Well, after 3 tries at finding a visualization library capable of timeline display that is both simple and flexible, it ended up being kind of a Goldilocks situation – Google’s libraries were too dependent on off-site resources and couldn’t do point data display (like a single date such as “company formed” or “merged with so-and-so”), […]
Timelines in TWDB
So, I was playing around a bit with various APIs last night and found out I could utilize Google’s Visualization API to do stuff like this fairly easily, given data changes I’m planning for the TWDB. How useful would you think this sort of thing might be?
First Look: TWDB World eBay Typewriter Hunting widget
I’ve been at a loss lately how to get the eBay listing widget that is set up on various places on the desktop version of the TWDB to work on the mobile version. Part of the problem was that getting Javascript to run properly in the DOM-lunacy that is the jQuery Mobile framework is at […]
Breakfast At Tiffany’s: Paul Varjak’s Typewriter
UPDATE: Brian asks below in the comments why I call this machine “red”. The simple answer is “it looks red to me”, but it’s an important question that deserves further examination. He owns a machine of this vintage which he describes as “dark orange”, so the question would be twofold: 1) is the color shown […]
IBM Typecasting Circa 1968
Here’s a gem of a paragraph, pulled completely out of context from the 1968 edition of the “IBM Journal”. This issue was composed of articles from the team that developed the IBM Selectric Composer, and the articles explain in painstaking detail the entire design philosophy and describe the minutia of every unique mechanism of the […]
New Spring in Mothra’s Step, the arrival of Monster Zero, and DIY Composer Ribbons
Unraveling the Royal Quiet De Luxe – Part 5: Reprise – The End of the Royal “A” Model?
In part 4 of this series, I guessed the appearance of the Silver-Seikos and Adlers in Royal’s lineup in 1970 to be the death knell for the Portugese Sabres. This turns out to not be the end of the story after all. In the comments, Mr. Royal himself Nick Bodemer mentions that he’s seen advertisements […]
Unraveling the Royal Quiet De Luxe – Part 4: The Colorful End of the QDL, and What it Became
I’ve been a bit hesitant to type up this fourth and last post detailing what I’ve learned of the history of the QDL, because I’m sad to get up from the immersive bath I’ve taken into the Royal portable serial number lists & galleries and say goodbye to the venerable Quiet De Luxe. The line […]
Unraveling the Royal Quiet De Luxe – Part 3: The Post-War Royal Portables (A, B and C Models)
With the end of World War Two, Royal starts up “A” and “C” Model production right where they left off in 1941. The 1946 “Quiet De Luxe” and war-hero “Arrow” models are snapped up by a typewriter-starved public, and you can have any color you want, as long as it’s black. The middle-market “Aristocrat”, un-needed […]
Unraveling the Royal Quiet De Luxe – Part 2: Birth of the QDL (and siblings)
The Quiet De Luxe “A” Model that Royal introduced in 1939 had direct parentage in the “A” Model “De Luxe” and the short-lived 1938 “Quiet”, but it looked like neither one. Royal had consolidated all four of it’s 1938 higher-end models into just three variations of a single brand-new design: The “A” Model “Quiet De […]
Unraveling the Royal Quiet De Luxe – Part 1: Ancestry (Model P, O and B)
Ahh, the Royal Quiet De Luxe, AKA the “QDL” or the “Model A”. It’s the most popular typewriter among the TWDB’s Typewriter Hunter members by the number of galleries entered (100+ so far). The TWDB’s Royal Serial Number page is also the most popular page on the site by a long shot, among those users […]
The Royal Sabre of Portugal
Oh, and just so you know I’m not off my Composer kick, look what’s headed my way as you read this: Nick T’s Composer and typeballs, adopted by yours truly to the Corral of Increasingly Print-Industry Related Machines. We’ll see how I do with one of these finicky difference engine escapement typewriters when it has […]
Presshunting: A. B. Dick 320
When I was fairly little, about 8 or 10, my dad brought home an old A. B. Dick tabletop offset printing press (they’re actually called “duplicators” when they’re this small) and set up the beginnings of his print shop right there in the laundry room of the little ranch house on Dolphin avenue. This was […]
More Typeface Fun with Mothra!
