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Downers Grove 23-year-old repairs typewriters for a living

Time for a round-up of more typewriter-related news from the last coupe of months now, starting with another familiar - but always welcome - story of an "old soul" (this time inhabiting the body of 23-year-old Chicagoan Lucas Dul) who continues to maintain the noble art of typewriter repairing.  All the usual traits are here - the then-teenager fascinated by the mechanical writing machine in his local antiques store, the desire to learn its secrets in order to get it working once again and the almost inevitable path it has taken him along in the intervening 9 years to becoming practically a full-time typewriter repair man.  It is a path that he is still only just starting out on, but already he clearly has the passion, knowledge and desire that we typosphereans know so well; once again it is wonderful to see from this article how this self-taught typewriter aficionado enjoys his job and truly appreciates the analogue nature of these machines, not to mention the generally old-fashioned world from which they originate.  It's a pleasure to read of young Mr Dul's accomplishments, his determination to make a proper - and clearly much-needed - business out of typewriter repairs (and sales) and the rewards he already gained (not least another machine from Tom Hanks' collection!) from his chosen calling. 

Ghostwriter - AI Typewriter from Arvind on Vimeo.

What Lucas Dul - or indeed any typospherean - would make of this next item I wouldn't hazard to guess but I suppose with the frighteningly fast advancements in artificial intelligence it was only a matter of time before someone came up with the notion of combining this futuristic tech with the simple tactility of the typewriter.  So it is that that engineer-designer Arvind Sanjeev has taken an old, battered Brother electric typewriter and, using a Raspberry Pi computer along with other gubbins of which I am ignorant, has hooked it up to an OpenAI GPT-3 chatbot which will read and respond to anything typed on the now charmingly-named "Ghostwriter".  This is very much at the forefront of old-meets-new technology and Mr Sanjeev's intentions in creating this remarkable crossbreed are most thought-provoking - questioning, as we all are, AI's place in the world and the impact it has (and will doubtless continue to have) on our lives.  To marry it to analogue machinery as a way of making it more familiar, less overwhelming and more of a recognisable tool - especially for users of "old tech", creatives and so forth - is a fascinating take on the of AI and I commend Mr Sanjeev for his visionary thinking in mating these two seemingly quite disparate technologies so seamlessly and successfully.  The Ghostwriter definitely makes AI seem less intimidating for me and would certainly find a place amongst my collection! 

   

University of Winchester to revive typewriters for festival

Finishing off closer to home now - well, the UK at least, although Winchester is my ancestral home (and I may even be related to one of the lecturers featured in this article!) - we find two more like-minded creative writers who are organising what amounts to a type-in at the forthcoming Bournemouth Writing Festival on the 26th-28th April.  An AI-linked typewriter would be an interesting addition to their "Stanza Room", I fancy, but regardless the idea sounds a wizard wheeze, with the plan for various typers to be laid out for visitors to write whatever they like from poems to artwork while Dr Rutter and Ms Waite serenade them on their own machines.  I am sure it will prove to be a worthwhile addition to the festival and I am only sorry that I will be unable to attend, nor to provide any related paraphernalia that they are understandably requesting.  Still I have no doubt that the endeavour will be a success and I will be with them in [typewriting] spirit if nothing else!

There we have it, then - three more stories that prove typewriters are as alive and healthy as they've ever been with the very real expectation that they will continue to have a future in society, from repaired originals [at writing festivals] all the way up to AI-powered hybrids.

Bessie Coleman, pioneering pilot, now has her own Barbie

Bessie Coleman, pioneering pilot, now has her own Barbie

Well, this is something I never thought I'd be blogging about.  Not that I'm an expert on such things as dolls, you understand (although while we're at it, who else remember Sindy?).  Anyway, this is more a case of the subject within a subject being of interest (hopefully!) to my readers, with the news that Mattel, maker of the Barbie doll, has honoured one of the pioneers of early aviation with the latest addition to their range.

source - Wikimedia Commons

The aviatrix in question is Elizabeth "Bessie" Coleman, who made history in 1921 when she became the first black person to obtain an international pilot's licence.  Her story is one that frankly deserves more recognition and I can only hope that this acknowledgement by Mattel goes some way towards achieving that.  

