Home
babble-intro-img
babble is rabble.ca's discussion board but it's much more than that: it's an online community for folks who just won't shut up. It's a place to tell each other — and the world — what's up with our work and campaigns.

Ode to the Type-writer

Ode to the Type-writer

Here is a secret: I am obsessed with the typewriter. It is an amazing little machine. I recently purchased this photograph from Toronto artist Todd McLellan and became a little bit mournful when I read this story about the last mechanical typewriter factory closing in India. I'm reading a lot of c-20 literature about type-writers (an alias for both the machine and the person using it), like Grant Allen's The Type-Writer Girl (1897) and composite novel The Sturdy Oak (1917); and reading book-length studies on it like Darren Wershler-Henry's The Iron Whim: a Fragmented History of the Typewriter. Fun!

Today, the Guardian published a series of photographs of authors and their typewriters. Check it out.

Any other typo-philes?

 

Comments

We welcome your comments! rabble.ca embraces a pro-human rights, pro-feminist, anti-racist, queer-positive, anti-imperialist and pro-labour stance, and encourages discussions which develop progressive thought. Our full comment policy can be found here. Learn more about Disqus on rabble.ca and your privacy here. Please keep in mind:

Do

  • Tell the truth and avoid rumours.
  • Add context and background.
  • Report typos and logical fallacies.
  • Be respectful.
  • Respect copyright - link to articles.
  • Stay focused. Bring in-depth commentary to our discussion forum, babble.

Don't

  • Use oppressive/offensive language.
  • Libel or defame.
  • Bully or troll.
  • Post spam.
  • Engage trolls. Flag suspect activity instead.

Comments

Submitted by Le T on May 11, 2011 - 11:39am.

Cool thread, Catchfire. I can remember using a typewriter in grade school and i can still remember the smell. How did people get any work done when you couldn't jump from babble, to facebook, to google, to flash games while typing a report?

 

 

»
Submitted by Lachine Scot on May 11, 2011 - 11:40am.

I used to use a secondhand one to write letters (in 2004 or so) until my roommate went insane and made me get rid of it.

»
Submitted by Caissa on May 11, 2011 - 11:43am.

My first roommate used to tape his own essays. He was also a procrastinator. He would stay up all night the day before the essay was due. Didn't I mention we shared a large bachelor apartment. R. would be in the kitchen typing. Not being a good one he often made mistakes that needed to bre corrected with correction tape. I would hear the sound of backspace, backspace, backspace, followed by wacka, wacka, wacka.

It all worked out in the end; I'm married to his ex-fiancee. Wink

»
Submitted by Catchfire on May 11, 2011 - 12:00pm.

Lachine Scot wrote:
I used to use a secondhand one to write letters (in 2004 or so) until my roommate went insane and made me get rid of it.

Nice! I haven't been to this, but an amazing local lithgraphic shop (ATTN: Vancouverites, of which I think LS is one) has a letter-writing club where you use vintage typewriters and wonderful stationary in store. The Regional Assembly of Text on Main St. You should check it out, LS! (If you haven't already.)

»
Submitted by Boom Boom on May 11, 2011 - 12:06pm.

I use an electric typewriter occasionally. Brought it new in the 1970s, works like a charm. I wish I had my dad's manual typewriter from the 1950s - that was a dream machine.

»
Submitted by Snert on May 11, 2011 - 12:11pm.

My handwriting was so poor in school that when I started highschool, my parents promised me a typewriter if I would take a typing class.  I did, and they followed through.  We learned on Selectrics, and Selectric IIs (much less charm than an old Underwood, but they had that neat 'golf ball' in place of the usual arms, so you could change "fonts"!).

Trivia:  what is the longest word that can be typed using only the top row (QWERT...) of a typewriter?

»
Submitted by Catchfire on May 11, 2011 - 12:13pm.

Qwertyuiop?

»
Submitted by Snert on May 11, 2011 - 12:17pm.

Typewriter.  How perfect is that?

»
Submitted by Catchfire on May 11, 2011 - 12:20pm.

^^
LIKE

»
Submitted by 6079_Smith_W on May 11, 2011 - 12:27pm.

I must say, the only thing I miss is the machine-gun action of the IBM Selelctric. I swear that is what got me up over 40 WPM.  Back in the day of manuals I always opted for hand-writing.

