Who still owns a typewriter?

[wproct]

I have a Smith Corona portable manual that was bought new for my older sister when she was a junior in high school, so it would have been in 1957. It came with a nice hard case for carrying it or storing it. It was never abused and just like the day it was boughten. Of course it sits in the basement now. I have often said that a lot of what I learned in high school was not going to help me in the future, but developing typing skills I would use daily the rest of my life, keyboarding skills you use every day.

 

[DWalt]

We still have my wife's Remington manual portable she used in college. Somewhere. Haven't even seen it for many years. We once used it mainly for addressing envelopes, etc. Probably would be difficult to find an ink ribbon to fit it today. I also used some portable in college, don't remember what brand. I seem to remember it quit working and I sold it in a yard sale. There are speed typists who can type faster on a manual typewriter than an electric. I once had a friend who was absolute lightning on a manual typewriter. He learned it in the Navy. He transcribed code.

 

[Ingramite]

I could do 40wpm on what we called a "mill". A manual typewriter on 3 carbon copies and damn it, it better look good. Typing was an immediately endearing skill in police work.

I can still hear the sound of a typing pool of about 50 Seelectrics sounding like machine gun fire when the elevator doors opened.

 

[sophie]

I have a Smith Corona portable manual that was bought new for my older sister when she was a junior in high school, so it would have been in 1957. It came with a nice hard case for carrying it or storing it. It was never abused and just like the day it was boughten. Of course it sits in the basement now. I have often said that a lot of what I learned in high school was not going to help me in the future, but developing typing skills I would use daily the rest of my life, keyboarding skills you use every day.

I too have a manual Smith Corona portable. I don't know the age of mine but my dad got it for me and it was used at the time. I had graduated (1959) by the time I got the Smith Corona portable. In high school we used full size Remington manual typewriters. In my class we had one full size electric typewriter, Remington I believe, and we rotated on that electric typewriter and there were about 30 students so we got to use the electric typewriter about once per month. Sure was fun and neat to use the electric typewriter but we sure made a lot of mistakes, not getting to use it very much. My Smith Corona portable typewriter is upstairs in my barn.

 

[ISCS Yoda]

Funny thought - to get anywhere in Naval Intelligence back in the day, you had to pass a typing test! I bet that's gone!

 

[Tom S.]

Funny thought - to get anywhere in Naval Intelligence back in the day, you had to pass a typing test! I bet that's gone!

I doubt it. Keyboards control a boatload (no pun intended) of stuff so I bet knowledge and ability to use the QWERTY keyboard is still very important even if it's not on a typewriter.

 

[bigfatty]

I learned to type in junior year of HS in 1980. Two long rows of tables, each with 12 of those old, 1930's typewriters with those gigantic round key pads attached to large, hinged metal bars arranged in steeply-sloped rows, and the huge metal arm you used to sling that sucker back after you heard the "DING!" to type the next line. I somehow managed to get up to 45 wpm on that thing. When I started working in an office 5 or 6 years later, I was typing on an IBM Selectric that occasionally had to go into the typewriter shop for repair. I thought it was practically space age compared to what I had learned to type on. It's amazing how far things have advanced in the past half century. All that being said, I wish we could go back.

 

[greenwellg]

I got to 55 words a minute on a manual. High school freshman 1965. Ring size was 10.5, thus the large keyboards.

 

[crows]

I did too. I still own my desktop from the early 90s. But let's say the grid also includes electricity going down. As I recall there were a lot of manual typewriters out there that did not require a plug to operate. And they were portable, making them the original laptop, lol.

Honestly, in that scenario I don't think typing anything is going to be a top priority for me. My handwriting isn't that bad for the little bit of non-verbal communication I can imagine me doing.

 

[gwpercle]

I have a Manual Underwood , big dfesk top model .
The power can go out , the net can crash and the Wi-Fi can poop-out ... but I can stilltype a letter with this Tank of a Typewriter .

I also stil have our old black rotory telephone that came with our house, built in 1929, just in case they make a come-back !
Gary

 

[65-2x2]

My handwrithing has never been a work of art, so I typed my love letters to my sweetheart on a 1940s Vintage Royal typewriter in the 1960s. I still have the Royal and the sweetheart; I no longer use the typewriter, but the sweetheart is handy. Where I went to school there were two classes that were required, both of which I hated at the time, and both of which were important later in life; typing and bookkeeping.

 

[DWalt]

Have told this story before. I once had a boss who firmly believed that his typing ability saved his life. He had taken typing in high school, and was drafted into the Army during the Korean War. Just before his unit was to be shipped out for combat, a request came down for someone who knew how to type. He volunteered, and fought the Korean War from behind a stateside keyboard.

 

[peterdeb]

Had an Olympic manual that I used in high school (1960's) and College. Used as partial payment for home repairs. I serviced all IBM typewriters in my career and kept a Selectric II and Selectric III as nostalgic mementoes. Got tired of moving them and they are gone as well.

 

[dockmurgw]

I use one every day, then I take what I type and send it using my thermal paper fax machine.

 

[Mister Coffee]

My handwrithing has never been a work of art, so I typed

^^This.

One of my girlfriends commented that I typed my Post-it notes.

 

[rustythread]

I have a portable manual, two color ribbon. I forget the make. Still works. Haven't needed it lately. Fits in a little case to lug around. Maybe I'll grow a man-bun, buy some skinny jeans, and a pork pie hat, park myself in front of a coffee shop and offer to write people poems.

Nah…

I still have the Olivetti portable I took to college in 1960. Ribbon is defunct, though. Put a lot of strokes on Underwood Fives after the Army found out I could read & write and snatched me out of the field.

 

[GaryS]

I was still a kid when I saw my first one in the 1970s. That ball was incredibly high tech for the time. I never owned one, but would have liked to back then.

First the word processor and then the PC killed them. Well, along with dot matrix printers.

We have an old one. Still use it occasionally. I had an IBM Selectric Type 1, a red one like Hunter Thompson used, that I used at work in the 80's. Loved that typewriter. I tried to buy years later when the company was closing its US operations, the guy over the surplus couldn't find it. Somebody knew what it was and took it.

 

[Jerry in SC]

I was still a kid when I saw my first one in the 1970s. That ball was incredibly high tech for the time. I never owned one, but would have liked to back then.

First the word processor and then the PC killed them. Well, along with dot matrix printers.

They were cool, the Pica typeface was more legible than the Elite and it was preferred by newspapers. It was heavy but not like the later monsters. Easy to clean as well.

 

[65-2x2]

I still have the Olivetti portable I took to college in 1960. Ribbon is defunct, though. Put a lot of strokes on Underwood Fives after the Army found out I could read & write and snatched me out of the field.

The ability to type made my boot camp a breeze. I spent all of my time in the Batallion office while my buddies were marching in the Orlando sun. Our Bat commander was a WO taking classes to advance. One day he gave me some of his homework to type up. This guy was even worse in English than I was. When I got the papers, I timidly knocked on his door and asked if he wanted me to correct the grammar and spelling. He bowed up at first, then, on reflection, he gave me his school work to do, not just type. I was pretty much relieved of all of the normal boot camp experience.

Hell, I was probably promoted to to Ensign before I got out of boot camp!

 

[Phenix]

This was a fun thread about the ancient days of computering.

Thread 'The people stuck using ancient Windows computers'

May 18, 2025

BBC article here.
Some comments re using "ancient" Win7 on LVSteve's post about looking for a small, cheap computer made me think this might be interesting. We're surrounded by some seriously legacy software in all sorts of places.

Here's a look inside the strange, stubborn world of obsolete Windows machines.

Earlier this year I was on my way to a checkup at a doctor's office in New York City. As I rode up to the 14th floor, my eyes were drawn to a screen built into the side of the lift. Staring back was a glimpse into the history of computing. There, in a gleaming hospital full...

• oldbrownhat
• Replies: 52
• Forum: The Lounge

• 

QUERY - who still owns a typewriter, whether you use it or not??!!??!!

I have an IBM Selectric (I think that's what it's called) high up on a closet shelf. Hasn't been used in years and years.

Or better yet, which models of the manual typewriters are considered the best and most user friendly?