Born in Atlanta, Texas in 1892 Bessie Coleman seemed all set to follow in her parents' footsteps as a cotton picker.  However from an early age she proved to be an academic student, fond of reading and a whizz at maths, such that she was given a scholarship by the local Baptist church that eventually enabled her to attend what is now the Langston University in Oklahoma.  The money did not last, though, and she was only able to complete a single term before she was forced to return to Texas.

source - Wikimedia Commons/NASA

At the age of 23 Bessie found herself living in Chicago with her brothers, working as a manicurist in a local barbershop.  It was here that she was first exposed to the wonders of early flight, listening to the stories returning air force pilots would tell whilst getting a trim.  Inspired by these thrilling stories she took a second job in a chili restaurant to help pay for flying lessons, despite neither black people nor women being allowed to join flying schools.  Fortunately she was able to gain support from the editor of a Chicago-based African-American newspaper, Robert S. Abbott of the Chicago Defender, and prominent African-American banker Jesse Binga, who between them helped publicise and pay for her flying lessons.  To get over the hurdle of the U.S. flying school bans it was recommended that Coleman travel to France, where there were no such restrictions.  In an early example of her strong-minded and intellectual nature, she immediately attended a French language school in Chicago and having learnt the language promptly left the United States for Europe.  Arriving in Paris at the end of November 1920 she spent the next 6 months learning to fly before finally achieving what no black woman had done before - obtaining a pilot's licence.  Determined to be the best flyer she could, Bessie continued to take flying lessons under the tutelage of an unnamed ex-WW1 French ace before returning to America in September 1921.

Bessie and a Pathé cameraman during a visit to Berlin in 1925
source - New York Public Library

Despite widespread media attention in America at her achievement, Bessie was quick to realise that if she were to make a living as a civilian pilot in her home country then barnstorming was pretty much the only way to go.  Again showing remarkable prudence Coleman, still having found no-one in the U.S. willing to teach her the advanced flying skills she would need, returned to France to undertake further lessons.  Touring Europe she met famous Dutch aircraft designer Anthony Fokker and visited his factory in Germany where she was given more training by the chief test pilot.  Now fully versed in all aspects of advanced flight, she once again returned to the U.S.A. where, billed as "Queen Bess", she wowed crowds around the country in various Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" biplanes - earning her the well-deserved title of "The World's Greatest Woman Flier".  Resolute in her desire to perform the most difficult stunts and understandably vocal in promoting African-American aviation she toured the country for the next 4 years giving lectures and exhibition flights.  During a visit to Orlando, Florida she befriended a local vicar and his wife, who all but adopted her as a daughter; remaining in Orlando Bessie opened her own beauty parlour with the aim of making enough money to buy her own aeroplane.  

Bessie and one of her Curtiss JN-4's, c.1922
source - Wikimedia Commons

In April 1926 this she finally did, purchasing another Curtiss JN-4 in Dallas, Texas.  Sadly, however, it was this aircraft that would be her downfall.  Bessie was in Jacksonville, Florida, at the time of the purchase so the aeroplane was flown back from Dallas by her 24-year-old mechanic and publicity agent William D. Wills.  He was reportedly forced to land three times along the journey due to the terrible condition the aircraft had been kept in by its previous owner.  Despite its obviously dangerous shortcomings and against all the advice of friends and relatives, Bessie went up (as a passenger) in the Jenny with Wills on the 30th April 1926 to practice for a parachute jump she intended to perform the following day.  At 3,000ft the aircraft suddenly went into an uncontrollable dive and spun into the ground.  Bessie was thrown from the cockpit and sadly died on the ground; Wills was also killed instantly when the Jenny impacted the ground and exploded.  Detailed examination of the wreckage subsequently revealed a wrench for maintaining the engine had been left in the machine, causing the controls to jam.

Bessie Coleman's tragically early death at the age of 34 was, despite her undoubted fame, largely ignored by all but the African-American press.  In spite of this, over ten thousand mourners turned out for her funeral in Chicago and over the many years following she was honoured with several roads, schools and other public buildings being named after her, to say nothing of various museum exhibits, commemorative stamps etc.

