Typewriter Sighting at the Center of the Tardis

Anyone else catch the treasure in the latest episode of Doctor Who: Journey to the Center of the Tardis?

And no, I'm not talking about the pretty lady.

It looks like a Remington to me, quite similar to one I've got hanging around in my collection. But I could be mistaken. It's only on camera for a second and a half.

ITAM Staycation Typecast

 

Do We Neglect The Healthy Machines?

 

Running For Fun and Mood Enhancement

Speaking of drinking, is it me or is the font on this Smith Corona Clipper uneven enough to qualify as drunk? It also shadows each keystroke into the next space, if I don’t get the touch exactly right.

I swear, officer, I know how to drive this thing.  I’ll be fine, honest!

Smith Corona Wobbly Font

The machine for this typecast is here.

Any Ribbon Recommendations?

Smith Corona Clipper is Christmas 2 of 2

Believe it or not, this is the first chance I’ve had to give my other retro Christmas gift a workout. It’s a Smith Corona Clipper. It seems to be a later incarnation of the flat-topped Smith Corona I got last year. It would benefit greatly from a new ribbon, but unfortunately all the ribbons I’ve got are already spoken for by other machines.

This one has seen a lot more use than most of the portables I’ve adopted. The physical wear along the strike-path of the ribbon attests to that. Still, it hasn’t suffered for it. In fact, it seems to be in better shape than many. It’s been serviced—I can see scuff-marks on some of the screw-heads, particularly on the ribbon vibrator.

There’s no obvious flaws. A rare treat! Almost every old machine has something or other wrong with it, like a dead bell, a spongy left margin, or a couple bent typebars. The only grouse I had about this one was a couple of keys that stuck on Christmas morning. Some machine oil and a weeks’ idleness took care of that. (No need to go blaming the “sticky ribbon” again!)

The action has a nice, stiff solidity to it. There’s a weight to the keys that doesn’t slow it down at all. Plus, the keys are those elegant metal-ringed lacquer ones the keychoppers so like to get their hands on. Not this time!

So times are still good around here, and the New Year's Resolution is holding strong. If I found something to complain about, you should berate me for ingratitude.

Although I might let slip that I’d be grateful for an extended break from work. As much as I’ve come to enjoy my job, I’ve been going for nearly a year without a vacation. My own fault. I think I’ll put in for a week in February, even if it just comes down to enjoying the peace and quiet of our own house.

Or would it be better to wait just a wee bit more, and take two weeks off in a row. Then, we could properly go someplace and do our relaxing there. A trip to the UK has been bandied about a few times over the past couple years.

But to do that properly, we’d have to go by ship, and take at least a month…

The Wife points out that I might should have become a schoolteacher. There’s regular vacations throughout the year and summers off besides. Lots of time to travel. Lots of time to write.

I’d have a hard time with the work, though. I’d be too tempted to encourage the students to respectfully question their teachers and find civilized ways of telling administrators to piss off. I certainly couldn’t advise high school students, in good conscience, to put themselves in debt to go to college. “Liberal Arts? Are you crazy? Let me speak to your parents…”

I’d be run off the campus in under a semester.

A girl I went to high school with is driving the school buses now, to support her writing career and her children. There’s unemployment to be had in the summer, and full pay for sitting long hours in the parking lots of sporting events. She writes articles for the local paper from the driver’s seat. And she doesn’t have to get involved in administrative politics. She’s paid just about as well as I am. Even with all these benefits, she says, the bus company can’t keep nearly enough drivers on hand to serve the school’s needs.

I think she might be on to something. Too bad I like my own job so much.

The original typecast was not really worth scanning, on account of the faint ribbon, so you all get a digitized final draft this time.

Another Vintage Typecast

This one from the 1970s. Left behind by my father.

Periodically I feel the urge to dig through his old journals. Once I typed them all into the computer and made a website out of them. I’m not sure why. I thought maybe I’d be free of a certain burden if I did that. But they’re still there in the closet, and we have moved them from home to home.

Do we study the decline of our ancestors in order to avoid continuing it? If so, why do I spend so much of my own time typing?

I should probably give them away to an aunt.