»
Submitted by Snert on May 11, 2011 - 12:37pm.

Family legend has it that my grandmother, who was an executive secretary for Alcan, in Arvida, could get up past 90wpm on a manual.  I have to also assume she could push her baby finger through a tin can.

»
Submitted by Caissa on May 11, 2011 - 12:49pm.

My mother typed my undergraduate essays on an old manual. Probably about half of my undergraduate essays were handed in handwritten. Those were the days.

»
Submitted by Catchfire on May 11, 2011 - 1:01pm.

Quote:
I must say, the only thing I miss is the machine-gun action of the IBM Selelctric.

One of the things that interest me the most about typewriters is their association with firearms. "Machine-gun action," as perhaps you know, is a descriptor that has followed typewriters since their inception. Look at the terminology too: slugs, cartridges, etc. And perhaps we should recall the fact that the writing machine came to prominence under Remington: a company famous for manufacturing two things: typewriters and firearms.

Also: I just found this old babble thread on the typewriter. Whoa.

»
Submitted by Caissa on May 11, 2011 - 1:14pm.

A history of the typewriter courtesy of wikipaedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typewriter

»
Submitted by 6079_Smith_W on May 11, 2011 - 2:02pm.

@ Catchfire

You are right there, though I don;t have any problem with the visceral association - I was aware of what I said  -  nor do I have a problem with with firearms used responsibly.  I am aware that they are a necessary thing, after all.

More than anything, this thread makes me want to watch Cronenberg's Naked Lunch again, just for the movie's treatment of typewriters as a fetish.  It is certainly a teratment of their importance which is more vital than the historical reality.

Or if you want to see another take on the significance of typewriters, watch the East German film "The Lives of Others".

I think "The Jagged Edge" also used the plot point of typwriter as fingerprint.

I also remember hearing that at the Winnipeg  Free Press they kept a desk with a manual typewriter in the press room for the great journalist Vince Leah, even after the point at which he was no longer on staff, and was freelancing

»
Submitted by Caissa on May 11, 2011 - 2:00pm.

I read "Naked Lunch' this summer. Mind-blowing.

»
Submitted by 6079_Smith_W on May 11, 2011 - 2:01pm.

Caissa wrote:

I read "Naked Lunch' this summer. Mind-blowing.

I agree .  Great book, but the movie is a different beast.

»
Submitted by Le T on May 11, 2011 - 3:16pm.

Quote:
Typewriter. How perfect is that?

IMO this is perhaps the coolest thing that Snert has ever posted on babble!Laughing

»
Submitted by Fidel on May 11, 2011 - 8:03pm.

Snert wrote:
Trivia:  what is the longest word that can be typed using only the top row (QWERT...) of a typewriter?

 

rupturewort & proterotype

I had no idea.

 

»
Submitted by Catchfire on May 13, 2011 - 11:12am.

Friedrich's writing machine

Quote:
The most prominent owner of a writing ball was probably the German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). In 1881, when he was almost blind, Nietzsche wanted to buy a typewriter to enable him to continue his writing, and from letters to his sister we know that he personally was in contact with “the inventor of the typewriter, Mr Malling-Hansen from Copenhagen”. He mentioned to his sister that he had received letters and also a typewritten postcard as an example.

 

Nietzsche received his writing ball in 1882. It was the newest model, the portable tall one with a colour ribbon, serial number 125, and several typescripts are known to have been written by him on this writing ball. We know that Nietzsche was also familiar with the newest Remington typewriter (model 2), but as he wanted to buy a portable typewriter, he chose to buy the Malling-Hansen writing ball, as this model was lightweight and easy to carry — one might say that it was the "laptop" of that time.

 

Unfortunately Nietzsche wasn't totally satisfied with his purchase and never really mastered the use of the instrument. Until now, many people have tried to understand why Nietzsche did not make more use of it, and a number of theories have been suggested such as that it was an outdated and poor model, that it was possible to write only upper case letters, etc. Today we can say for certain that all this is only speculation without foundation.

 

Friedrich Kittler argues that the writing ball tweaked Nietzsche's prose style, making it tighter and more aphoristic and punny--a fascinating if ultimately flawed argument.

»
Submitted by Spectrum on May 13, 2011 - 5:42pm.

