Smith-Corona Galaxie: Typewriter of destiny

Where I got the Galaxie

Binding machine

I am here to accept the award for fewest updates by a typecaster this week. I'd like to thank the academy for their votes, and also take a moment to say, there are no finer typecasters in all of the Ludditeosphere than my fellow nominees, and it has been an honor to stand beside you all in competition for this award. (Cue national anthem)

Ok, with that out of the way, I have only to say that a foreign language immersion class has Hoovered away the last remaining granules of my free time, resulting in a dearth of typecasts, and also, on a recent bureaucratic mission to a nondescript office of business, I nerdily engaged the receptionist in a lengthy discussion about the inner-workings of this object, which unsurprisingly, I found intriguing. I could watch these things all day.

To those of you wondering whether I also enjoy watching paint dry, the answer is, not as much as I like to watch coil binding machines.

By way of random addition, here is Twist Top's blog post about typewriters in the movies. I am not much of a movie fan, so I don't have much to contribute to the roster, but can anyone think of any famous cinematic typewriters not part of this list?

Prison typewriters: Typewriters that kill

Here's an interesting article on the banning of typewriters (frequently used by inmates to author legal complaints) within the Nevada prison system. According to officials, escapements, platens, and paper bails make for good bloodletting implements in a pinch.

The Nevada ACLU has taken up the prisoners' cause, calling typewriters a conduit for exercising a fundamental right: access to the court system. That typewriters are involved in prison shenannigans is apparently not in question, but should this curtail prisoners' rights to access?

Setting this politically loaded topic aside, I did some poking around to find out how exactly prisons obtain the typewriters they use. The interwebs coughed up this procurement memo from New York state, containing this line item about Swintec clear-cabinet electric typewriters:

SUBJECT: PRISON TYPEWRITERS & NEW PRICE LIST TO ALL STATE AGENCIES AND OTHERS AUTHORIZED TO USE STATE CONTRACTS:

Swintec East has introduced the Swintec 2410 Clear Cabinet Personal Typewriter and the Swintec 2416DM 128K Clear Cabinet Personal Typewriter. These typewriters were designed specifically for use by prison inmates in their cells. The Clear Cabinet facilitates inspection of the equipment by correctional employees. No contraband may be concealed within the cabinets as the interior is fully visible from all angles. Price is as follows:

Swintec 2410 Clear Cabinet Personal Typewriter $192.00
Swintec 2416DM 128K Clear Cabinet Personal Typewriter $297.00

The above pricing is based on the current price list: Swintec Corporation Suggested Retail Price List dated October 1, 2003.

Clear cabinet typewriters? Fascinating.

Update: Here is a page from the Swintec site featuring their clear cabinet typewriter line. It would appear prices have gone up in recent years.

Faxes, pencils, ham radio, and other rambles

I want this pencil.

I have a half-typed typecast wrapped around the platen of my Hermes 3000 that was abandoned last night in a fit of exhaustion, and so you are getting a theme-free digi-rant in its place, because at least I can type it lying down. Wondering how this is all going to shake out in November, when I will theoretically be typing 1,666 words a day, sitting up. Will you?

If you know anything about fountain pens, you have some work to do.

Did I really check Ham Radio for Dummies and The History of the Typewriter, Successor to the Pen out of the library? (To show that I am a person of literary balance, I also checked out Maisy, Charlie, and the Wobbly Tooth). Perhaps justifiably, the husband's eyebrow went up oh so slightly when he saw Ham Radio for Dummies, probably wondering where I plan to put my transceiver with all of these typewriter cases sitting around.

When whims such as these strike, I deeply regret that my dad lives 2,000 miles away or so; as a former teletype repairman and general tinkerer with 20th century communications equipment, he'd serve as an invaluable partner in crime.

