Typewriters

And so begins the fascination of a typewriter?

Have always loved typing, love the sound and tactile feel of a typewriter but never owned one.

Tom Hanks, known also for his love of typewriters and they typed word, wrote this charming and informative article on typewriters:

I Am TOM, I Like to Type.  Hear That? Tom Hanks 2013, The New York Times - Sunday Review, august 3rd 2013. available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/04/opinion/sunday/i-am-tom-i-like-to-type-hear-that.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0, viewed on 2/09/2013.

favourite parts:

longevity of typed words:

"Short of chiseled words in stone, few handmade items last longer than a typed letter, for the ink is physically stamped into the very fibers of the paper, not layered onto the surface as with a laser-printed document or the status-setting IBM Selectric — the machine that made the manual typewriter obsolete."

"E-mails disappear from all but the servers of Google and the N.S.A. No one on the planet has yet to save an Evite. But pull out a 1960s Brother De Luxe 895, roll in a sheet of paper and peck out, “That party was a rocker! Thanks for keeping us dancin’ till quarter to three,” and 300 years from now that thank-you note may exist in the collection of an aficionado who treasures it the same as a bill of sale from 1776 for one dozen well-made casks from Ye Olde Ale Shoppe."

"Come to think of it, I’d better start hoarding stationery and pray the post office survives."

"pressing the dye into the paper where it will be visible for perpetuity unless you paint it over or burn the page."


sound of typing:

"Close your eyes as you touch-type and you are a blacksmith shaping sentences hot out of the forge of your mind."

"Remingtons from the 1930s go THICK THICK. Midcentury Royals sound like a voice repeating the word CHALK. CHALK. CHALK CHALK...Smith Corona Skyriter and the design masterpieces by Olivetti, go FITT FITT FITT "