Melancholy safari

This eerie factory on Cincinnati's West Side sums up my current mood.

"LUNKENHEIMER: The One GREAT Name in Valves"

(Supposedly this factory is still in operation.)

My peregrinations through the city and neighboring towns on Saturday yielded a few typewriter sightings:

$125 for a Brother-made Sears portable, "as seen on Etsy for $275." No, at that price I certainly will "Not Play with typwriter."

$25 for this Smith-Corona Silent with a disconnected "I" typebar link and a bit of rust. The case is missing some hardware and is not quite like any SC case I've seen before; it's like the '50s "Holiday" cases, but is made of brown plastic. 

$75 for a wide-carriage Underwood no. 6 with a dealer's ad in an unusual place.

$85 for the notorious "Satanic" Brother-made Remington, the 666. 

$34 for this L.C. Smith Super-Speed that has seen happier days.

$125 for a wide-carriage Royal.

$175 for this "rare" olive-green L.C. Smith Secretarial.

Being a cheapskate, I bought the $25 Smith-Corona. It can be restored to support WordPlay.

Like-Nu

Just some views of a 1924 Royal 10 that I finished servicing today. It needed cleaning and new feed rollers. This typewriter belonged to my customer's great-grandmother. At some point it was rebuilt by Regal. (I would guess in the 1930s, since later rebuilds tended to alter the typewriters with plastic keys, wrinkle paint, and other "modern" touches.)

Le réel et la représentation

Stills from California Typewriter

Translation of the Manifesto by Paul Sath