Mouthing Off About Typewriters: Last Exhibition Talk

I  had a lot of fun proving that this Blickensderfer No 5,

from Stamford, serial #136231, was still typing beautifully,

with the ink pad in full flow.

And it's 20 years older than Canberra!

The second and last hour-long floor talk to coincide with the typewriter exhibition at the Canberra Museum and Gallery took place today. It was titled: "Mad Men and Typewriters: Works of Wayward Genius Revealed".
The exhibition closes in 11 days' time, on Sunday, September 16, and then we face the problem of where to store the 101 machines that have been on display for the past seven weeks or so.

Apart from typewriters, Michael also has a

small collection of beautiful old cars.

I was especially delighted to meet Victorian typewriter collector and former typewriter technician Michael Klein, who flew up from Warragul, 104km east-southeast of Melbourne, to attend the event. Michael is nowadays quality assurance manager of air operations for Thales in Melbourne.

Michael, sitting right, at today's typewriter talk.

I gave Michael my duotone green Porto-Rite portable in recognition of his efforts in getting here just for my talk. It will now take its place beside another Sears Roebuck Remington typewriter product, the Rem-Blick that I sold him some years ago.
Michael and I enjoyed an couple of beers afterwards in the historic Hotel Kurrajong, as Michael regaled me with some wonderful stories about his days working with various brands of typewriter, including Remington and IBM. I just hope he sits down one day and writes about all his marvellous memories, for it would be a very readable document. There is writing in the blood: Michael's brother is a racing historian and his mother is a children's book author.

This social historian was VERY keen to type on a Blick. A document forensic scientist (back to camera) told the story of how a criminal was once caught out - even though he had gone to the trouble of typing his note with a toy typewriter!

There's no more pleasant way to spend a spring afternoon in Canberra than by talking typewriters with a man who worked in the industry. Remington's ears would have been burning! But Facit left a very favourable impression.
Anyway, here are some more images from, today's talk:

Standing room only - at least for the introductions!

"John Jonathan Pratt was in Alabama and the patents office was in Washington, so ..."

"The Lives of Others has the best punchline of any movie I've ever seen, notwithstanding The Professionals."

"See the little coloured animals on the keyboard?"

"Anyone got a large spare room I can put all these typewriters in?"

"Then Lucien Stephen Crandall had James Densmore's wife Adelia locked up!"

"Poor old Franz Xaver Wagner got ripped off ... but what about James Bartlett Hammond being put in an asylum for two years?"

"Let me tell you about this wonderful Blickensderfer 5".

"Modern technology ... yawn! Give me a Blick any day!"