The Gestetner Company was named after David Gestetner who invented a duplicating machine in the 1800s. Over the years various types of duplicating machines appeared. The company had a large factory in Broad Lane Tottenham which employed several thousand people including myself at one time. The means of copying by an electric duplicating machine saw the company moving away from older models as the marketplace had been taken over by ones from Japan. By then it was too late, and the company closed its Tottenham factory in the late 1970s. In 1995 the international Gestetner Company, and its brand, was acquired by the Richo company of Japan.
