The post below is a little tale of a bloke and his experience with typing, computers and typewriters. Not necessarily in that order.
But before I get to the post about gibberish here my two cents on travel typewriters: One of the best travel typewriters ever made is the Olivetti Lettera 22. A fantastic design including lots of functionality. The German made Princess 300 is a great machine, as well, but it ages even worse than the Italian. Although it has limited functionality compared to the two mentioned above, the best manual travel typewriter is the Hermes Baby. I have three of these things made prior to the end of the ’50s and they all work as though they were new. I guess the Swiss made typewriters like they make watches.
Here and here an example of my work on various manuals. Here and here for more scans of really bad typing.
More two cents: Writing only works “analog” for me. I will use a “word processor” but only after I’ve manually typed most of the text. Then comes OCR – which you’d think the techies could finally get right – and some re-writing. When I get blocked from writing it’s usually when I have to work with electronic technology. I guess I’m an old, stubborn stickler. But I will say this about computers: I never paid attention in school; I can’t spell for shit and grammar…? Please. So there. No matter how much silly nostalgia is in me, no matter how romantic it all sounds, I’m still a product of the technology revolution and dumb-downing.
Yes. Praise the machines of yesteryear and the men and women that didn’t have to give their lives making them.
The thing that gets me tangled up about all this technology stuff is reality… Or lack thereof. Writing on a computer, as convenient as it may be, scares the do-dads out of me because of how easily things disappear. With a push of a button or click here or there it amazes me that the stuff I type into a computer can just go away. There’s something wrong with that.
Maybe that’s why I have so many notebooks filled with really sloppy handwriting. On the other hand, there’s my collection of various manual typewriters. There is nothing like being productive on a manual typewriter.
When I moved to Germany in the late 80s – to fill the gap of leaving an old heavy Royal and a small Smith Corona in the states – I bought a brand new manual (sorry for the bad pic here) AEG Olympia Traveler. I was actually tickled to death to see this thing for-sale in a department store. It cost about 160,- Deutsch Marks – which should have been reason enough to save the store that has since fallen to the whims of German pseudo-free-market-economics. The AEG has done it’s share of work for me but was relegated to being a spare because I wore it out. That’s when I happened across a Olympia SM3 at a flee-market. I think I paid 50,- Marks for it. I ended up using that machine for a few years till the platen wore out. After that I moved on to electric typewriters – most of which I have since thrown out. Needless to say I prefer manual typewriters. I love the feel of them, the touch of them, the smell of them…
Here’s a cool site regarding manual typewriters.
My first experience with a typewriter goes back to high-school (we’re talkin’ seventies here ;-). I took a typing class in the eleventh grade and by the time I graduated I was, I don’t know, something like the second or third best typer (is “typer” a word?) in the entire school. Seriously, I was a guy, I was a jock and… I could type. The typewriters used then were IBM Selectrics – and they are probably the best electric typewriters ever. Even today, when I scan that silly auction website I’m just about that close to gettin’ me a Selectric. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll get over my minimalist, tech-less passion and get homey with a Selectric… Nah. I’d rather have an Underwood Noiseless.
Someone gave me an electric typewriter once.
When I got into college (we’re talking early 80s here) some really nice chick told me that her office was giving away equipment. They were clearing out old stuff to make room for the new-fangled computers. (This was back in the day when the PC Junior was the shit.) My first reaction was, “sure”, I’ll take a free typewriter. And I somehow hoped that what she would eventually bring me was an IBM Selectric. Up to that point I was using the “public” typewriters (again Selectrics) in the basement of the University library to write my stuff. Anywho, the nice chick brought me a huge desk covering typewriter made by Xerox (aghast). I mean this thing was big. It even had an LED screen that ran almost the entire length of the keypad. I thought out loud as I carried the monster from her car to my room, “could you have picked out something that was a bit smaller?” Oh well. You know what they say, even though it was big and cumbersome and loud… Beggars can’t be choosy.
The Xerox monster had everything. Spell check. Thesaurus. It could save I-don’t-know-how-many thousand words and at the push of a button retype them all. It automatically fed the paper and measured margins. It had automated templates for things like resumes and legal documents. It could center text, automatically hyphen and when I needed a tissue to blow my nose, at the push of a button, it would crumble up a standard sheet of paper till it was soft and hand it to me with an R2-D2-like ping. Wow. Even though I hated it’s size and weight… I used that thing to type like a madman. I remember leaving it at a dump before my move to… Europe.
Let’s skip about a decade.
Like all the other lemmings in the western world, I gave in to technology. I bought my first computer in the mid eighties. I remember working on it and feeling funny.
Self 1: (Typing.) What’s that feeling?
Self 2: I don’t know.
Self 1: Do all the words you type feel right?
Self 2: I don’t think so.
Self1: Where’s that old manual typewriter?
Self 2: Oh yeah…
One day I thought, after using computers for so many years at work, in daily life, email, etc., technology is not always good. Oh, how relieved I was when I finally starting using manuals again. Unfortunately, I discovered that storage in a damp German basement didn’t serve the two machines I owned very well. In fact, I was so apologetic that I even offered the machines a bit of wine hoping that would clear-up any rust or other ailment. I also realized at that point that all the flee-markets had disappeared. I found myself immediately searching that silly auction site and low-n-behold…
Check out the links above for posts on the various manuals I’ve collected over the years.
