
The Last of the Typewriter Men - balbaugh
https://medium.com/backchannel/the-last-of-the-typewriter-men-729f150c5083
======
Animats
I restore old Teletype machines as a hobby. Only WWII and earlier machines,
ones that are much older than I am. The oldest machine I have is from 1926,
and it's fully restored. It's currently in my living room, hooked to a Reuters
RSS feed via a USB to Teletype converter I built and an old EeePC subnotebook
hidden away in a cabinet. Push the button and the current news prints on a
long paper tape.

A completed project:
[http://www.aetherltd.com/refurbishing15.html](http://www.aetherltd.com/refurbishing15.html)

A project in progress:
[http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,43672.0.html](http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,43672.0.html)

There's a hobbyist community restoring these machines, and full maintenance
documentation is available. Restoring them isn't too tough. They were designed
to be maintainable. The guys who try to restore minicomputer Teletypes from
the 1970s have more trouble than those of us restoriong the 1920s and 1930s
designs.

~~~
616c
You, sir, are a badass.

I was thinking of giving my very young son my EeePC 701 when he is a little
older, now I might change my mind.

------
kfcm
A couple weeks ago, I had some paperwork to do at a county Recorder's office.
As I'm standing there writing, I heard the rough sound of gears turning 3
times, and a chunk-chunk-chunk. Sounds at once both familiar yet distant in
memory. Sounds which were so common yesterday--if yesterday was 20 years ago--
now almost shocking to hear.Without looking, I knew an IBM Selectric was being
used to fill out a form.

I stopped writing and just listened for a bit, letting the keystrokes, the
ball strikes, and the platen and roller movements take me back in time.

~~~
jmduke
I really like this comment.

If you don't mind, can you expand more? What do you associate typewriters
with? How do you feel about their passage?

~~~
keithpeter
Offices: mostly Olympia mechanical desk typewriters with a solid and fairly
quiet sound, some IBM Selectric(?) machines. Not continuous (I was a messenger
and went from office to office) and the work was often typing into preprinted
forms (bills of lading and telegraphic transfers for shipping cargo). Small
rooms. You tended to have partitions in offices to isolate sound of
typewriters (or may be just historical coincidence that the transition to open
plan occurred around the same time as electrics/PCs came in).

Typing rhythm: my mother recovering from a stroke (early 40s) relearning
typing on an ancient manual at home. The rhythm slowly getting more fluid as
her speed increased and the hands synchronised.

How do I feel? Neutral. They just phased out into electric machines then early
word-processors (Wangs with those printers in blimps to cut the noise down)
then to regular PCs and some Macs for designers. I wasn't in offices too much
during the transition phase, and I am not a trained typist. The sound of a
manual typewriter links me back to early memories really quickly because of
its rarity now.

------
sfeng
The subtitle is a bit odd: "A dynasty of repairmen is keeping the world’s
typewriters from going obsolete"

There isn't much doubt they've already gone obsolete. They're preventing them
from going extinct.

------
Pfiffer
> From the 1920s to the 1950s, steel reigned.

Fun side fact: Straight razors are much the same way. Take a look at the sheer
amount of material on an 1850's Wade & Butcher[0] vs. a more modern
example[1]. I'd love to see some other examples of this.

[0]
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/104820964@N07/11037188944/](https://www.flickr.com/photos/104820964@N07/11037188944/)

[1]
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/mriney/5683505146](https://www.flickr.com/photos/mriney/5683505146)

~~~
vanderZwan
Planes come to mind.

Basically, back in the age of the slide ruler, engineers "overcompensated" in
durability. This is why older planes are much heavier (so more inefficient and
costly to run) but also last forever.

PS: Not to crap on the structural engineering of more modern planes, don't get
me wrong! Check out this video:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai2HmvAXcU0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai2HmvAXcU0)

~~~
walshemj
My dad did some consulting for the London Underground on the Power side a few
years back and he commented that the stuff built in the 30's was more reliable
than the 70's era.

------
shaunxcode
There is a fellow in Los Altos doing this sort of work
[http://www.losaltosbusinessmachines.com/](http://www.losaltosbusinessmachines.com/).
He sold me a gutted typewriter for 10 bucks that I am turning into an xy
plotter based typewriter. He had a few selectrics sitting around but no apl
golf balls for sale.

------
personlurking
This is interesting. I've been considering purchasing a typewriter but I fear
the "clackity-clack" sounds would annoy my SO. I've heard of the noiseless
variety but upon some YouTube viewing, it doesn't seem they're actually
silent. This, in turn, has led me to consider an electric one.

On a side note, while attempting to solve a -50 error on iTunes, Apple Support
told me "Apple does not support vintage or obsolete products." I have an
original MBA (2008)...
[http://i.imgur.com/UR7HsZp.png](http://i.imgur.com/UR7HsZp.png)

------
keithpeter
_" One benefit of being the last one standing is that when competitors close,
Schweitzer won much of their business, he says."_ \--quote from OA

I have noticed this with electric organs (Hammond &c), (mechanical) pianos,
film camera repair, vintage car maintenance. Legacy tech has a business model
associated with it based on longevity! A few can consolidate and eke out the
remaining volume aided by the discover-ability the Internet provides. Nice.

------
evincarofautumn
The typewriter lives on in spirit in our monospaced fonts, and our ASCII
programming languages that can still be comfortably written on a typewriter
from 1960.

------
CurtMonash
I had a classmate in 1969 who told me that his father's career was repairing
old typewriters. He was Egyptian, had developed this skill post-WW2, and there
we were in the late 1960s. We lived in a middle class/upper middle class area
-- the "poor" part of Beverly Hills -- so I guess he did well.

------
agentultra
Nice article!

I use an electric typewriter. Nothing beats it for creative writing: no app or
digital device comes close to a blank sheet of paper and silence.

I found a store like this once in Toronto. An "office machines" shop tucked
away in a small corner of the city. It's really quite a trip.

~~~
Gracana
> I use an electric typewriter. Nothing beats it for creative writing

There's another use case for typewriters that computer still aren't very good
at: filling out forms. I haven't bought one yet but I can definitely see why
some companies still use them to fill out pre-printed forms.

~~~
tjohns
I grew up with word processors, but I still kept an electric typewriter handy
for filling out paper forms. It was a pain to align the print head with fields
on paper, and erasing was a chore if I had to go back than the machine's 5
word buffer would allow. But it still looked better than my handwriting would
have.

I kinda miss having it around. But on the plus side, my handwriting's a lot
better these days -- and most forms come in PDF format now, anyway.

------
currysausage
The title photo is cool. I like how he stows his LaserJet where other people
might stow an old typewriter that they will probably never use again.

~~~
jaak
The article says half his revenue comes from printer repairs and if you go to
their website it prominently features being HP certified for repairing
LaserJet printers.

[http://gramercyhprepairs.com/hplaserprinters.html](http://gramercyhprepairs.com/hplaserprinters.html)

------
walshemj
I learnt to type on a typewriter the school district gave me one at 7 or 8
when I was diagnosed with dyslexia.

------
Sir_Substance
It's a shame. It's kind of a nice feelgood story, but unfortunately it's
ruined by also being an ad. I find people trying to advertise to me ruins most
things.

