↧
A few beauty shots
↧
Revolution in the mailbox: Report from Agent Fox
A properly formatted report from an agent of the Insurgency:
↧
↧
The Typewriter Revolution in The New York Times
I was quoted, with mention of my forthcoming book, in Friday's New York Times.
Thanks to Steve Soboroff, who's also featured in this story, for sending me these shots of the printed edition. The online story is here.
Some facts that you wouldn't know from the story:
1. The typewriter pictured, which I recently added to my collection, is a mystery. It's a prototype portable whose inventor is unknown to me. I'll be writing about it for the fall issue of ETCetera.
2. I was slightly misquoted: instead of saying “ultimately writing about them,” I said “ultimately writing on them.” Let’s not forget they are writing machines!
↧
A mystery commission
I just picked up two Royals for service at The Urban Legend Institute.
My curiosity was really provoked by these instructions (the same for each typewriter):
Four letters were listed.
I called the customer and was enlightened.
I wonder, can any of my readers guess the purpose of this mystery commission?
↧
Title page
↧
↧
Podcast interview on the allure of typewriters
Eson Kim recently interviewed Tom Furrier, The Boston Typewriter Orchestra, and me for her podcast Sound Skeins. She is a pleasure to listen to in this nicely crafted five-minute story.
↧
Typewriters in Madrid
Since it's a Sunday, I went to the Rastro, the street market that sprawls through a good chunk of old Madrid. Hoping to see typewriters, I was not disappointed.
This street poet on a Lettera 22 (or maybe a Pluma 22) asked if I knew California street poet Jacqueline Suskin. Yes! She's in my book.
Some vendors had you know whats for sale.
This Regia was tempting until I figured out that it had been spray painted, and poorly at that.
This French-keyboard Groma had a folding return lever I've never seen before. I suspect it was a later addition.
I almost bought an early Hermes 2000 with Spanish keyboard, offered for €65, but managed to control myself.
Finally I ran into this wonderful little shop that specializes in office antiques.
The owner was very friendly and knows many of the same collectors I do. The shop is at Arganzuela, 29. I recommend it!
↧
Typewriters in Madrid (2)
I'm back from an eventful and interesting trip to Spain. In addition to the typewriter sightings I shared in my previous post, I had a few more adventures pertinent to this blog.
In the central Retiro park, the yearly book fair was underway, with hundreds of publishers' stalls.
One publisher specializing in classic works of Spanish literature with rather dull covers spiced up the display with a creatively adorned Underwood.
At the fair I bought a copy of a little 1,342-page novel by Javier Marías, Tu rostro mañana (Your Face Tomorrow). Yes, that's a typewriter he's proudly using. It's an Olympia Carrera De Luxe.
Here's an excerpt from an interview with Marías:
Q: Why do you keep using your old typewriter? Is it a phobia of new technologies? Superstition?
A: No, I just like writing on paper, taking out the sheet, correcting it by hand, crossing things out, drawing arrows, typing it over again, and doing so as many times as I have to. I’m not in a hurry, I don’t have to “save time” when I’m writing. To the contrary: In part, I write in order to lose time.
Some passages from the novel suggest why Marías would avoid a digital-heavy life:
"Then the majority forget how, or through whom, they came to find out what they know, and there are even people who think that they brought it to light—whatever it is, a story, an idea, an opinion, gossip, a play on words, a maxim, a title, a history, an aphorism, a slogan, a discourse, a quotation or a whole text, which they proudly appropriate, convinced that they are its progenitors. Or maybe they do know that they're stealing, but they distance this from their thought and hide it from themselves that way. It happens ever more in our time, as if there were a hurry for everything to pass into the public domain and there were no authorships anymore—or said less prosaically, a hurry to turn everything into mere rumor and refrain and legend that run from mouth to mouth and from pen to pen and from screen to screen, everything uncontrolled without fixity or origin or attachment or owner, everything spurred on, running away without a brake."
"An idea occurs to someone, and normally that's enough for him—the idea. He stops complacently at the first reasoning or discovery and doesn't keep thinking anymore, or writing more deeply if he writes, or challenging himself to go farther; he's satisfied with the first crack, or not even that: with the first cut, with penetrating a single layer of people and facts, of intentions and suspicions, of truths and deceits; our age is the enemy of intimate dissatisfaction, and of course of constancy, everything is organized so that everything should get tired right away, and attention should turn restless and erratic, distracted by the buzzing of a fly, sustained investigation and perseverance aren't tolerated—really sticking with something in order to find out about it. And the long look isn't permitted, the look that Tupra had, the look that ends up affecting what is looked at. The eyes that linger offend today, and that's why they have to hide behind curtains and binoculars and telephoto lenses and remote cameras, and spy behind their thousand screens."
My next expedition was to the Calle Hernán Cortés:
Tucked away among the fashionable clothing stores and pop-culture outlets of the Malasaña neighborhood is the García typewriter shop.
It was closed, and it looked pretty disheveled as I peeked through the window.
The sign reads:
IF YOU BUY ONE OF THE LATEST MODELS, WE TAKE YOUR OLD TYPEWRITER IN EXCHANGE. WE HAVE OUR OWN REPAIR SHOP. COME IN, INFORM YOURSELF, CHECK OUR PRICES, IT'S NO BOTHER.
Well, I certainly would have come in, very gladly, if someone had been there. It looked to me like the shop was out of business, but my collector friend Javier Romano assured me that it's not; the owner just doesn't show up very often.
I had no more luck at the other Madrid shop I'm aware of that fixes typewriters, Calcu-Regist.
A peek through the window of the closed shop did not create much confidence:
They maintain a Facebook page here.
Pretty soon I hope to show you one of Javier Romano's wonderful typewriters from his collection.
↧
One more typewriter in Madrid
In Madrid I got to visit my friend Javier, who showed me his small but beautiful collection of typewriters. His before and after photos were amazing—he's able to take a rusty, dusty machine, disassemble it, clean it, and make it look gorgeous.
Javier has sent me photos of one typewriter that I found especially delightful. He bought it in the country that uses this keyboard. What country is it? Who will guess it first?
↧
↧
Revolution in the mailbox: Typewriters, Continental & continental
Sent from my Continental (shown with some much more obsolete equipment in the background)
↧
Front & back book cover design
Here's the final design for the front and back of my book. Thanks to Alan Seaver for the shot of the little Brother! And I'm glad that in the end, the press decided to go with a closeup of my clean and shiny Tower President.
The cover will be a textured "flexibind" material; the title will be indented or "debossed" (it will feel like it's been typed into the cover by a giant typewriter); and there's going to be a black and red ribbon that looks like a typewriter ribbon.
Click the image for a closer look.
![]()
The cover will be a textured "flexibind" material; the title will be indented or "debossed" (it will feel like it's been typed into the cover by a giant typewriter); and there's going to be a black and red ribbon that looks like a typewriter ribbon.
Click the image for a closer look.
↧
Quiz
Here's a quick little quiz to test your typewriter knowledge. What is this piece? If you know the answer, just say "I know" in a comment, and don't tell what it is, so that others can keep wondering. I'll post the answer in about 24 hours.
![]()
↧
Quiz answer
So: what is this piece I showed you yesterday?
It comes from an Underwood no. 5 and is called the line space disengaging cam. Found next to the left platen knob, it allows you to type temporarily between the horizontal lines of your typescript. In order to remove an Underwood platen, you have to remove this piece.
I'm currently working on a beautiful no. 5 made in 1929. I've gotten familiar enough with these typewriters that it took me only seven minutes to break it up into these parts:
The typebar rest on this machine has an inscription woven into it that you don't see every day:
"Underwood pad pat. in U.S. & all foreign countries. Patented & licensed only for insertion in Underwood typewriters. Made in U.S.A. by the patentees."
Would you like to know how to remove an Underwood carriage and platen? It's essential for good cleaning as well as for mechanical repairs, such as adjusting the ribbon throw. Here are the instructions, straight from holy writ, the 1945 AmesTypewriter Mechanical Training Manual. (You can download the whole thing on my website—see the bottom of this page.)
Can you spot the line space disengaging cam on one of these diagrams?
PS: Thanks to the Kalamazoo Typochondriacs for a fun visit by Skype today!
↧
↧
Tickling the ivory, Triumphantly
↧
Revolution in the mailbox: Exotic characters
PS: Check out Ted Munk's Smith-Corona, which he mentioned in a comment on Type the Clouds.
↧
Exotic characters: IL & Ag
↧
ETCetera no. 109
The latest ETCetera has been published.
I'm returning as editor after a couple of years off. Nick Tauriainen (x over it) is doing the layout, and this issue's authors include Robert Messenger (ozTypewriter), Peter Weil (typewriter historian extraordinaire), Ted Munk (To Type, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth... and The Typewriter Database), and Greg Fudacz (Antikey Chop).
From my editorial:
Ted is a prominent typospherian, and his contribution to this magazine favored by typosaurians (as Jos Legrand has dubbed them) is much appreciated. But what are typospherians and typosaurians, exactly? Typosaurians focus on collecting odd, early, and rare specimens, and they prize their printed reference works. Typospherians are digitally fluent, and take at least as much interest in common midcentury typewriters as in antiques, because they like to actually type on their machines. ... Although typospherians and typosaurians may tend to have different predilections, there’s no need for them to be at odds. I consider myself a member of both tribes, and the groups can clearly benefit from each other.
More information on the magazine, including lots of back issues that you can download for free, is here.
Oh, and that font we're using for the masthead is my Cassandre Graphika.
↧
↧
Safari time!
It's time for another safari to the antique mall, in search of Big Mechanographical Game. Let's see what there is to see!
For fun, you can try to identify these typewriters, guess the price on them, and form your own opinion on whether you'd want them before you scroll down a little further to see my commentary. You can also click on each photo for a closer look.
ABOVE:
An Underwood (Model S?) from the 1940s (?). (No, I didn't go to the trouble of looking up the serial numbers on all these machines. But it's been helpful to consult The Typewriter Database after the fact to compare photos.) Price: $47.50. Nobody would call this an exciting typewriter — but you know, that would be a fair price if you wanted a good, solid writing machine and were willing to put in a little elbow grease to bring this into tip-top shape.
ABOVE:
Remington Letter-Riter from the mid to late ’50s. Very nice, clean condition, with a price to match: $120.00. When you consider that this is the simpler cousin of the Quiet-Riter, with no tabulator, the answer has to be: thanks, but no thanks!
ABOVE:
A Remington Rand Deluxe Model 5, I believe from the late ’40s. (Incidentally, I see a ton of typewriters from 1948 or so, when postwar demand was exploding.) Pretty clean. $85.00. At that price, I'd be more excited if it were a prewar model with glossy paint.
ABOVE:
Tom Thumb toy typewriter, 1950s, price reduced from $95 to $50. This one has been in the mall a long time. If you drop the price another $45, I'll get it! Seriously, they are cute to look at but hideous to use. Even given the limitations imposed by the nature of a toy, this thing must have been designed by a sadist or an engineering school dropout.
ABOVE:
Another toy, this one made by Marx. Price: $29.00. This one was kind of interesting. The basic index mechanism is probably much the same as on Marx toy typewriters of the 1920s, but this gadget has a ’50s or ’60s look and imitates an electric typewriter, complete with a Return key. It's reminiscent of an IBM Model B. The surprise is that, unlike any IBM ever, this thing is feather light! The body is just a thin, hollow plastic shell. The keys are just molded bumps in the shell. If I were a toy typewriter collector, I think I'd go for this one.
ABOVE:
A Royal KMG (the G is for Gray Magic!!) from the late ’40s or early ’50s. These are very good typewriters and very common. Is it worth $46.95? Oh ... maybe. See my comment above on the Underwood S.
ABOVE:
Another Underwood, I think an SX-100, ca. 1950, missing its front panel, with rust 'n' dust. Price: $75.00. Moving right along ....
ABOVE:
Hey, this is cute! A poster for an office equipment in the French provincial town of Auxerre, featuring a Contin typewriter. Price: $72.95. Seems a bit steep, and my walls are full, sorry.
ABOVE:
Yet another fat Underwood! This is one from the late ’50s, I think. Not sure what the model is. The styling is a little jazzier than on most and it's labeled "Golden Touch" (that isn't the model, but a trademark applied to various models). At $35.00, it's priced very reasonably if you like this kind of thing.
ABOVE:
At $24.95, this is a cheapie. It's a ’70s (?) Smith-Corona Courier C/T. Essentially, it's a UK-made Skyriter put in a plastic body and designed for use with one of those notorious, dandruffy ribbons with a white correction strip on the lower half. No thank you, I have had enough tan plastic in my life.
ABOVE:
An early-’50s Royal Quiet De Luxe, one of the most popular portables ever, in classic gray. These were recently discussed on Ted's blog. Price: just $39.00. Not bad!
ABOVE:
Another classic ’50s portable, a Smith-Corona Sterling. This one is clean as a whistle, with no eraser crumbs or cat hair to be found on it. The carriage was getting stuck, and on some investigation I found an old price tag that was causing the trouble. It said $39. The new price tag said $49.
ABOVE:
An Underwood at last! Circa 1930? I really should have checked the serial number on this one. Anyway, it's a bit rusty and the decals are faded. Worth $69.00? Not to me.
ABOVE:
Here's the KMG's predecessor, the Royal KMM from the ’40s. I see these very often and when they're in top shape, I really like them for their speed and snappiness. $49.00 is not an unreasonable price.
ABOVE:
Yet another Underwood, I think another Model S. $45.00. For a typewriter in this so-so condition, the price isn't tempting.
ABOVE:
Here's one of those early Marx toys I was talking about, a De-Luxe Dial. I'm guessing around 1930? This one is awfully charming, with its mock stairstep keyboard reminiscent of early Royals, mock ribbon spools, mock typebars, and silhouette of a child typist on the dial. I blew it this time: the price was obscured in my photo, and now I don't remember how much it was. Since I'm not really a toy collector, in order for me to buy it, it would have had to be a bargain and the toy would have had to be in near-mint condition, but it's a fun thing to look at.
ABOVE:
This poor Olympia SG1 with a bent carriage return lever has been languishing in the mall for months. Right now it's under a coffee table, and I almost missed it. Price: $49.00. That'd be a NOPE.
And that's it!
Which one of these typewriters would you have taken home?
Can you guess which one(s), if any, I bought?
. . . . .
. . . . .
. . . . .
Unsurprisingly, I bought the $39 Royal Quiet Deluxe and the near-mint Smith-Corona Sterling. The management called the seller and asked about the two price tags; the seller agreed to sell it for $39. Now it's already on sale at The Urban Legend Institute, where I expect it will find an appreciative new owner soon. The Quiet Deluxe will also go to the shop in due course. In this way, my antique mall finds benefit the community and don't clutter up my house.
Have you found anything good on your own safaris lately?
↧
Exotic characters: For a homey druggist?
↧
Glimpses of a Gourland
My Gourland is leaving my collection; I'm trading it for another rare portable, a Victor. Before it hit the road I took some photos to share with my readers.
One distinctive feature of the Gourland is the cutouts in the frame, presumably intended to give access and to lighten the machine. There are even two cutouts in the right and left areas just above the keyboard (hard to see in the photos).
Compare the photo above to this picture:
The mechanisms aren't identical, but the shape of that rear cutout is a giveaway. As Greg Fudacz has observed, this 1916 patent by Jesse Alexander seems to have provided inspiration, at least, for the Gourland. Renowned typewriter inventor Charles Spiro (responsible for the Columbia index, the Bar-Lock, and the Visigraph) then worked with the Gourland typewriter company to develop the machine; he received several patents for it (none of which mention Alexander's patent).
 |
In the photo below, you can see two rails. The carriage slides along the back rail (with no ball bearings) and a wheel runs along the front rail. The system is actually similar to that of the Underwood. The notched rack is the tabulator rack, which tilts back when you hit the tab key.
On the right (below) you see the backspacer mechanism running next to the tabulator rack. The lever at the bottom of the picture tilts the paper shield forward. The control seen just above it is for reversing the direction of the ribbon.
To tilt the carriage back, you simply push firmly. The drawcord remains attached to the carriage.
The escapement is now revealed and can easily be cleaned.![]()
Ad from Typewriter Topics, 1922:
One of the strangest facts about the Gourland is its afterlife in the 21st century. Someone in China decided to make a faux, decorative "typewriter" based on a photo of a Gourland (possibly mine). The name came out "Govrland." This then morphed into "Governor's Land" in an imitation of the imitation. What's next?
I think Jesse Alexander, Charles Spiro, and M. J. Gourland would have a hearty laugh!
More information on the Gourland:
↧