oz.Typewriter

Taking on board the many kind and generally helpful comments on my typewriter display post of a few days ago, I have invested in a few more sets of shelves from op-shops and recycling centres and got most of the typewriters which were on bare floor off bare floor. This has also allowed me to add typewriters and turn a few things around. Thanks especially to Richard Polt, Nick Beland and Tony Mindling for their comments. I am using large clear plastic drop sheets, which are cheap and light, easy to throw over and to take off again, to protect the typewriters as much as possible from dust and typewriter guard cat hair. Here's how it looks now. It looks cluttered but there is still plenty of room to walk around and get a close look at all the machines, and things of interest to look at other than just typewriters. There are now about 220 typewriters on display, and I may swap some from time to time with other typewriters still upstairs. Overall, I'm a lot happier with it. Visitors welcome.

Right wall upon entry

Back right corner

Left back wall

Back wall

Ditto

Left back wall

Left back wall corner

Ditto

Left front wall

Computer corner. Computer has USB Underwood set up.

Ditto

Right side all

Ditto

Right wall

Front part of right wall

Front section

Front of right wall

New glass-doored cabinet for gold-plated typewriters and Corona animal keyboard. An Oliver is on the bottom for ballast. I think it's the heaviest machine I own.

Front side left wall

Ditto

No, not Henry Mill and his "typewriter". This one is from 1836.

300 YEARS SINCE

FIRST 'TYPEWRITER' PATENT

OK, so I'm a few days late with my December Update. My excuse is that I waited until January 7, since today is the 300th anniversary of English engineer Henry Mill's "first typewriter patent".
Mill was on this day in 1714 granted a patent (No 395) by the court of Queen Anne for "an artificial machine or method for the impressing or transcribing of letters, singly or progressively one after the other, as in writing, whereby all writings whatsoever may be engrossed on paper or parchment so neat and exact as not to be distinguished from print ... the impression being deeper and more lasting than any other writing, and not to be erased or counterfeited without manifest discovery."
Apart from these words, nothing exists to suggest Mill (c 1683–1771) actually built such a machine, even as a model.

TYPEWRITER QUIZ QUESTIONS

Charles-Michel de l'Épée

Mill's 1714 patent was one of three typewriter-related questions I heard pop up on TV quiz shows last month. I think it was on Stephen Fry's QI.

On the excellent BBC quiz show Eggheads, a challenging team was offered typewriting as one of three possible answers to the question: "What did the Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée introduce to his French school in 1760?" [A bit early for typewriters, I must admit.]. The other options were semaphore and, of course, sign language. De l'Épée's manual alphabet has survived basically unchanged in France and North America until the present time. Laurent Clerc was arguably his most famous graduate. Clerc went to the United States with Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet to found the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1817. Gallaudet's son, Edward Miner Gallaudet founded a school for the deaf in 1857 in Washington DC, which in 1864 became the National Deaf-Mute College. Now called Gallaudet University, it is still the only liberal arts university for deaf people in the world.

Among authors whose names came up on an Eggheads question last week were typewriter users Paul Auster (Olympia SM9) and Michael Frayne (Olivetti Lettera 22).

In Australia, Millionaire Hot Seat host Eddie McGuire asked a well-known Queensland journalist and writer "Which company made the first commercially successful typewriter?" McGuire called it a "Sholes and Gliddeán". Among the four choices was Underwood, which the contestant, surprisingly, said he'd "never heard of". But he won the money (a six-figure sum) with "Remington". IBM was offered as another option.

TYPEWRITERS IN

DC BASEMENTS?

At her home in Great Falls, Virginia, this week, writer Kristin Clark Taylor posed at her desk with her mother's Underwood typewriter. The Washington Post article which features this image is headed "US history saved in Washington’s basements". It says, "Kristin Clark Taylor explores the family memories and historical moments represented in saved trinkets and clumps of dirt found in the basements of many Washingtonians. Kristin Clark Taylor poses the questions: Are the cherished trinkets, heirlooms and baubles of a Washingtonian any more interesting than, say, the baubles of a Bostonian or a Boca Ratonian? Put simply, are our collectibles simply cooler?" Read Kristin's biog here.

TYPEWRITERS IN THE NEWS

In my days of writing sport and columns, I seldom missed a chance to work a typewriter into the copy. But New Zealand cricket commentator Freddie Wilde drew a very long bow when he managed to link the "1000 monkeys on typewriters" line with a whirlwind world record innings from Corey Anderson, against the West Indies in Queenstown, in his opinion piece, "Monkeys, typewriters and broken records". The connection, apparently, is the idea of a 17-ball century (that is, 17 sixes). Anderson managed it in 36 balls. Below is the picturesque ground he scored it on:

Writer's typewriter experiment becomes a routine

What's a Clack-Clack FACE typewriter?

TYPEWRITERS IN LAOS

Friend and former colleague Aaron Hall flew into Laos at the weekend after spending some time with ace young journalist Michael Ruffles in Bangkok. Aaron was quick to send me these images:

Aaron wrote, "Still in use at a regional Laos airport."
Another travelling friend, Peter Crossing, saw these typewriters last month in a museum at the Sunbury Plantation in Barbados:

A FUNKY ATOMIC THANK-YOU

TO FRIENDS OVERSEAS

A huge thank-you to Richard Polt in Cincinnati and to Piotr Trumpiel in London for their cards sent over the Christmas period. Piotr kindly sent a set of six very nice typewriter-themed postcards. I promise I shall return the favour ... one day soon!

TYPEWRITER FRIEND OR FOE?

I received a request from Chinese blogger "Shane-Yeh Gerard" ("machopolitan") asking me to help introduce typewriter fans to his blog, "Typecasting in China". Gerard explained that "blogspot.com is totally blocked in China, therefore I'm using a special software called VPN to bypass restrictions. It doesn't always work."
Only nine days earlier, Gerard had called me a "Bad-mouthing, China-smearing son of ... bourgeoisie" over a perfectly innocuous post about Chinese-made typewriters. Umm. Is there is a language problem here?

THE AGE OF CONTEXT

Shel Israel is a writer, consultant and speaker on issues related to social media and business communications. He is CEO of SI Associates and is based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is best known as a storyteller and writer. He’s author of four books, including Twitterville published in 2009 and Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers. Written with Robert Scoble, Naked Conversations was listed by Amazon.com as one of the 10 best business books of 2006. Israel and Scoble have collaborated on a new book, The Age of Context: How it Changes your Work and Life. Israel also offers commentary on The Social Beat on Forbes.com and has previously contributed to BusinessWeek, Fast Company, Dow Jones and American Express OPEN Forum.

ENID BLYTON'S TYPEWRITER