There is actually a piece of vintage communications technology that I DON'T like: the fax machine. I had to use one today: a boxy, manila concrete block issuing forth that strangled analog death shriek and randomly vomiting out cryptic status logs in slo-mo. There's always some piece of paper tacked on the wall over these damned things with a 30-step procedure involving dialing special extension numbers and passcodes, guaranteeing that the first half dozen attempts to send the fax end in busy signals, angry beeping, or sullen non-responsiveness from this stubbornly persistent relic of 20th century tech.

Back to this matter of The History of the Typewriter, Successor to the Pen for a digressive moment: what's with typewriter books' fixation on those rusty old boat anchor typers from the turn of the century? I demand an exhaustive tome exclusively focused on my typewriter era of choice: the 1960's. I want a treatise on this unsuspecting era of typewriter ubiquity, before the dawn of the digital age, when imposing, homely masterworks of typewriter technology such as the Olympia SM9 reigned supreme. Who's with me? Who wants to read this book? What should we call it? Twilight of the Typer? Carriage of No Return?

Olympia SM 9 typewriter manual

Don't say I never did you any favors. Here is my Olympia SM 9 typewriter manual (at least, the one that comes with the late 60's models) in all its scanned glory (a little dark-- it was itself not a very high quality scan, and so squint to see the text in the typewriter diagram).

I've found this manual to be, well, a little on the unhelpful side. It's brief. Also, it contains curiously meaningless translated German section titles like "Is all this known already?" and "This, too, is necessary." However, without it, I wouldn't have known that the SM 9 has a margin alignment feature that allows you to cram extra letters into an already typed word. This, too, was not known already.

Danke und gute nacht.

Telegraph keys: a new collecting frontier?

This is one of those times when, for lack of original content, I'd usually offer up a smattering of typewriter links, except that I can find no news items about everyone's favorite washed-up writing machine. So. Would it help if I said that I am half-done scanning my Olympia SM-9 manual to post on the site?

Today I passed by a little local railroad museum and saw through the window an Oliver No. 3 sitting on an old wooden station agent's desk, and so of course, I had to go in. Immediately, the family and I were accosted by an elderly museum host decked out in railroad regalia, who proceeded to educate us on the fine points of late 19th century railroad technology for the following half hour. A highlight was the ability to play around with a functioning telegraph key, which my 2 year old quizzically clicked. Lowlight? The Oliver was ensconced well behind a velvet rope, and I couldn't get anywhere near it.

Anyway, this got me to thinking that clearly I need a J-38, with which I could begin podcasting in Morse Code. Morsecasting? People, are you with me? A new collecting frontier?

Just kidding.

Sort of.

Ephemera: Anatomy of a salaryman

Was a time in the not-distant past when I studied Japanese, due to a series of business trips in which I was sent to Japan to listen to dispirited phone support agents complain about my work in a language I did not understand.



I went to great lengths to comprehend their scorn, even eventually accomplishing the ability to barely read the first (and easiest) of three character sets used in the written language. Due to various circumstances, including a sudden change in job roles, my Japanese studies subsequently died on the vine, and I regressed to a state of total ignorance once again, like Charlie in Flowers for Algernon.

And yet, ephemera remains: as I mucked out the jumbled bookshelves in my house last weekend, I ran across these photocopied pages handed out by my former Japanese teacher, concerning the cultural aspects of business relations in Japan. She acknowledged they were from an old book, and a little silly. I like them.

Typecast: A Smith-Corona Galaxie followed me home

Wow, lots of bad spelling and verb tense changes in there. Might be time to invest in some Wite-out.

Should those of us who collect typewriters call this a "kill day" story? You know, a kill day: a random day when you happen to add another suitcased writing anvil to the dusty row of them already in residence in your [attic, garage, closet, behind the red chair stuffed into that nook off the stairs]?

Did I happen to mention that the one year anniversary of Strikethru, which occurred in late July, passed entirely without fanfare? (It's 'cause I forgot.)

Spouse and I spent three hours last night totally rearranging our rather imposing collection of books into actual categories, almost like a used book store. Came really close to busting out the Dymo Mite tapewriter and labeling the shelves.

Update: Here is a picture of the Galaxie.