Typewriters

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#1 Post by **AlphaKilo470** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 9:48 pm

This topic popped into my head mainly because I was bored but does anyone out there still use typewriters? I used to see them everywhere at school and in various offices even up until the late nineties but it seems they are finally starting to disappear. I have an IBM Correcting Selectric II (circa december 1981) sitting on my desk that I got from an esate sale earlier this year and I can still easily find accessories and parts at Office Depot but other than that and a few other places, I rarely see typewriters or anything that has to do with them. I guess it's technology moving on but still, I don't think that the efficiency and convenince of a truely dedcated machine will ever be 100% replaced. I've still yet to have a speed decrease or a blue screen on my Selectric II. My Selectric also has THE BEST keyboard I've ever typed on as well. I don't know if I'd rather type on it or a computer with IBM's old Model M keyboard attached.

Well, with this totoally off topic post (hey, I guess I picked the perfect place for it) out of my way now, I guess if anyone has any thoughts or opinions here, post them.

bhtooefr · #2 Post by **bhtooefr** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 11:21 pm

I've used a Brother GX series typewriter (forget the model) last year for some stuff when I didn't want to bother firing up the Dell...

Worked great (and it had minimal WP capabilities, so I could actually USE the thing...)

#3 Post by **AlphaKilo470** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 12:34 am

I just had to take my Selectric apart to fix a misaliged roller. Now she works almost like new but still, being 24 years old, despite the fact that she's clean as a whistle, she's probably far overdue for a chemical bath and overhaul. I just don't know of any places that service these things and I wouldn't want to pay more than 20 or 30 bucks for the operation.

#4 Post by **BillMorrow** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 1:47 am

[misc. ruminations]
i picked up an IBM Wheelwriter from a tenant a few years ago.. $5..
(he was a mover and stored misc. junque in a storefront i own)

i also had a correcting selectric-II and the final selectric electronic..
both were the best (and only) typewriters i had ever owned..

if i could find one i would pack it away in preservative and bury it in the yard for future generations to dig up..

i would also love to find a TTY KSR or ASR with a serial connection so i could park it in the living room to chatter aimlessly (tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, ding, ziippp clunk, tick, tick, tick, tick, etc., ad inf.) since the background sound is, amazingly, sort of soothing..

but alas, now we [censored] about the fan noise (overstated?) and other trivial nonsense..

no one uses typewriters anymore because a computer does it better and cheaper..

[end misc. ruminations]

EatMorGlue · #5 Post by **EatMorGlue** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 2:56 pm

BillMorrow wrote: no one uses typewriters anymore because a computer does it better and cheaper..

Ain't that the truth. I just recently dug up my parent's correcting Selectric II (still stored in its original box!), and it's about as old as I am. It hadn't been used in probably a decade, and once I set it up and fed it some paper, it kept right on like it never missed a beat.

It's louder than hell, even when it's "idle," but I do like the sound. There's something romantic and anachronistic about it, plus if you really get on a roll it's like there's a stadium cheering you on to keep typing. Hey, I was never great at sports, so I'll take what I can get.

But, [censored] word processors for spoiling me! Changing fonts isn't a mechanical process. Italics are a highlight and a click away. And even with a correcting typewriter, it's so much faster and easier to correct a typo on a computer, let alone revise and edit large chunks of text.

But still, I tip my hat to the days when cutting and pasting was meant literally.

#6 Post by **AlphaKilo470** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 3:42 pm

if i could find one i would pack it away in preservative and bury it in the yard for future generations to dig up.. Smile

Don't worry too much, just make sure the typewirter doesn't get too dusty (keep the dust cover (if you have one) on when not in use and dust regularly with a feather duster or a dry rag) and see to it the typewriter gets a chemical bath and a tune up whenever something goes wrong or ten years has gone by since the last tune up, whichever comes first.

Also, to anyone looking at buying a used Selectric, make sure it has a high serial number. The Selectric I's were built from 59 or 60 to the early 70's, the Selectric II from the early 70's to early 80's and Selectric III in the early to mid 80's so for a I or II, you can have up to a ten year difference between two typewriters of the same model. I'm pretty sure that my Selectic II is one of the last ones produced before the Selectric III took over completely because it's datestamped on the inside December 1981.

Also, for a company, it's cheaper and easier to give everyone computers but for an individual, it's nice to have something that won't slow over the years and won't give blue screens. Also, with typewriters, all they can do is type. Whether or not the typewriter is cheaper and easier as opposed to a PC really boils down to what you need to do and how you want to do it. However, it's probably cheaper nowadays for a company to manufacture a computer than a typewriter. Circuit boards as opposed to moving parts is almost always cheaper to assemble.

#7 Post by **BillMorrow** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 3:22 am

the selectric mechanism started out life as a computer printout device..
a terminal if you wich..
not a glass TTY but a TTY device of a sort..

my first experience with a computer printer was an old (in 1975) selectric mech that spoke a language called EBSIDIC (or similar)..
something that ibm invented and which had no similiarity to anything else.. least of all ASCII..

so i spent about a month with it in the middle of the living room trying to get to to talk ASCII through a conversion utility on my S100 computer (an IMSAI 8080) and i never had any success..
finally sold it and thereby discovered a small business..
buy these old selectric things which were mounted in a desk for $50 each, truck them across santa clara, sell the mech to a typewriter shop, truck the desk to palo alto and sell it there and make about $50 or so on each..
which in those days was a deal, especially when i was dealing with a load of about 1 dozen at a time, three times a week for a month or two..

so, knock not typewriters or finding a little deal to make a little bread..
(bread, a hippie term meaning money

)

#8 Post by **AlphaKilo470** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 6:35 pm

Typewriters can still be a pretty profitable business if you know how to repair and set them up if you know the right people because we still have a great number of old people from the computer age on this Earth that either don't need/want a computer and/or are utterly afraid of computers. Even though the new typewriter market is for the most part gone, the users probably won't dissapear for another decade or two and that leaves plenty of time to squeeze some last bits of money out of the repair and remarket segment of the marketplace.

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