I Thought I'd Died and Gone to Typewriter Heaven

Typed on Richard Polt's Meteor portable, which Richard has loaned to me so I can write some typecasts this week in Cincinnati.

Herman Price declares proceedings underway.

Inside the Chestnut Ridge Typewriter Museum in autumnal West Virginia, it's a hub of activity as more than 40 typewriter enthusiasts from around the world get down to the serious business of discussing ... typewriters!

One of the centres of attention is Herman's "Bullseye" Sholes & Glidden.

Those taking part enter their names on a gleaming Dean Jones Smith-Corona portable.

Richard Polt outlines plans for his upcoming book, The Typewriter Insurgency. Joshua DiMora takes notes on his Remie Scout.

Peter Weil is presented with the QWERTY Award for 2o13.

On the back porch, Alan Seaver, Jett Morton, JP Huard, Katie Kirkland and Mark Petersen try to unravel the mystery of a one-bank Smith-Corona portable.

Inside, Paul Robert (below) demonstrates the USB Underwood portable.

Another star of the show is Herman's Crandall:

Alan Seaver gave a sterling talk about his sterling sterling silver Corona Sterling:

Greg Fudacz presented a very unusual brushed stainless steel Royal portable:

Gabriel Burbano showed Martin Rice and Richard Polt his amazing typewriter ribbon testing machine:

A highlight was the "spot the differences" confab between Will Davis, Richard Polt, Peter Weil, Dennis Clark and Herman Price, with three rare Visigraphs being given the once (or thrice) over:

Alan Seaver and Peter Weil ponder the findings:

Fritz Niemann, of Dissen in Germany, explains the intricate workings of a coding machine to Peter Weil, Mike Brown, and Jett Morton:

Mike Campbell's Century was in the running for the "cutest typewriter" competition:

One of Herman's Hammonds aroused much interest:

Herman carried out a final check before the start of the "guess what's under the cases" competition:

Mike Campbell, Jim Rauen, Richard Polt, Gabriel Burbano and Martin Howard tried to pick the encased typewriters:

 Peter Weil showed his interesting Remington portable display panel:

Outside in the driveway, Will Davis and Mike Brown took a look at some of the typewriters put up for sale

Herman's Hansen Writing Ball got plenty of inspections:

Giuliano Fanutti, of Udine in Italy, Martin Howard, of Toronto, Canada, and Jim Rauen from San Jose, California, work on trying to find a pattern in the serial numbers of the Remington Perfected No 2 and the Remington Standard No 2:

"Hold on," yells Martin Howard. "Here's one more typewriter we haven't seen yet!" Mike Campbell shows interest.

But after three long days of typewriter topics, the attendees are slowly starting out on their homeward journeys. Here Richard Polt and Herman farewell Holly and Jaden Quigley.

There's always one straggler, and he's sitting on the cistern in the bathroom!:

I leave a final note for Herman on the silver Corona:

While Herman shows off the artwork on his Smith Premier in his office at Morgantown:

But Herman finally gets a chance to put his feet up:

As downstairs Mark Petersen and JP Huard pack their car up with the fruits of their weekend: