"More than you ever wanted to know about these little charmers."

March 3, 2017 3:23 AM

The Classic Typewriter Page by Prof. Richard Polt is an joyously exhaustive guide to typewriters, covering their history, parts and how to restore them. Prof. Polt's blog is also worth checking out, and his short introductions to various typewriters. Because Polt is a philosophy professor, he also has a short essay on the phenomenology of early typewriters. But typewriters are for using, and few things demonstrate that better than the page Writers and their Typewriters, which has a very long list of writers and the machines they used, with many pictures of said authors with their typewriters, including Dorothy Parker, Stephen King, Italo Calvino, Sylvia Plath, Françoise Sagan, Bob Dylan, Agatha Christie and Stanisław Lem.
posted by Kattullus (22 comments total)

It’s a great site! The manuals page can also be very useful: where else could one readily find not one but two different PDF manuals for one’s newly-acquired 1957 Alpina SK-24? (Which is a wonderful machine, by the way).

Also, previously! though the link there is long-dead.

On a related note, I’ve pondered making an FPP about the fascinating Typewriters in Films tumblr, but wondered if it might be a bit too niche of a thing, so I’ll just leave it here.
posted by misteraitch at 3:40 AM on March 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

And, of course, Hunter Thompson.
posted by Obscure Reference at 4:26 AM on March 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

This is ridiculously relevant to my interests!

THANK YOU.
posted by Faintdreams at 4:42 AM on March 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Too many links, I don't know where to go. Where is the meat where is the lede? Interested but frustrated
posted by unliteral at 5:08 AM on March 3, 2017

This is bringing my so much joy, and Polt's archive of typewriter manuals has also been helpful for me in the past (mine for a 1950 Empire Aristocrat). Thank you. I also squealed with joy internally at the link to the Typewriters in Films tumblr from misteraitch, especially when I saw one of mine pictured!
posted by A Robot Ninja at 5:12 AM on March 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

I don't know about you all but I drive by a typewriter shop every day.
posted by sammyo at 5:19 AM on March 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

No mention of Tom Hanks? Fail.
posted by tommasz at 5:22 AM on March 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

I typed all my papers for high-school on one like this. They are pretty machines but I can't imagine having to go back to writing that way.

I do miss the smell of White-Out.
posted by octothorpe at 5:30 AM on March 3, 2017

I don't know about you all but I drive by a typewriter shop every day.

Park your car and go inside! That's a terrific place, cramjammed full of machines, and Tom who runs it is a great guy and super friendly.
posted by JanetLand at 5:52 AM on March 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

This is great. Thanks for the post!

*clackety clackety clackety*

*ding!*
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:14 AM on March 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

So much here! Lordy I could spend all day looking at this.

Also: Michael Winslow’s history of the typewriter (previously, newer yt) is flat-out amazing, for those of you want a soundtrack for your deep dives...
posted by miles per flower at 6:23 AM on March 3, 2017

http://typewriterdatabase.com/
I have thirteen portables in working order. Mostly Remingtons, Smith-Coronas, and Royals. I started collecting them from thrift stores in the southeast United States while still in high school and stopped when travel for work made their transport untenable-- they're stacked in a relative's attic :(

From the end of the Typology link above: As for our relation to the oak, we can never truly understand the eidos of an oak just by using abstraction and imagination to isolate some universal aspects of it (for instance, its genetic code); we have to keep open to seeing new examples of oaking. And it will be our bodily habits -- our habits of testing, cutting, climbing on the tree -- that familiarize us with oaks.

I know many MeFites will know Robert Wilson's provocative The Civil Wars: A tree is best measured when it is down. I first saw it from the The Knee Plays cover art.

I had a typing class in high school and computer labs came around as I was attending college, so I was fortunate to experience three modes of composition. I very much enjoyed Polt's essays and post to mention this aspect of his Typology:

The rapidity of composing on a word processor allowed me to "capture" more tangents and associations than a manual. Much would be edited away, but so be it. Whereas the "pace" of a manual typewriter and script forced greater degrees of contemplation. I'm sure it's different with others and their processes, but "pace" was a big factor of the ergonomic aspect Polt notes in many ways regarding "feel" and ergonomics.
posted by lazycomputerkids at 6:26 AM on March 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Back in the days of Mac OS 8 and 9, there was a system extension you could install that would play typewriter sounds as you typed, including the sound of the carriage return and bell. It was fun for about 15 minutes, but your cube-mates soon threatened your life if you didn't turn it off.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:30 AM on March 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

"So, something magical happened to me today, and I wanted to tell you all about it."

Tap-Tap-Tappity-tap
posted by intermod at 6:44 AM on March 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

My one sadness at posts like this is the reminder that people, on the whole, just don't send letters any more - and especially not typed or handwritten ones. I have two portable typewriters, but I'm thinking about donating or selling one because they mostly gather dust.
posted by A Robot Ninja at 6:44 AM on March 3, 2017

Back in the days of Mac OS 8 and 9, there was a system extension you could install that would play typewriter sounds as you typed, including the sound of the carriage return and bell. It was fun for about 15 minutes, but your cube-mates soon threatened your life if you didn't turn it off.

I had this. I also retrofied my Performa with a screensaver that played TV test patterns.
posted by thelonius at 7:01 AM on March 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

now I wanna play Glider and SPECTRE all day
posted by thelonius at 7:01 AM on March 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

I wrote my dissertation on a typewriter in 1981 then gave it to a cs student who digitized it and printed out a dot matrix copy...good times.
posted by judson at 7:07 AM on March 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

When I moved I found a Royal typewriter from the 40s or 50s (pre-Futura vintage, anyway) in my crawl space. It's keys stick and the ribbon is dried out but seems close to functional. I moved it to the garage where it isn't so damp and the temp is a little more constant. I've always thought it would be cool to fix up; this looks like the place to start!
posted by TedW at 10:25 AM on March 3, 2017

No mention of Tom Hanks? Fail.

Backgrounder for the unaware.
posted by rhizome at 12:03 PM on March 3, 2017

Timely post, as I'm looking wistfully at my mountain of manual typewriters and trying to talk myself into selling off the bulk of my collection to lighten the load as I'm transitioning into a swiftly tilting life. It's hard, though, because they have little clockwork souls and a warmth that you only come to understand after you've sat with them and shared the act of unfurling the stories that have been bound up in your head.

Sigh.
posted by sonascope at 7:13 PM on March 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

I had a typing class in high school and computer labs came around as I was attending college, so I was fortunate to experience three modes of composition

It is understandable that you would not include amongst your competition tools the Flat Compy. I wonder if this is particularly an Android thing but it's weird gestural input can be its own freeing, imprisoning thing as well (keyboard simulacra are like working with two broken wrists). The input limitations most of us subject ourselves to on a regular basis in a large portion of our correspondence are sure to have follow-on effects. Some of you may know exactly what the "duck" I am talking about.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 5:36 PM on March 4, 2017