The Typewriter (1868-2011)
starfish
THERE are I know not many occasions when sympathy is due to a
journalist but perhaps this morning a few commiserations might not go
amiss.The last ever manual typewriter has come off the assembly line.
The sole remaining maker Godrej and Boyce ceased production and closed
its factory in Mumbai, India. No hack however hard-bitten will not
have felt a small pang of nostalgia. It is many years now since most
newspapermen have slipped a piece of paper into a typewriter’s roll or
inadvertently stained their fingers with its ribbon ink and yet the
machine has remained, at least while it was still in production, a
spiritual part of our make-up.It was what the Tommy gun was to the
gangster: an unofficial badge of office.
The picture of a scribbler at his machine, from Ernest Hemingway to
the Daily Express’s own Frederick Forsyth, remains a visual cliché.
Its clattering noise is the singular sound of the 20th century office
while its ring for the carriage return can be recollected exactly by
anyone over the age of 40. And now it has been relegated to the
dustbin of history.
“There was not enough demand to keep the factory going,” said the
general manager of Godrej and Boyce. “We now have only 200 English
models left for sale and that will be the end. It is a very sad day.”
But while journalists mourn the final tap of the machine that built so
many of their careers and ruined others – one hack I knew was fired
for chucking his typewriter at the head of a colleague, which missed
and instead smashed through the second floor window into Fleet Street
– it is perhaps women who should also dab a moist eye at its final
demise. The typewriter allowed many women to enter the workplace for
the first time. In 1901 there were 166,000 female clerks, 50 years
earlier there had been none. The new employees (called type-writers
rather than clerks) were accused of stealing jobs from men, depressing
wages and sexually tempting the boss but that said the mechanical
wordsmith did more for female emancipation than any number of
suffragettes falling under racehorses.
It was the American newspaperman Christopher Scholes who invented the
first modern typewriter in 1868, although the idea of a writing
machine “for impressing or transcribing of letters one after the
other” had been patented by Englishman Henry Mill 150 years earlier.
Since Mill there had been the typo-writer and the Hansen writing ball,
a bronze half sphere covered with keys. But it was Scholes’
typewriter, which typed only in capital letters, that was truly
revolutionary. Most early typewriter keys jammed if they were used by
a quick typist because the letters that were commonly used were too
close together. Scholes and his business associate James Densmore
suggested splitting up the keys to solve the problem and came up with
the QWERTY keyboard, or universal keyboard as it is sometimes known.
It has been with us ever since. It is still the keyboard on all
English language computers and mobile phones even though there is no
necessity for it any more.
The computer has now seen off the typewriter as surely as the
wristwatch did for the sundial but there are still enthusiasts.
Freddie Forsyth for example still uses a typewriter for his novels and
columns. “I like to see black words on white paper rolling up in front
of my eyes,” he says. And he still has the steelcased portable he used
as a foreign correspondent in the Sixties. “It had a crease across the
lid, which was done by a bullet in Biafra. It didn’t need power, it
didn’t need batteries and it didn’t need recharging.”
Claire Askew, a 25-year-old poet, also admits that she writes on and
collects typewriters. “It’s part of my creative process,” she says.
“It’s a nice thing that people can respect old technology and are
still interested in fiddling around with it. The computer and
typewriter can exist happily alongside each other.” But now that co-
existence will have to be with a second-hand typewriter .The machine
that was the unsung star of films such as All The Presidents Men and
Nine To Five, the mechanical device that banged out the greatest works
of 20th-century fiction and was the instrument that brought the news
to the breakfast table is no more. And for that we should all perhaps
have a small blub.
BobF
On Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:29:14 -0700 (PDT), starfish
<ldav...@hotmail.com> shouted from the highest rooftop:
>The computer has now seen off the typewriter as surely as the
>wristwatch did for the sundial but there are still enthusiasts.
My trusty Adler Tippa portable has accompanied me around the world and
I wouldn't ever part with it. But use it? Well ... I tried using it to
type a letter when my printer was on the blink and it turned out to be
a very short letter.
After using an electric typewriter, followed by an electric word
processor followed by nearly 30 years on a computer keyboard, my
fingers no longer have the strength to use my typewriter for
touch-typing.
