Friday, August 9, 2013

Send Monkeys!, or: Problem? I Don't Have a Problem.


I've been compared to a cat lady. It just happened. In my defense, a typewriter doesn't climb into bed with you and fart in your face.


I suspect that this place is haunted. I'm going to put paper in all of them tonight and those ghosts had better have a story for me by morning. Earn your keep, dead people.


I tried to group them by manufacturer, but that didn't work as well as I liked. So I just went by tallest to shortest, like in a class picture. That also didn't work.


It may be a sign of my obsessive condition to let you know that I bought my first typewriter in 1988. It was a Montgomery-Ward Signature 510 (Brother rebranding). I used it until 1995 when I got my first computer. I didn't own or use one again until 2010, when I literally stumbled over a Sears Citation 12 in a thrift store for $10. So, all these typewriters have been purchased since then. There is a Signature 510 in the above picture (top row, second from left) but it's not my original one. I no longer own that. But it's just as crappy in every way as that one was.


 These all actually work (to varying degrees, let's not get crazy), though I cannibalized the ribbon spools from the Olivetti 22 (the one without the ribbon cover). I do have extras but I haven't located them yet. It works fairly well but has a few issues. Also, my two Smith-Corona electrics are here (second row). I normally frown on electrics, unless they're $10 and they work.

 
The Underwood and the Royal HH flank the empty space where whatever typewriter I'm currently using will go. I like to switch out and use them all from time to time, just to keep everything working.

5 comments:

  1. Wow, you've amassed ten Olivettis (if I counted right). I'd be so disappointed if you tell me that you're not a fan. ( :

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    1. No, you're right. I love Olivettis. They made some fantastic machines. I counted nine. The blue Montgomery-Ward Escort 350 and the Orange Sears Chevron sometimes get passed off by sellers on eBay as Olivettis even though they're plastic Japanese-made clones with red TAB keys. There are two Olivetti 22s, two 32s (one with script font), the Studio 44, the Underwood 21, the Montgomery-Ward Escort 450 (aka Studio 45), the Underwood 330 (aka M-W Escort 55), and the Olivetti 35.

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    2. And make that an Escort 66, not a 450.

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  2. And what stories did the ghosts have for you that night?

    ReplyDelete