Interesting thread,  as it awakens my own journey with the type writer, from manuel to electric. To what we have today.

»
Submitted by N.Beltov on May 13, 2011 - 5:51pm.

I learned to type when manual typewriters were in use ... got up to 60 wpm and then had to do it all over again with them newfangled electric typewriters. Made about 65 wpm with that. Never had any ambition to be faster than that.

I'm still, at my best, at 60 odd wpm. And I still have my Smith Corona (electric) in working order. mwa ha ha

»
Submitted by 6079_Smith_W on May 14, 2011 - 1:52am.

Come to think of it, the Selectric was the first typewriter I ever got comfortable on, but I learned to type and got fast using compugraphic and AM typesetting machines (speaking of obsolete technology).

»
Submitted by Catchfire on July 22, 2011 - 12:13pm.

»
Submitted by abnormal on July 23, 2011 - 1:37pm.

Snert wrote:

Family legend has it that my grandmother, who was an executive secretary for Alcan, in Arvida, could get up past 90wpm on a manual. 

Many years ago when we were looking to hire an office manager who could double as an executive secretary for my CEO on those rare occassions he wasn't travelling we gave the applicants typing tests.  The individual we ultimately hired tested at 93 words a minute (and didn't complete the sample text that made up the test).  The lady we didn't hire completed the test and started over from the beginning before she stopped typing and pointed out one of the keys was sticking.  We never did figure out exactly how fast she was typing but it was far over 90 wpm.

»
Submitted by Lefauve on July 23, 2011 - 9:28pm.
Sorry to break up your nostalgia, but personnally i trust my computer. You see i got a "condition" call dyslexia, because of that condition i relied a lot on corrector to help me with my work when i got report to write. The last model of typewriter were equip with corrector, but the corrector were leaving a lot of error. If i end up to be stuck with a typewriter, i will have quite a problem.
»
Submitted by Lefauve on July 23, 2011 - 9:35pm.
Still i admire the mechcanical complexity of those machine. i remember playing with a old 100% mechanic with no electricity typewriter. Machine that i destroyed a few year later to try to ubderstand how it work. It partially because of that than i work in engineering today.
»
Submitted by 6079_Smith_W on July 23, 2011 - 9:50pm.

@ Lefauve

On the other hand, you should see some of the mistakes that have been "corrected" into copy I have written. It is definitely a two-edged sword, and I tend to leave mine off.

 

»
Submitted by Lefauve on July 23, 2011 - 10:35pm.

6079_Smith_W wrote:

@ Lefauve

On the other hand, you should see some of the mistakes that have been "corrected" into copy I have written. It is definitely a two-edged sword, and I tend to leave mine off.

 

Me too i saw some mistake generated. For me as long as they point out possible error i keep the last decision for me. For me it more like crutches, it help me but don't do the work for me. Right now, i use Antidote, for french this one is the award winning and beats the one embeded in word. The one in word is very basic and do lot of mistake.

Still there is time when i envy people who don't need this!
»
Submitted by Catchfire on September 1, 2011 - 1:33pm.

 

The typewriter lives on in India

Quote:
It's a stultifying afternoon outside the Delhi District Court as Arun Yadav slides a sheet of paper into his decades-old Remington and revs up his daily 30-word-a-minute tap dance.


Nearby, hundreds of other workers clatter away on manual typewriters amid a sea of broken chairs and wobbly tables as the occasional wildlife thumps on the leaky tin roof above.

"Sometimes the monkeys steal the affidavits," Yadav said. "That can be a real nuisance."

The factories that make the machines may be going silent, butIndia's typewriter culture remains defiantly alive, fighting on bravely against that omnipresent upstart, the computer. (In fact, if India had its own version of "Mad Men," with its perfumed typing pools and swaggering execs, it might not be set in the 1960s but the early 1990s, India's peak typewriter years, when 150,000 machines were sold annually.)

Credit for its lingering presence goes to India's infamous bureaucracy, as enamored as ever of outdated forms (often in triplicate) and useless procedures, documents piled 3 feet high and binders secured by pink string.

Other loyalists include the over-50 generation and, conversely, young people in rural areas who dream of a call-center job but can't yet afford a laptop. There are also certain advantages to a machine without a power cord in a country where 400 million people still lack electricity.

 

»

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Login or register to post comments