--
"It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens." - Woody Allen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wax-up and drop-in of Surfing's Golden Years: <http://www.surfwriter.net>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
David Carson
for sale at your local office supply store.
On Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:29:14 -0700 (PDT), starfish <ldav...@hotmail.com>
wrote:
>http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/242938/Typewriter-comes-to-the-end-of-its-ribbon
>
>THERE are I know not many occasions when sympathy is due to a
>journalist but perhaps this morning a few commiserations might not go
>amiss.The last ever manual typewriter has come off the assembly line.
[snip]
Charles Richmond
>
> On Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:29:14 -0700 (PDT), starfish
> <ldav...@hotmail.com> shouted from the highest rooftop:
>
>> The computer has now seen off the typewriter as surely as the
>> wristwatch did for the sundial but there are still enthusiasts.
>
> My trusty Adler Tippa portable has accompanied me around the world and
> I wouldn't ever part with it. But use it? Well ... I tried using it to
> type a letter when my printer was on the blink and it turned out to be
> a very short letter.
>
> After using an electric typewriter, followed by an electric word
> processor followed by nearly 30 years on a computer keyboard, my
> fingers no longer have the strength to use my typewriter for
> touch-typing.
>
Many famous writers, Harlan Ellison included, like to do their
first drafts on a manual typewriter. There is *no* temptation to
go back and correct grammar or spelling... or any of a number of
tempting ways to avoid continuing the writing.
<http://harlanellison.com/interview.htm>
And it seems to me that there is at least one company in China
that manufactures manual typewriters for Olivetti. Take at look at
this one on Amazon.com:
<http://www.amazon.com/Olivetti-MS-25-Plus-Typewriter/dp/B00093IW12>
I think there is also an "office" model, full-sized instead of
portable.
--
+----------------------------------------+
| Charles and Francis Richmond |
| |
| plano dot net at aquaporin4 dot com |
+----------------------------------------+
BobF
On Mon, 25 Apr 2011 22:00:05 -0500, Charles Richmond
<fri...@tx.rr.com> shouted from the highest rooftop:
>On 4/25/11 7:26 PM, BobF wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:29:14 -0700 (PDT), starfish
>> <ldav...@hotmail.com> shouted from the highest rooftop:
>>
>>> The computer has now seen off the typewriter as surely as the
>>> wristwatch did for the sundial but there are still enthusiasts.
>>
>> My trusty Adler Tippa portable has accompanied me around the world and
>> I wouldn't ever part with it. But use it? Well ... I tried using it to
>> type a letter when my printer was on the blink and it turned out to be
>> a very short letter.
>>
>> After using an electric typewriter, followed by an electric word
>> processor followed by nearly 30 years on a computer keyboard, my
>> fingers no longer have the strength to use my typewriter for
>> touch-typing.
>>
>
>Many famous writers, Harlan Ellison included, like to do their
>first drafts on a manual typewriter. There is *no* temptation to
>go back and correct grammar or spelling... or any of a number of
>tempting ways to avoid continuing the writing.
Not that I'm a famous writer, but I know what he's talking about. Even
when I was using an IBM Selectric, the "flow" could be interrupted by
going back to correct errors or use a different word or two. But I'm
so used to a computer keyboard and so unused to a manual typewriter
that I can't imagine being tempted to resurrect my little Adler Tippa
again. Besides, the joints in my old fingers get sore enough after a
long session on a keyboard.
PS - Lord Archer writes his drafts in longhand with a fountain pen.
piks11
> On 4/25/11 7:26 PM, BobF wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:29:14 -0700 (PDT), starfish
>
> >> The computer has now seen off the typewriter as surely as the
> >> wristwatch did for the sundial but there are still enthusiasts.
>
> > My trusty Adler Tippa portable has accompanied me around the world and
> > I wouldn't ever part with it. But use it? Well ... I tried using it to
> > type a letter when my printer was on the blink and it turned out to be
> > a very short letter.
>
> > After using an electric typewriter, followed by an electric word
> > processor followed by nearly 30 years on a computer keyboard, my
> > fingers no longer have the strength to use my typewriter for
> > touch-typing.
>
> Many famous writers, Harlan Ellison included, like to do their
> first drafts on a manual typewriter. There is *no* temptation to
> go back and correct grammar or spelling... or any of a number of
> tempting ways to avoid continuing the writing.