Bessie in a Chicago press photo, 1925
source - New York Public Library

Barbie celebrates pioneering pilot Bessie Coleman with new doll

Now can be added to that list a Barbie doll designed in her image (I have to admit not seeing much of a likeness, although as I said at the top of this post dolls are not really my metier), with a snappy-looking aviatrix get-up featuring flying suit, boots and initialled cap.  It is splendid to see such a previously-overlooked trailblazer of (black) women's aviation marked in this way and I commend Mattel for choosing to highlight this historically important woman.  If it can also encourage young girls of any colour to take an interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) Learning and aviation in particular, then so much the better.

Vintage Chicago film found at estate sale shows 1940s-era city

Vintage Chicago Film Found at Estate Sale Shows 1940s-era City

The subject of this post sounds like something my aunt and uncle would find during their numerous trawls of estate sales, or a treasure we could only dream of unearthing in the far rarer house clearances that occur with much less frequency in Britain.

It's a constant source of amazement to me that films such as this can turn up in the most unlikeliest of places decades after they were shot, capturing the attention of people - social historians, nostalgists, you, me - that the makers (and those who appeared on the screen) could never have even imagined.  But they do, as this latest example so amply demonstrates, and I for one am continually grateful for the fact.  How many historical gems have lain - and continue to lay - forgotten and undiscovered in the corner of a dusty archive, or nearly been thrown away (or worse, actually thrown away), all because of a vague/wrong label?

This could have been the case here (and likely would have been, had it occurred in this country) had the canister containing the film not been snapped up by a curious Chicagoan.  It is perhaps not surprising that the new owner showed such an interest in it since, in one of those serendipitous incidents that sometimes occur, the chap is a young film & video technician.  I'll bet even he never expected to uncover an amazing portal to Chicago 70 years ago, though, and neither did anybody else judging by the negligible amount of money he ended up paying for it!

The contents have proved to be of far greater historical value, however, containing as they do over thirty minutes' footage of mid-Forties Chicago - everywhere from the usual tourist haunts to the less-visited working districts.  It is a wonderful time capsule of what still remains "a city of beauty, strength and power" and a glorious glimpse of a time past; so unusual that even the Chicago Film Archives and the Chicago Board of Education (for whom the original film was made) are having trouble finding a record of it.

Regardless of whether the reasons become known as to why this film was shot and how it stayed undiscovered for so, it is splendid to see it again in all its glory and to know that it will be appreciated as a snapshot of history.  Once again, it makes you wonder just what else is out there waiting to be found!

A World's Fair look into the future

A World's Fair look into the future

This originally came to my attention last week just after I had posted my "last blog before Christmas", so I held it back until now. It seems more fitting to do a post about retro-futurism as the new year looms, anyway.

What it must have been like to have attended one of these fantastical shows I can scarcely imagine. It amazes me that, with the Depression in full swing and another world war looming, they were put on at all. It's almost as if a blind eye was being turned against the troubles of the world but then, that is was escapism is all about really. It is a wonderful testament to the human qualities of hope and imagination that, even in the face of so much trouble, people were willing to dream and look to the future in so grandiose a fashion.

We mostly look back now at these visions of the future with a mixture of derision and regret. By applying Thirties Modernism to conjure up an idea of the future as it then was these fairs created buildings, machines and furniture in a style that appeals to us vintage fans today. Streamlining, geometric lines, dark woods mixed with metals and giant domes and spires makes what we have today look cheap and staid by comparison and leaves us wondering - why couldn't it be like that now? On the other hand the idea of a smoking robot housekeeper is a rather far-fetched bit of silliness. Still, this is what retro-futurism is all about - to us, some aspects of the present haven't turned out as well as forefathers envisioned they would, so we look back and marvel at some of the designs and inventions that people 70 or 80 years ago thought we would be using today.

It remains in a sense a snapshot of the period for, although this was a glimpse into the future, it was done using the styles of the time so it is only the past's idea of another age (confused yet?). However you choose to look at it though there's no denying that they were amazing yet sadly unfulfilled flights of fancy.