Trust Your Typewriter Senses!

 

Patiently Waiting for an Electric Typewriter

Fixing Dad's Typewriter...or...who broke this machine?

Who bent these linkages?

My father takes his typewriter off to college in 1956

Meditations of My Typewriter Heart

Sent from my 1940's Smith-Corona "Silent" Speedliner

It's Not My Fault

BTW - This Machine is NOT for Sale :-)

What's in a machine?

Be the Machine

You'll enjoy the two blog posts I am referencing:
Joe Van Cleave's "Word Whittling" (Sorry for the misspelling of your name in my typecast!)
Richard Polt's "These Machines Saved Me"

Typewriters & Notebooks in Middle School

The librarian at the middle school next to me asked if her students could use my typewriters for their NaNoWriMo project this year.  I said yes in a heartbeat and learned so much about the tools students pick for their writing.

Is a Typewriter the Best Tool?

Going my way?

The Hunt

Postscript:

I did fix those key tops.  Turns out that the 30's and 40's Smith-Coronas did not have celluloid or glass on the key tops.  Instead, the letter for each key is printed on some sort of vinyl-like plastic.  Fortunately, the keys from the Speedline were a perfect match for the Standard.

Also, please excuse the typos in my typecast.  I guess that's what comes from excitedly typing on a park bench.  In any event, the image has been scanned and there's no going back.

Guest Typewriter from Turkey

What I learned about languages just by looking at a Turkish typewriter

Article by Marcin Wichary

From the House of Cards

The Olympia SF: Schreibmaschine "Fixable"

The description of this Olympia on the auction site was honest. It said that the keys would not depress and the carriage kept moving all the way to the left. What I didn't know is that it had taken a very hard knock to the rear and the sheet metal was quite bent. Here is what it looked like when I first took a look at it.

I was pleasantly surprised that the sheet metal comes off a SF very easily, exposing its well built aluminum frame.  As I said in my typecast, simply moving a spring on the lever that engaged the escapement ratchet did the trick for the carriage and keys.  I heated up the sheet metal a bit and was able to form it enough to make the typewriter function and look presentable.  

I really like the way this littlest Olympia types and I'm quite pleased that my under $50 gamble on a "broken" machine turned out so well.

A Brother from the Same Mother

I can definitely see the appeal of these early Brother typewriters. They are full featured and type really well. Growing up in the 70's myself, this little typewriter and its cardboard/vinyl case reminded me of the toys and transistor radios that also came from Japan at that time.  Though this typer is far from a toy, I'm still holding out for a Valiant or Deluxe!

Typewriter Required for Graduate Course!

I hope that the typosphere can spread the word on this course.  If you can visit Vermont in the spring it would be great.  I am flexible though and ANYONE who can gain access to a vintage typewriter can take the online portion of the course.  I can work something out for those of you who cannot make it to Vermont.  You will notice by reading the syllabus that one of the required texts for the course is Richard Polt's The Typewriter Revolution.  This course will be a blast!

Register and get more information at the Castleton Center for Schools.

Story Teller

I was contacted by a gentleman who had sought me out last fall to find a typewriter for his father.  His father is ninety-five years old and wanted to have a typewriter for his writing.  His family had first gotten him a Royal Epoch which worked for a while but soon failed him with its flimsy construction.  The Epoch is clearly a machine not built to withstand the typing of a nonagenarian. His son found my blog while searching for a genuine typewriter and I hooked him up with a 1950's Smith-Corona Sterling, which his father loved.  The only problem was the Sterling's elite type.  Not the best for ninety-five year old eyes.  He contacted me again to ask if I had a machine with pica type.  Fortunately, I had just gotten a hold of this 1961 Olivetti Studio 44.  After a bit of cleaning, it was on its way to the man's father who will use the machine to type stories from his lifetime.  This has been such a lovely turn of events.  As you can see from the service decal on the Olivetti, this typewriter has its own stories to tell as it traveled from the factory in Spain, to Berkeley, California in the 1960's (There have to be some stories there!) to an elderly man in New England writing his life stories.  Who knows, perhaps he went to college in California!

Lovers of Words and Things Mechanical