Typewriters

[fountainpagan]

Thank you fountainpenlady.

 

This typewritter is a wonder. It as if typping with butterfly wings. That is as light as the keys are. A delight.

 

Do you still have a typewritter ? I presume you don't have the Royal anymore, isn't it?

[Kiaxa]

Royal Quiet De Luxe owner reporting! I've had it for quite a few years. I got it with the travel case. I still don't know a whole lot about it, I would if I could use it but the ink ribbon is dry and I never gotten around to getting a new one (I would re ink the ribbon since its cloth but I have no idea what type of ink I'd use to soak it with)

[fountainpenlady]

Royal Quiet De Luxe owner reporting! I've had it for quite a few years. I got it with the travel case. I still don't know a whole lot about it, I would if I could use it but the ink ribbon is dry and I never gotten around to getting a new one (I would re ink the ribbon since its cloth but I have no idea what type of ink I'd use to soak it with)

Is the red/black combination? Or just black.

[fountainpenlady]

Royal Quiet De Luxe owner reporting! I've had it for quite a few years. I got it with the travel case. I still don't know a whole lot about it, I would if I could use it but the ink ribbon is dry and I never gotten around to getting a new one (I would re ink the ribbon since its cloth but I have no idea what type of ink I'd use to soak it with)

http://mrtypewriter.tripod.com/index.html

This place says they sell ribbons.

 

Does your typewriter resemble this one?

 

http://mrtypewriter.tripod.com/royalquietdeluxeseagreen.htm

 

Does your ribbon resemble any of these?

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/typewriter-ribbon

 

O.k. not endorsing anything I have posted. Simply a former reference librarian who has retired and still get the bug to inquire. In any case, if none of this helps, press the delete button and keep it moving. However, as someone who remembers typewriters, re inking can be really messy, even if you know how to re ink a ribbon. Might be cleaner to see whether you can find one. The change from typewriters happened rather quickly and some businesses, including some libraries simply stopped using them and eventually junked or sold them. The supplies are still in existence and some of the supplies for a typewriter were never used, never un packaged. I know, worked in an office which still had the correction tape and ribbons years ago. Worked in a library which at some point junked all of their typewriters, record players and collection of albums. Take Care

P.S. the record player works fine and so do the albums I selected, which were $1.00 per album.

[riverdale]

Who uses typewriters now? Well, the Indian High Commission in London for one, distressed to find themselves bugged, by "friendly powers"; and the KGB for another, now they have Ed Snowden as in-house Meisterhacker and confidante.They've bought a load of Triumph-Adler electrics from Germany.

And remarkably, hot on this recherche de temps perdu, Minox have resumed making film for their tiny spy cameras.

"Plus ca change, plus ca comme chose"?

Perhaps beak might like to comment, in the light of his interesting avatar.

[dkirchge]

I grew up using an old manual Royal for school papers. My high school graduation gift was a Brother electronic typewriter, which I used for the first year or so of college until I discovered WordPerfect 5.1, whereupon I gave up on typewriters and never looked back.

 

A few years ago, I was doing NaNoWriMo and was struggling with keeping everything I needed to write the novel in my head along with figuring out how to use Scrivener on my Mac. I found a local typewriter repair shop and bought a manual typewriter (I forget what kind). Loved the sound and feel but got frustrated all over again with the operation, so I bought a Brother electronic typewriter to speed things up. I remained frustrated, got rid of the typewriters, and went back to fountain pen and paper. Easier, quieter, and much more portable for drafting.

 

As much as I love the sound, feel, and smell of typewriters, I've moved on. Pen and paper for drafting, computer for editing and publishing. Now, if only someone would make a modern daisy-wheel printer...

Edited January 30, 2016 by dkirchge

[tragique]

I have a 1980s Smith-Corona Electra CT that I enjoy typing on sometimes to write random things at home. I'm not a big fan of electric typewriters, I'd much rather use a manual one, but this isn't too bad.

[max dog]

I remember my old Smith-Corona manual type writer I used to do my resume's after college in the late 80's. Thinking of it now, it was quite a mechanical marvel. Can you still get ink ribbons?

[dogpoet]

Quite possibly. It's a while since I've noticed any typewriter ribbons in Ryamans or Staples, but there seems to be plenty on ebay...

[pajaro]

My father was a court reporter, using a stenograph machine to make a verbatim record, and he had nice IBM typewriters including Selectrics that I was allowed to use for college papers. They were nice.

[dogpoet]

I'd love one of those old IBM golfballs myself. Wonderful piece of design work...

[dadbar]

Our typewriters are long gone but the Mrs. and I are a a bit more old school than that. We still have our Craftsman tabletop letterpress which takes lead type. We occasionally set type by hand and print things like invitations, announcements etc.

[FredRydr]

Here is my Olympia SM4. It was Stan Laurel's favorite.

 

Fred

 

Edited February 3, 2016 by FredRydr

[penrivers]

Nothing better than a fountain pen. I sent my analog mechanical cameras to KEH. I have 12 beautiful typewriter machines and dont know what to do with them.

[dogpoet]

Nothing better than a fountain pen. I sent my analog mechanical cameras to KEH. I have 12 beautiful typewriter machines and dont know what to do with them.

 

There's a marketplace forum on here, sport?

(Seriously, if you don't want them, and sure there's a good home waiting for them. You'd be better off advertising in the local paper than on the internet, though...)

[dfo]

Here is my Olympia SM4. It was Stan Laurel's favorite.

 

Fred

 

 

 

Very beautiful. I love the streamlined simplicity of Olympias. Someday I will find one.

[max dog]

Film cameras and typewriters, nobody wants them, but fountain pens and mechanical watches flourish, or at least have a strong aficionado following and still sell. Wonder why? They are all throwbacks to an obsolete or old technology.

Edited February 9, 2016 by max dog

[dogpoet]

I'd suspect it's down to a mix of affectation and convenience: using a fountain pen (rather than a biro) isn't that much more inconvenient, whereas typing something up on a manual typewriter and then having to scan it with OCR software before you can use it is. Also, typewriters take up a lot more space than a pen.

[penrivers]

 

There's a marketplace forum on here, sport?

(Seriously, if you don't want them, and sure there's a good home waiting for them. You'd be better off advertising in the local paper than on the internet, though...)

I live in México and I´m to lazy and simple for ebay or fpn complicated online markets. Here ... I dont know if sombody remembers them machines.

Edited February 12, 2016 by penrivers

[sandy101]

Yes. I have a Royal Standard, an Adler T and a German desktop (not portable) one that's too heavy to use.

 

I use them as drafting tools - as once you have typed something there is no going back - it preserves the forward momentum. The second draft will go into a wordprocessor.

 

The general idea is to get things moving - with a computer, you can spend hours correcting the first sentence, when what you really need is to get a draft to mould into a structure.