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The Morse of Barr-Morse Typewriters
This is a 1923 US passport photograph of Frank Lincoln Morse, the Morse Chain president who was behind the Barr-Morse Typewriter Corporation of Ithaca, New York. Frank Morse and John Henry Barr, as...
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See the Beautiful Margaret Benedict Owen, World's Fastest Typist, in Action
From the Wim van Rompuy CollectionAlthough Margaret Benedict Owen is not identified in this Frank Bunker Gilbreth time-and-motion film, it is very clearly her. We do know that Owen took part in a...
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The Corona 3 Portable Typewriter: Gentle to a Child's Touch, but Tougher than...
Three-year-old Alberta Cardinal types on her Corona 3 portable typewriter in 1922. Alberta was the daughter of Queens, New York, factory machinist, printer and painter Albert Cardinal and his wife...
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Just For Fun: Making a Nakajima Hermes
A Nakajima "Hermes"?Georg Sommeregger's Nakajima HermesA Nakajima ALL 550Richard Amery's Nakajima ALLAs a Pinnock, sold by Currie Furniture Manufacturing in Australia.As a KMartAfter I posted on the...
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Spare a Thought for Little Eugenie Rispaud
Much has been written on this blog about those superhuman women and men who won world speed typing championships between 1888-1945. But where there were winners, so were there losers. Some more lost...
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Trapped By Typewriters
This is what it feels like to be hemmed in at every turn by typewriters. Typewriters everywhere, with nary a drop of ink in the house. I am trying desperately hard to burst free, with more than 20...
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Order of Accurate Typists
In late October 1915, James Nelson Kimball (1855-1943), for 25 years the organiser of the world speed typing championships, founded the Order of Accurate Typists. For what exact purpose the order was...
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Directions for Operating the Gorin Billing and Tabulating Attachment on...
This device, outlawed in 1907, was also used on a New Century typewriter. The full handbook for this New Century model can be seen here.Frederick Proctor GorinBorn November 7, 1864, in Louisiana, Pike,...
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Reprise: Tom Waits and his Underwood
This photograph of Tom Waits in his den in Sonoma, California, has yet again appeared in an Uncut publication, this time an edition devoted entirely to Waits and his music. I first published it on this...
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Remstar 2001-Facit 9401 Electronic Typewriter
This Remstar 2001-Facit 9401 electronic typewriter (serial number 6146436) was owned by leading Australian public servant Alan Salisbury (1917-2004), who on May 7, 1987, paid Australian-owned company...
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Pitman's Cincinnati Defence of Mary Surratt
In terms of things giving impetus to the advance of the typewriter, such events of immense national interest as the Military Commission trial of alleged conspirators in the April 14, 1865,...
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Try to Remember a Kind of September: The Imperial 70 Standard Typewriter
This is one of a series of display advertisements for the Imperial 70 standard typewriter which appeared in the Australian Women's Weekly in September 1963. Seriously, it's hard to believe that is more...
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£5 for a Monarch! The Sales War of Australian Typewriter Traders
On May 22, 1936, the Australian Government introduced drastic measures designed to correct Australia's adverse trade balance with foreign countries, including the United States. The US was described as...
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The Semagraph Typewriter
Buford Leonard Green, of Charlotte, North Carolina, is seen here in March 1932, feeding coded typewritten copy over an "electric eye" device attached to a Model 8 Linotype.The Semagraph typewriter's...
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No Longer Silent
I bought this burgundy Corona Silent from Derrick Brown in Brisbane some years ago. It was going begging on eBay and I couldn't resist it - there was a time when I could resist very few of Derrick's...
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Built Fortissimo. Types Allegro. Sounds Pianissimo*. The Advertising Life of...
*Strongly (?), swiftly, softlyAs the hunt goes on for the Corona Silent platen knob, typewriters leave here by the score and the house yet again gets completely re-arranged (space is magically...
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Swingin' Safaris - With Directions
Corralled for type testingBert Kaempfert was the first person to record The Beatles,but that's a story for a different safari.1964 Safari manualCustomSabre and Custom III manuals
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House of the Falling Typewriter
Last Wednesday's Blood MoonThe view of the Canberra night sky from my front porch On Wednesday evening we had a "Blood Moon" over Canberra. According to the Book of Joel, a "blood moon" is an omen of...
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Urgent Need for Typewriter Insurgency in Hong Kong
It's funny the way certain diverse events can somehow become linked in one's mind. When I came across this 2012 Hong Kong stamp yesterday, I immediately thought "Insurgency". And naturally, by...
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Dinky Olivetti Lettera 22 Portable Typewriter Handbooks
These dinky little Olivetti Lettera 22 portable typewriter handbooks came in true pocket-size editions. The first one, from 1955, with the black cover, measured 3 5/16 inches by 4 7/8 inches (8.4cm x...
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