Vintage Typecast on Progress

Here’s a little something tapped out by an ancestor of mine. I suspect it was made by my grandmother when she was studying to be a secretary at the Lasalle Junior College in Newton in the late 30s. She used to brag about how her typing teachers wanted her to cut her long fingernails, but as long as she kept earning perfect scores on her typing tests they let her keep them.

I may have posted this image before, but I can’t find it. The other day the paper fell out of some storage boxes when we were tidying the barn and almost got trod upon, and I’m thinking it might be time to go through those boxes and preserve what’s worth saving.

I don’t have too much else from this era, but I do have a collection of handwritten civil war letters between a field surgeon  and his wife during the civil war which may be worth the project of scanning and sharing. I’ve also got a couple of binders of typewritten stories, journal entries, and poems my father left behind after a particularly bleak winter in Maine. A few of those might be worth putting up, as well. Some of the poetry is lovely.

Anyone else out there in the Typosphere have a collection of vintage documents to go with their machines?

Royal Companion is Christmas 1 of 2

1970s Royal Signet?

European Versus American Paper Sizes

Messing With Springs

Who knew there was so much to know about springs?

High Resolution Typecast

I set my scanner on its highest resolution to see how a typecast from the new Underwood would come out. Then I decided to churn it through some filters in the open-source image editing software The Gimp.

The original scan. Digital noise from the scanner was quite apparent at 1200 dpi.

Adjusted to a more Internet friendly resolution.

Contrast heightened.

Blurred to reduce the noise.

Introducing a little of my own noise.

A bit of cubism.

Bent in post-production.

A nice edge effect glow.

A little edgier.

Too much WD-40 on the ribbon.

What the Predator enjoys reading.

Almost got flowers growing in the text.

I always enjoy the interplay of analog and digital technologies.

It's a lovely typeface, I think. Maybe I'll get this printed on a couple of tee-shirts. Or a bumper sticker.

Underwood Acquisition

Some clean and lovely keys.

Decal on the back.

In its native environment.

Well, a bit of google image searching and some more time in the serial number database leads me to believe this is an Underwood Ace from 1938 or 39.  Funny, it struck me as being a bit newer than that. It's also funny that the last five or six typewriters I've taken home have been from this era.

If I wasn't done with collecting the things (I am, really...) I'd say it was time to skew the acquisitions a bit more to the 1960s era. Get a bit more color up in here. Not that I have any more room. Good thing I'm all done, then.

Royal KHM Gone Shiny

If I had not done this thing, I would have told you, I could not have done it.

I know it has a ways to go, but I can't resist some before and afters.

And look at that, it even had a serial number.

That little panel with the serial number was literally packed solid with dirt. Uncovering it was my first clue that this machine could really be turned back into something special.

Soft Scrub and cotton rags was the way to go. (Thanks again to Richard's classic typewriter restoration page.) Even as I saw it happening, I could not believe this was the same machine, or that such a lustrous lacquer finish could remain under 75 years' worth of grease, oil, tar and nicotine.The shine you see here is the result of cleaning and rubbing only. There's no wax or polish on here at all.

It took quite some doing, though. I got it to this point after a nine our marathon cleaning session, and it took the vigorous application and removal of soft-scrub an average of 30 times in each area to get to this finish. I went through an entire bag of rags from the hardware store, plus three old tee shirts.

Even with it shining like this, I could keep going and still have sticky yellow-brown gunk come off on the cloth.

I still need to have a go at the paper ledge and a bunch of the chrome parts. Also, bringing this outside on a sunny day makes it clear it really would respond well to some further efforts.

Mechanically it's improved dramatically as well. It responded well to a bit of oil on the carriage, and when I pulled off the front panel and those "shoulder" pieces, it exposed more gears and linkages for me to lubricate. Now it zips right along without a breath of hesitation. I can almost match the WPM of my Selectric on this thing.

Dirt, Ribbon, Dream

Royal KHM Typewriter Restoration

40 lbs of Serious Business

Not sure if Monty makes it look bigger or smaller.

Carriage rails like tank treads.

 

Five more lbs. of serious business.

Please let me know if the typecasts are still hard to read. You should be able to get them to open up full-sized with a single click.