)
I do not want any money for it. Only the transportation/shipping should be the responsibility of the recipient.
I await your response at your earliest convenience.
Kind regards.
Maged Khalil
Maged_Khalil (at) hotmail.com