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Taking the Platen Out of a 1937 Royal Portable: Any Suggestions?
BTW: I apologise for the ads, but my need for cash is desperate. So is hers, by the look of things ...When I turned the platen on this lovely little pre-war Royal portable, I noticed some traces of...
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Typewriter Revolution in the National Library of Australia
Richard Polt’s wonderful book The Typewriter Revolution: A Typist’s Companion for the 21st Centuryis now in the National Library of Australia.I received two copies from Amazon, and my first thought...
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Yikes! Invasion of the Typewriter Snatchers: Blue Tongue and Huntsman
It's that time of year again, when the weather patterns go crazy and critters can't decide if they want to live in a typewriter museum or where they really belong, out in the bush somewhere. Yesterday...
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Brisena: The Typewriter That Wrote a Detective Novel
Gordon Daviot (better known as Josephine Tey, real name Elizabeth Mackintosh) dedicated her first detective novel, The Man in the Queue (May 1929), to her typewriter, which she called Brisena. "To...
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Typewriter Revolution Takes Off
(You may note that, like Josephine Tey in The Man in the Queue [see previous post], Richard Polt has at least partly dedicated this book to a single typewriter.)Richard Polt's book The Typewriter...
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Henri Emanuel Longini (1875-1929): The Longini 'typewriter', the...
Henri Emanuel Longini standing outside his Dutch office, in Rotterdam, in about 1910. The image, kindly sent to me by Peter Weil, is from the book Vom Sektretär zur Sekretärin - Ein Austellung zur...
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Death of a Good Guy: Vale Norman Harris, Sports Writer Par Excellence,...
'To A.G. McDonnell and Hugh de Selincourt and other celebrated writers on village cricket, one must now add the name of Norman Harris.'- E.W. Swanton, The Cricketer'[Norman Harris] has a sympathy for...
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Memories Are Made of This - Death of a Good Guy 2: Champion of Everything
Yes, it's the same bloke! Appearing in The Canberra Times on February 5, 1989, more than eight years before I arrived here! This photo illustrated part of a series of articles on health and fitness...
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Troublesome Spacebar: 1937 Royal Portable Typewriter
With prompt advice from Nick Bodemer and Richard Polt, I was able to get the platen out of this 1937 Royal portable, so I could investigate possible corrosion on the feed roller plate. The rod had...
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Go Type it on the Mountain: Pecking Away on a Blick at 18,000 feet
Pioneering American mountaineer Annie Smith Peck took a Blickensderfer Featherweight portable typewriter on her South American expeditions, which included her record feat in scaling Huascarán Norte...
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'Pooh' to those who object to using a typewriter on a plane
pooh (puː)interj.1. an exclamation of disdain, contempt or disgust.Warnings against the use of typewriters on aeroplanes in this day and age are contained in Richard Polt's book The Typewriter...
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Ranji's Remington Typewriter
Ugly, gangling, pockmarked Australian fast bowlers trying to make heroes of themselves by snarling at fresh-faced debutants. Gee it must make them feel big! But it's just not cricket. No, the cricket...
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Death of a Copytaker: 'Full Point, New Par'
Copytaking at 20sec herecopytaker (ˈkɒpɪˌteɪkə)n1. (Journalism & Publishing) (esp in a newspaper office) a person employed to type reports as journalists dictate them over the telephone.Peg Carter,...
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'The only way to write on a typewriter is with your trousers on fire — and...
Yet another columnist has seen the light and converted to manual portable typewriters. He's also found the Typosphere, and all the wonderful information that's available about typewriters there.Jeremy...
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George Bernard Shaw's Prossie: What a Blick Typewriter Brings to a Play
This image, shot in 1925 by the famed Luxembourgish American photographer Edward Jean Steichen for Vogue magazine, shows actress Clare Eames, dressed for her part in a 1924-25 Actor's Theatre...
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The Truth About Truth and Peter Tytell
The real Dan Rather and the real Mary Mapes at the Truth New York special screening at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema on October 23.CBS knew what typewriters were, and how they were used - Above: 1. William...
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Charlottenburg: Public Typing in Post Offices, Mignon Training, Pico War...
Charlottenburg in Berlin appears to have been a hub of unusual typewriter activity between the wars. Above and below, a Triumph portable typewriter and paper automat was demonstrated in a post office...
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The 'Cultured' Chicago Cop Who Cleaned Out the Levee Cathouses and Closed...
In this July 21, 1914 image of the imposing 6ft 1 1/2in Chicago Police Captain Max Nootbaar in his office with his typewriter, Nootbaar looks every bit a throwback to the days of the Wild, Wild West....
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What The? Hollow Font on Imperial 50 Standard Typewriter
Auckland, New Zealand, typewriter technician and collector David Lawrence sent me these images a few weeks ago and I'm still trying to work out what the hollow (or title) font on the top-bank MORIS...
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50 Years Ago Today
50 years ago today I started my career as a print newspaper journalist, on the Greymouth Evening Star in New Zealand, December 13, 1965. My first typewriter was an Olivetti Lettera 32 bought from Jim...
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