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Typewriters.

visionology

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Originally Posted by LabelKing
This is a very nice looking one:

OlympiaS.jpg



This is very similar to the one we have. Only used by my father who refuses to embrace technology. I remember hearing him swearing as a child with every mistake he made and the bottles of whiteout consumed daily. Hardly a time saver IMO.
 

faustian bargain

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that's funny...i swear at the computer screen and then hit 'undo'.

man i wish life had an 'undo' button.
 

robbie

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I own 2, a royal from an estate sale... and another I rescued from my grandparents attic.

I have had a hard time tracking down ribbon, so I only type the occasionally thank-you card or letter on them.

robbie
 

ms244

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I have two selectrics sitting here.

One is still complete but doesn't run for some reason. The other I started to take apart, I was curious how it worked. Got both for free.

The selectric was the first commercially successful typewriter with the ball element, not the individual keys.

Its a completely mechanical device, other then the little electric motor. You can replace it with a handle for your manservant and it would still work.

If you find one in the trash, I highly recommend grabbing it. It is a very intricate device, hard to believe it was designed with a slide rule and a pencil.

Odddly, I have an IBM (lenovo) laptop.
 

AdmiralGrafSpee

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I have a terrifyingly boring electric Smith Corona, similar to the one pictured below:

s_p_23500_1.jpg


I love it for quick notes to myself and simple homework assignments. Its only redeeming quality is that it is set in Helvetica.

I often visit abandoned hospitals, insane asylums, and schools which have the occasional typewriter laying around. Hopefully I will find one that can be salvaged.
 

acidboy

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I still use an Olympia exactly like this:
olympiamanualtypewriter.jpg
Its a good and fast way to fill up forms and whatnots. Back in grade school in the early 80s we were made to attend typing class where the object is to become "touch typists" meaning we could type a minimum of 30 wpm without taking our eyes away from the document we're copying.
 

robbie

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Originally Posted by acidicboy

Back in grade school in the early 80s we were made to attend typing class where the object is to become "touch typists" meaning we could type a minimum of 30 wpm without taking our eyes away from the document we're copying.



I took a similar class only on a computer. If you looked down at your hands ever the teacher replaced your keyboard with one that only had blank keys.

Thanks to that class internet forums I was able to take dictation at something like 83 words a minute my freshman year of college.
 

acidboy

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Our typing class teacher would remove and mix the keys up on those Underwoods we use for his enjoyment.
 

spacepuppy

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I do use one occasionally. It's nice to have your words pounded into nice heavy paper. For those who have not tried one I recommend it.
 

LabelKing

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Originally Posted by AdmiralGrafSpee
I have a terrifyingly boring electric Smith Corona, similar to the one pictured below:

s_p_23500_1.jpg


I love it for quick notes to myself and simple homework assignments. Its only redeeming quality is that it is set in Helvetica.

I often visit abandoned hospitals, insane asylums, and schools which have the occasional typewriter laying around. Hopefully I will find one that can be salvaged.


I love those.
 

crazyquik

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Craigslist
fing02[1].gif


For some reason I'm attached to the ones which came in their own carrying case, so you can snatch them up and take them anywhere. This is about like the first typewriter I remember.

3nd3p63leZZZZZZZZZ938cd43e3669bc41989.jpg


3k63mf3p4ZZZZZZZZZ938d76cd4f553061943.jpg
 

Dewey

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In typing class I sat next to a guy who cheerfully failed by refusing the type the assigned letters. They were really dated faux "business" letters out of a textbook that must have been 20-30 years old in 1985. Instead of "Dear Sir: Thank you for inquiring about our line of spring clothing." etc. he wrote fan letters to Bing Crosby. Who was dead. Never seen someone so enjoy failing a class before.
 

Gus

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I avoid using typewriters for ransom notes and death threats since I understand that the FBI and other organizations can trace the letters back to me. For those purposes, I much prefer the cut out letters and paste method.

ransom.gif
 

Berticus

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Originally Posted by robbie
I took a similar class only on a computer. If you looked down at your hands ever the teacher replaced your keyboard with one that only had blank keys.

Thanks to that class internet forums I was able to take dictation at something like 83 words a minute my freshman year of college.


Took a similar class in elementary school. Didn't really help since I continued to hunt and peck outside of that class. I only started touch typing when I actually started using the computer heavily. I just sort of realized by using more than my index fingers, I could type a lot faster. And it didn't take long for the muscles to remember where the keys were. Now I'm up to 100 wpm. Been thinking about increasing it to 133 wpm (or maybe I could break the Guinness World record and reach 200 wpm) by changing the keyboard layout to something like Dvorak, XPeRT, or Colemak.

My dad found our electric typewriter recently.
 

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