Typewriters thread
- Thread starter dysondestijl
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UPdating old typewriter to tweet
Was reading this article in this mornings Toronto Star.. here's the link and hopefully the video works for you
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/201...g_robots_and_3d_printing_a_family_affair.html
Was reading this article in this mornings Toronto Star.. here's the link and hopefully the video works for you
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/201...g_robots_and_3d_printing_a_family_affair.html
spiraclean
Well-known member
This is what I learned to type on, an Olivetti 82 with the wider carriage. I was about 7 years old, and our next door neighbour offered it to us as a freebie for my brother and I to "bash about" on. At the time it seemed ridiculously big and heavy, and to be fair it probably was. Any time I wanted to use it my father had to drag it out of the cupboard and set it on the dining room table for me, because there's no way I could ever manage to lift it myself.
Will never forget the smell each time the cover was taken off, a mixture of inky ribbon and the grease on the mechanism!
Will never forget the smell each time the cover was taken off, a mixture of inky ribbon and the grease on the mechanism!
spiraclean
Well-known member
A couple of years later my parents bought me an Olivetti College for Christmas. Much smaller and lighter, so I could carry it about myself - this, plus the fact that I had been given permission by my teacher to type up my school homework, meant that it saw a heck of a lot of use.
Come to think of it, I still have this typewriter, tucked away in the back of my mother's attic. Haven't had it out for years, so perhaps I ought to dig it out sometime, find a new ribbon for it and tap away for old time's sake.
Come to think of it, I still have this typewriter, tucked away in the back of my mother's attic. Haven't had it out for years, so perhaps I ought to dig it out sometime, find a new ribbon for it and tap away for old time's sake.
spiraclean
Well-known member
Fast forward a few years and I had started secondary school, and decided that it was finally time to enter the electric age. Saved up all my birthday, Christmas and odd-job money until I had enough stashed away, then picked up a Smith Corona SD685. The small, single-line LCD display and internal memory meant that it could also be used as a basic word processor. I seem to recall the memory was enough for about three pages of text, after which you could print out the document (it would pause at the end of each page so you could load another sheet, after which it would continue printing).
Used this for about three years before trading up again, but eventually found another use for it when I ran my own business and had to print up carbonised invoices and receipts in duplicate or triplicate.
Used this for about three years before trading up again, but eventually found another use for it when I ran my own business and had to print up carbonised invoices and receipts in duplicate or triplicate.
spiraclean
Well-known member
Having become proficient at using the word processing features of my first Smith Corona, I soon outgrew it and decided it was time to step up to something with more features, external memory and a larger display. Decided to stick with SC, and opted for their top of the range PWP3900 model. This one had a separate monochrome display monitor (10" I think) and a built-in floppy disk drive. And it could still be used as a regular electric typewriter for quickly typing up short documents where word processing capabilities were not needed.
This was about £400 at the time, which was rather a lot of money even for the mid 90s. Worth every penny though, as it was in daily use throughout school, college and beyond.
After that, I moved onto using an Amstrad PcW word processor, which worked well enough but looking back was probably considered to be seriously outdated by the time it even appeared in the shops. Gave me the push to finally step up to a PC though, and the rest is history.
This was about £400 at the time, which was rather a lot of money even for the mid 90s. Worth every penny though, as it was in daily use throughout school, college and beyond.
After that, I moved onto using an Amstrad PcW word processor, which worked well enough but looking back was probably considered to be seriously outdated by the time it even appeared in the shops. Gave me the push to finally step up to a PC though, and the rest is history.
I learned to type on my mothers little blue Olivetti Lettera 22 back in the 60's. In highschool I really wanted an electric SCM but they were pretty expensive and not something my dad was about to fork out the money on. One day I was in Kmart and found an el cheapo Wedgefield (rebranded Brother) electric and bought that with some money I'd saved. I was a little miffed when 30 odd years later I move back here , they were both still at her house as she'd never gotten rid of any of my remaining childhood stuff without asking first but a few months later I went to retrieve them and both were gone.. AAAAggghhh LOL.. To make matters worse I think I saw both of them at Value Village before I'd found out she'd done that and it didn't click at the time that they were mine so I didn't buy them. Oh well, what can you do.
Here's perhaps my favorite in my small collection of typers.
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/QfyfhuohdJk?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Here's perhaps my favorite in my small collection of typers.
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/QfyfhuohdJk?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
