This past June, I was corresponding with our friend ProfessorC about an original blue-trim 1962 IBM Selectric that he was in the process of restoring. The topic of our discussions was the condition of the front stainless steel trim pieces (stainless steel was only used on the very earliest Selectrics, later years saw a switch […]
This Typecast Brought to You by the Letters: T-11-B
The last cigarette smokers in America were located in a box canyon south of Donner Pass in the High Sierra by two federal tobacco agents in a helicopter who spotted the little smoke puffs just before noon. One of them, Ames, the district chief, called in the ground team by air-to-ground radio. Six men in […]
Surly Chicken Farms at longer than 720 nanometers: Sony DSC-F707
It’s Beginning to Rain…
It’s beginning to rain, rain, rain – hear the voice of the father, Saying whosoever will come and drink from the water, I will pour out my spirit on my sons and my daughters, If you’re thirsty and dry, lift your hands to the sky, It’s beginning to rain… “The Only Good Bug is a […]
IBM Selectric MT/SR Type Ball – an odd duck!
This Typecast Brought to You by the Letters: J-11-BI
With the release of Issue #110, the Board of Directors and Editor of the Early Typewriter Collectors Association has made good on a promise to offer every issue older than 2 years from publication for free download on the etconline.org website. This presents you with the opportunity to read up on an awful lot of […]
This Typecast Brought to You by the Letters: CN-6-M
Test Mobile Post #2
Well, the most obvious shortcoming is the lack of good light for the phone camera inside. text is blurry due to the pathetic light. I’m hoping that the phone’s camera can do much better outside. The process of editing and uploading photos is quite easy on the Android phone, even with the relatively tiny screen, […]
Test mobile post 1
Inspired by joe vc’s process post, testing feasibilty of posting typecast by telephone. This is test #1.
This Typecast Brought to You by the Letters: BA-9-I
Nelson Hawks and the American Point System
From May 1985 Upper & Lower Case magazine, the trade magazine of the International Type Corporation
This Typecast Brought to You by the Letters: UN-11-L
This Typecast Brought to You by the Letters: AR-8-M
Crank #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6 and #7 – Read at your own risk.
Victor Adding Machine Age List – WOMDA 1973
For Victor Adding Machine freeks, the Victor Serial Number Age List from the Western Office Machine Dealer’s Association 1973 Line Book. Enjoy!
This Typecast Brought to You by the Letters: CG-6-M
A Good News Day
There was a man in the land of Uz…
Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. And when they lifted […]
UJTU: Randomness
FreeDOS, a free, open-source MS-DOS clone OS Microsoft Word 5.5 for DOS, free download from Microsoft
Rounding out Baby Wedge Week: All The Brother EP Series
Thermal Baby Wedges, boy I’ve sure been on a kick all week and having a lot of fun. For the record, I still haven’t run down a set of batteries – these thermal babies really seem to sip the juice. I poked the only other collector I know of who owns one of these Brother […]
IBM Model 85: A Weird Mashup Indeed
Quick, name an IBM Typewriter that takes normal 96-Character Selectric III typeballs monospaced in 10 and 12 pitch, and *also* prints in proportional spacing using special “round dot” proportional typeballs? Give up? How about if I told you it was a weird mashup of the IBM Selectric III and the Wheelwriter? Yeah, it’s sort of […]
Spot the Typewriter: Avalanches
Can you find the typewriter featured in The Avalanches “Frontier Psychiatrist”?
Fear and Craziness on the Freeways
The *only* bright point in this whole week is that nobody (so far) has been seriously hurt. We can only pray that this doesn’t change.
More thoughts on Thermal Baby Wedges: Ephemeral, Schmephemeral!
Sharp PA-1050 Typewriter – Baby Wedge Week Continues
Sharp PA-1050 Typewriter User Manual
Brother EP-20 Dot-Matrix Portable Typewriter – Welcome to 1983!
I think this kind of typewriter is the portable of the future… – Martin Goldshine, executive vice president of Silver Reed America Inc. (1983) NEW TYPEWRITERS JOIN THE COMPUTER AGE (NY Times, September 1983) Brother EP-20 Typewriter User Manual
They’re After Me Lucky Charms!
Briar Levit on making Graphic Means from Briar Levit on Vimeo.
How to use a Selectric Composer Font Ball that has a broken top
The font elements for Selectrics come in 3 basic types: First Generation (Rabbit Ear): 1961 to about mid-60’s. 88-Character Selectric I/II elements only. These are the simplest design, just a bent wire held in place by a plastic half-cap. You pinch the rabbit ears to open. Delightfully easy and super-durable. They almost never break. Why […]
How the Gacillia Nut saved me a sh*tstorm of grief…
Hey, it’s been a slow summer, so when an email comes in promising a high-dollar job for what looks like simple HTML formatting of existing content, I give it consideration despite the prospective client’s atrocious command of the language. Not *much* consideration, though. Sounds suspiciously like a certain Nigerian dialect common to form letters distributed […]
Eleven Dollar Galaxie Deluxe – who could pass that up?
This machine at the TWDB.
Mechanical Calculator: 1963 Underwood-Olivetti Summa Prima 20
Couldn’t resist this one when I saw it on the shelf at Deseret for $3 a few weeks ago, so I snatched it up. The thing was *filthy*, but seemed to be intact, although it was so gummed up that the lever wouldn’t pull. I’ve currently got it working now, but it still needs another […]
Why it is impossible to keep cat hair out of typewriters…
Polaroids: 10 Years Expired
I found a pack of Polaroid 600 film the other day at Deseret, and having had no luck getting a vintage 1981 pack I found some time ago to work, I was only mildly hopeful that this pack, which expired in 2005 might actually work. I dug up my One Step Flash and tried it […]
Raybestos Manhattan: The Space Age – The Age Of Reliability
Ahh, 1961 – how optimistic America was at the dawn of the Space Age, especially a certain leading manufacturer of Asbestos products called Raybestos Manhattan. I found this one at the last record show that Wayne Butane dragged me along to a couple months ago, and the guy at the booth had it marked at […]
Smith-Corona Presents the greatest success story in Portable Typewriters…
Tom Robbins’ Remington SL3 Typewriter from “Still Life With Woodpecker”
… was as far as I can tell, a work of fiction. It doesn’t exist and never has. This was surprising to me, as it seems commonly reported as fact that Tom Robbins used a Remington SL3 to write “Still Life With Woodpecker“. Wikipedia proclaims this and even Richard Polt’s “Writers and their Typewriters” page […]