Friday, December 18, 2015

Revolution in the mailbox: From one Remington Noiseless to another

I was happy to find this missive in my mail today, but it turned out that it wasn't addressed to me ...



Sunday, December 13, 2015

A visit to W. F. Hermans' typewriters

Correspondent Hans Boersma reports on a mechanographo-literary pilgrimage.










Friday, December 11, 2015

New York, New York!


 

 


Patrick gives the Tippa a try at the Onegin Russian restaurant. (Here's his blog.)


Rob also takes it for a whirl. (His blogs.)


A few more beauty shots of the Tippa and the view from the porthole:





Underwood Building:

 


And here is the Lopate interview. They've titled the segment "Be prepared for 'no typewriter' signs in cafes," which I hope means that the cafes will apologize for not having typewriters available!



Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Monday, December 7, 2015

Remington Fleetwing

I thought readers might enjoy some shots of a machine I just cleaned up for sale at The Urban Legend Institute.

What a difference a few years make. What used to be a metal-clad, bulbous Quiet-Riter is now a plastic fantastic, angular '60s creation made in Holland—but the interior mechanism is the same, sturdy design.

This is the color known as Sapphire Blue, although the plastic has yellowed a bit.



Here's the user's manual.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

“Typewriters and the art of self-sufficiency”

“It's possible to spend a fair length of time doing something intuitively, just because you can sense somehow that that thing is good and right and beneficial for you; then there is an added pleasure that can be gotten after someone else comes along and articulates — using clear language and beautifully reasoned arguments — what you had so far only felt on instinct.
This unexpected but entirely welcome articulation is what typewriter expert and philosophy professor Richard Polt's new book, "The Typewriter Revolution: A Typist's Companion for the 21st Century," came along this fall and did for me and my roughly four-years-and-counting intuitive love of writing on typewriters.

This lovely essay / book review by Kathleen Rooney of Poems While You Wait appears in today's Chicago Tribune.

PDF version here.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

VisOmatic Electrite font

I hadn't made a typewriter font for a while, so with an hour to spare last night, I did.
I don't think I've seen this typeface on another typewriter. Isn't that ampersand a beauty?





Download the font here.

Also available: VisOmatic, with more regular alignment.

You can make your own font, for free, at paintfont.com.

Here's a closeup of the type. 


Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Going (briefly) off the grid


Meanwhile, if you'd like to anticipate what my next blog post may be 
about, take a look at this ad. I feel a good, old-fashioned typewritten rant coming on!