Anywho. As part of my daily routine of writing I often come up with gibberish such as the scans below. The only thing I wish a manual typewriter had is that automatic spell check stuff. I mean, my spelling isn’t really as bad as it looks because, to be frank, I can type faster than any manual can write. Seriously. I have to control my fingers, calm them; the only thing that helps both typewriter and me get through this little quirk is to drink lots of Tuscan wine. But that’s just a small part of why I’m (Worst)Writer. If you care to have a look and can over-look all the typing errors, I particularly like ‘D’ from the pics below and the thoughts of AE (Albert Einstein) who has been in my (worst)writing mind a lot for the past year…
-tgs-
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February 24, 2007 at 1:40 am |
I did not know that typewriters were still sold in 1991. No wonder that the department store did not make it. :-)
February 24, 2007 at 10:56 am |
Comment update:
After doing some Internet research on manual typewriters I found out that the AEG Olympia Traveler Deluxe typewriter mentioned half-way through this post (the bad pic) is no longer made. Go figure! I was also incorrect in saying that it was made in Hungary. It was made in Yugoslavia. Production stopped sometime in the late 80s.
Original comment:
Believe it or not, I think the AEG typewriter pictured in the middle of the article is still being made somewhere in Hungary. They sell them to the Chinese market mostly and you can still get one in Germany through special order. The Olympia in the banner is only available through some luck. -tgs-
March 27, 2007 at 12:08 am |
Cool Site! kabababrubarta
April 24, 2007 at 6:43 pm |
Thanks for the “Machine” post. I can also still remember most of the typewriters I worked on, starting with a smallish Triumph Gabriele in 1972 (my parents’). Hard on the fingers. … Rented a Selectric to type my thesis and that was PARADISE. I ended up renting it for another few months after the thesis was done. Hardly affordable on my student budget. After that I had mostly Olivettis – sleek and black electronics that were lots of fun until they were mercilessly replaced by PCs.
January 11, 2008 at 12:28 pm |
Hello, Nice to meet a typewirter lover. I have stayed up late reading it.
I felt cheated when the typewriter I got for graduation was plastic and not anything like the Remmington 1948 No5 that my mother wrote with (and would not let me touch often.) It was like comparison of my Honda Civic to her 1960 convertable T-Bird.
Why did every thing have to be plastic, and smell funny?
I now have 9 typewriters. I had 11 typewriters but i sold two typewriters to teens on my island who are pushing the envelope in the reverse direction, and closing the gap
between keyboard and printer and unplugging from the electric ( smaller foot print of carbon and waste.)
Ihad a late 1960’s model of the R,C Allen. I was writing a novel. I was so in love with the Allen . Then my ex dropped it off the back porch and became my ex. In a rash search to mend my heart: my ex- following intution walked up to a complete stranger and asked “Do you have a type writer for sale?” The 70 year old woman indeed had a typewriter: a l958 olympia. that she was planning on selling in a garage sale the next day. Then came:
a white Royal made in Holland in a black leather case; a Wizard made by Brother in Japan ( totally metal in new condition in a two tone leather case; a Boots (made in Korea-more plastic,tiny and black with clips that break quickly and can be reglued;
A gold plated Royal 1948 once owned by a famous singer ; a matte brown Smith -Corona Clipper re-emerging from my storage locker from graduate school .(I had bought it for $5 at a second hand store while procrastinating in Corvallis, OR.) iIfound a nice Smith Corona blue 1960’s portable predating the Super Sterling. it has lovely action and can be typed on for hours with out finger tip fatigue. I put this blue SC in the back of my car on my summer trip to North BC. I typed on the Ferrys and met more people than you’d imagine while typing in a quiet corner. I have a Sears Electric from 1970’s that sounds like a machine gun (in perma-storage in my closet);
I bought another recent electric from a writer I admire. ( I hate its daisy wheel sound).
I also have a boxy old black underwood I take sailing with me in case my rode snaps and i lose my anchor. This Underwood after much old works well. It came from a 90 year old man. It is a long carriage and the sound of its keys used to echo off the walls in the telegraph office on the next island over.
None came from Ebay. None replace the Allen. I love each of them in their own way.
Please don’t call me untrue.
My Ex became obessed with typewriters. He now has 6 boxy underwoods, 1 smith corona super sterling, a 1970’s cursive Royal, a Remmington Super silent, A remmington plastic 1970’s, and Two Smith Corona from 40’s- 50’s,and one boxy black Remmington that looks like the underwoods. He also is obsessed with Hermes Rockets. He likes typing on the flat”bathroom scales” . He is on his third novel since November with almost 500 single space pages typed by the single finger “hunt and peck” method.
I used to be in the tech/sci world I had Apples, I had IBM, I had Gates products, I used ( BASIC, DOS UNIX) Linux..you name it. yet I like the sound of the metal keys
over the plastic keyboard click. I perfer to be without the glare of the screen.
I have started maybe 7 novels since July. I have written short stories and non-fiction articles for the paper. I like the quiet ( not disk drive whine).
All the best to you
Mingo
February 20, 2008 at 6:19 am |
Thanks for the great information. Just recently i found a 35 year old maple table at a yard sale for only $11! What a steal huh?Here is a great website i found on redoing cabinets