Classified News (Composer ball CN-x-x) and a Large Elite 72
In answer to a comment below, I typed up a sample of the phrases they wanted ID’d using Mothra (my Composer) and my guess at what type balls were used.
Spot The Typewriter – Upside Down, Left To Right: A Letterpress Film
You can play “Spot The Typewriter” while watching this short and interesting film about letterpress printing. Why doesn’t that surprise me in the slightest? :D Oh, and neat idea for a Typecasting-sized BAROP… Upside Down, Left To Right: A Letterpress Film from Danny Cooke on Vimeo.
The Rosetta Stone: Olivetti Lettera 32 Cracked wide open!
Behold: The Rosetta Stone. Four legal-sized columnar notebooks filled with serial numbers and dates entered into inventory for every new and used typewriter that passed through the doors of MTE between 1950 and 1987. Thirty-seven years worth of handwritten notes in pencil by (from my count) at least five different hands. 138 pages of essentially […]
Brown Plastic Cases are KEY! Smith-Corona Datecodes
I found a 1970’s Galaxie 12 today while doing some light thriftin’ – normally I don’t much like the Brown Plastic Case era SCM’s, but these latter-day Galaxies are usually good machines. Besides, I had to at least look for a datecode. For eight bucks, I didn’t pass up this one, and yep – brown […]
Machines Should Work – People Should Think!
Well, it turns out Olivetti wasn’t the only typewriter company producing trippy acid-fueled industrial films in the 1960s’. IBM got into the game too, and in 1967 commissioned Muppets creator Jim Henson to produce this short film extolling the benefits of IBM office products, including the newly introduced Selectric Composer. A weirder mix of suits […]
Possibly the most convoluted, obtuse and pointlessly time-consuming method for typecasting ever devised by a Typospherian! :D
TWDB Secret Mission – Operation: SCM Datecode!
I’ve been emailing with Jay Respler back and forth the past few weeks regarding a couple of serial numbers on some very unusual Smith-Corona Galaxies and Classic 12’s. During the course of this conversation, he pointed me to a Yahoo thread where he discusses the “SCM Datecode” that is found on many SCM typewriters from […]
Photos from the 6th Phoenix Type-In
And the hits just keep on coming! 1972 Selectric 6251 Composer
My Hummingbird has finally landed!
More fun ephemera from MTE!
So I was at MTE today, wheelin’ & deelin’ for a hummingbird that has caught my fancy, when I noticed a pile of *very dusty* books on a back shelf that I hadn’t pawed through before. Therefore, it’s time for another edition of Ephemera from the Collection of Bill Wahl! This one I snagged for […]
UJTU: The Futura of Typing, and New Mission for Cougar Six-Y
The experiment maybe pays off.
Rhymin’ & Stealin’ 4 Olympia Serial Number Verification
Wow, it’s been awhile since I posted – work’s been whippin’ me like a slave driver and I’ve got typecasts lined up that may never get posted. Today however, I did some crimes for your edification, and I must confess. I went thriftin’ and saw a few typewriters – a 70’s Adler Universal 200 standard […]
Stealth Mode: Cougar Six-Y Continued…
Cougar Six-Y Goes Dark
Cougar Six-Y, Cougar Six-Y, Do You Copy?
I missed out on a Galaxy this week, having been alerted to it’s presence on half price day via Type Snap and the Typospherian Bat-Signal. $10 would have been a nice price to pay for a Galaxy, but I was too broke for even that and passed on it. Today, money came in, so I […]
TWDB Mobile 0.2 is GO!
I figure about half my readers are of the age group that will immediately recognize the obscure 60’s TV show reference I just made in the title of the post. I can be fairly sure of that because Google Analytics tells me that’s the percentage of my readers who are roughly within my generation, age-wise. […]
Underwoods as far as the eye can see!
Tonight there’s an eyefull of Underwoods on the TWDB, but do not adjust your set – everything is fine. This phenomenon is the result of a massive re-organization of the Underwood category and my first attempt to really get in and clean up an entire category by normalizing and condensing Model Names. I’ve done this […]
Say Hello to TWDB Mobile!
Well, half the town was on lockdown yesterday thanks to some loony neo-nazi running around shooting at people, so I had some time to look at the jQuery Mobile documentation and ponder ideas about implementing a mobile-friendly version of the Typewriter Database. Well, you know how it goes – I zoned out and whipped this […]