>
I've got a nice Black Royal Deluxe portable from the mid 50's I
think. I keep it around to use it occasionally for old times sake.
Yep, it's screw the spelling and grammar errors and full speed ahead.
I like the noise it makes when I hit the carriage return and the click
clack of the keys. But alas I tire of it quickly and head back to the
laptop. Back in the olden days I traveled here and there with a
Hermes Rocket. I got it because sports writers carried them around on
their assignments and I thought they had to be good because they were
made in Sweden or one of those places. It had a crappy touch and was
certainly no rocket.
Charles Richmond
The Hermes Rocket was made in Switzerland... at least the *good*
ones were! In the late 60's, early 70's, some of them were made
in France and perhaps England, but the quality suffered.
Take a look at one for sale on eBay (*not* my sale):
Louis Epstein
:
: On Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:29:14 -0700 (PDT), starfish
: <ldav...@hotmail.com> shouted from the highest rooftop:
:
:>The computer has now seen off the typewriter as surely as the
:>wristwatch did for the sundial but there are still enthusiasts.
:
: My trusty Adler Tippa portable has accompanied me around the world and
: I wouldn't ever part with it. But use it? Well ... I tried using it to
: type a letter when my printer was on the blink and it turned out to be
: a very short letter.
:
: After using an electric typewriter, followed by an electric word
: processor followed by nearly 30 years on a computer keyboard, my
: fingers no longer have the strength to use my typewriter for
: touch-typing.
I'll never see what I write on a computer as as "serious" as what
I write on my typewriter.
-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.
Louis Epstein
: On Apr 25, 10:00?pm, Charles Richmond <friz...@tx.rr.com> wrote:
:> On 4/25/11 7:26 PM, BobF wrote:
:>
:>
:> > On Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:29:14 -0700 (PDT), starfish
:>
:> >> The computer has now seen off the typewriter as surely as the
:> >> wristwatch did for the sundial but there are still enthusiasts.
:>
:> > My trusty Adler Tippa portable has accompanied me around the world and
:> > I wouldn't ever part with it. But use it? Well ... I tried using it to
:> > type a letter when my printer was on the blink and it turned out to be
:> > a very short letter.
:>
:> > After using an electric typewriter, followed by an electric word
:> > processor followed by nearly 30 years on a computer keyboard, my
:> > fingers no longer have the strength to use my typewriter for
:> > touch-typing.
:>
:> Many famous writers, Harlan Ellison included, like to do their
:> first drafts on a manual typewriter. There is *no* temptation to
:> go back and correct grammar or spelling... or any of a number of
:> tempting ways to avoid continuing the writing.
:>
:
: I've got a nice Black Royal Deluxe portable from the mid 50's I
: think. I keep it around to use it occasionally for old times sake.
One of those is somewhere around but I replaced it
as my "usual" typewriter years and years ago
with an older Corona Silent.
: Yep, it's screw the spelling and grammar errors and full speed ahead.
I use erasable paper and backspace.
: I like the noise it makes when I hit the carriage return and the click
: clack of the keys. But alas I tire of it quickly and head back to the
: laptop. Back in the olden days I traveled here and there with a
: Hermes Rocket. I got it because sports writers carried them around on
: their assignments and I thought they had to be good because they were
: made in Sweden or one of those places. It had a crappy touch and was
: certainly no rocket.
Never had one of those.
Louis Epstein
: Correcting the header. Electric typewriters are still in production and
: for sale at your local office supply store.
I like manuals.I see no point in electrics.
R H Draney
>
>David Carson <da...@neosoft.com> wrote:
>: Correcting the header. Electric typewriters are still in production and
>: for sale at your local office supply store.
>
>I like manuals.I see no point in electrics.
If you were talking about can openers, I'd be right there with you....r
--
Me? Sarcastic?
Yeah, right.
Brad Ferguson
<l...@main.put.com> wrote:
> David Carson <da...@neosoft.com> wrote:
> : Correcting the header. Electric typewriters are still in production and
> : for sale at your local office supply store.
>
> I like manuals.I see no point in electrics.
Of course you don't.
Let's see what you say if you get arthritis.
Louis Epstein
: Louis Epstein filted:
Well,I also feel that way about pencil sharpeners...