Five reasons to still use a typewriter
We (that is, the family) had a Brother electric typewriter back in the early 1990s, prior to the advent of affordable personal computers. 'Fraid I can't remember the model though (could have been an early Wrexham CM1000, in fact - they all look alike to me! Not as huge a fan of electric types as I am of the good old manual typewriter.). Still ours was used fairly frequently, mainly by mother for work but also by me for schoolwork (always enjoyed the auto-correct function, I must admit!) and to give the old Imperial a bit of a rest now and then!
Britain's 'last typewriter' produced
The demise of British typewriter production does have a personal aspect then, as it also seems to in a wider sense for a great many Britishers who remember using [manual] typewriters and the U.K.'s manufacturing heyday. From my point of view (and, I suspect, a number of my readers') it has the added layer of interest tinged with sadness as the sphere of the typewriter grows slightly smaller still. As such it may not be the kind of jolly story this blog values and is known for, but it is a little bit of noteworthy technological history in the making and deserves to be documented here.
The typewriter will no doubt continue for many more years to come both in its existing modern form and in its previous incarnations thanks to the concerted efforts of the Typosphere. From now on, though, only the latter will exist in Britain.
I did hear about this on the radio and felt quite sad and nostalgic! My mum trained at secretarial school in the early '60s (and had a wild time living in Soho by the sounds of it, I have seen the pictures of her in mini skirts leaning on the bonnets of sports cars!) and I used her trusty typewriter to initially learn to type on (before she bought me the Mavis Beacon typing tutor for the PC). I bet she's still got it somewhere, will have to find it.
ReplyDeleteTom Hanks collects typewriters I believe...
Porcelina xx
My mum trained for secretarial work in the early '60s too (I've seen pics and heard stories of mini-skirted mayhem as well!) and whenever I'm hammering away on my hefty old Imperial (admittedly in need of a tune-up!) I always marvel at how she managed to learn to touch type on similar machines.
DeleteTom Hanks is indeed an avid collector and very nice and enthusiastic about them, too.
The end of an era. I adored my electric type writer as a child :)
ReplyDeleteI can't type to save my life and become utterly illiterate when I do...it takes me ages to do it properly....but somehow I find this rather a shame. My favourites are the huge old Remingtons, I wonder who wrote what on them and all that lark. That's one of the reasons I adore really old gramophones, wondering who owned them and what they listened to. Bright Young Things scandalising everyone, ancient Aunts with Strauss or dyspeptic and irascible Uncles with military marches, perhaps, the list goes on.
ReplyDeleteThey say that using a typewriter concentrates the mind and I can well believe it, but its not for everyone I admit and it must have been hell for some people in the days before spellchecker and the delete key(!).
DeleteI think the curiosity you describe about the previous life of old machines is almost universal among fans of the past & vintage - certainly I feel the same and not just about mechanical objects either but also books, clothes, in fact anything from another generation.