From type to font to type: a Crandall story

This was the book, self-published by Paul Lippman in 1992, that turned me into a maniac when I got hold of it in 1994. As soon as I saw the New Model Crandall on the cover, I was fascinated and hooked.

It took about a decade for me to get hold of a New Model Crandall myself. It's a rough specimen, not functional, but still wonderful.

In 2005, I got a notion that I could try to turn the typeface on its type cylinder (aka "typesleeve") into a digital font. 

I pulled out the cylinder, inked it, and rolled it carefully over a piece of glossy cardboard. Then I made the best scan I could, and arranged the characters into alphabetical order:

I worked with a template provided by a website that can turn handwriting into a font. After various experiments and adjustments, I had this:

This was the basis of a digital font I dubbed Lucien, in honor of inventor Lucien S. Crandall. You can download that font from my website and type like this:

I went on to use Lucien in ETCetera when I started editing it in 2006.

And now, the story of this typeface has come full circle: from type to font to type.

Ben Davidson, a maker of metal and wood type living in the Pacific Northwest USA, wrote to me in February asking if he could use the Lucien font as a model for a set of bamboo type for letterpress printing. I agreed, of course. 

Ben's wooden type is now ready! These are large letters, over an inch tall.

You can find the type on Ben's website, Columbia Gorge Book Arts.

Wherever he is, Lucien S. Crandall is smiling today—I'm sure of it.

You can read a lot about Crandall (and his four wives) on Robert Messenger's blog.

An early Monarch Visible No. 2 typewriter

Isn't this a handsome typewriter? Imagine how pretty it would have been when it rolled off the assembly line in 1904, with bright blue and yellow pinstripes, glossy paint, and intact golden decals.

The Monarch is a machine that most collectors ignore, because it's "normal": a frontstrike, four-bank typewriter with the usual accoutrements. It was also made for several decades, so you may think it's common.

But in my experience, you don't see Monarchs every day, especially not early ones in good condition, such as this #437 from the first year of production, before a backspacer and bicolor mechanism were introduced. If memory serves, I bought it from the great Tony Casillo about 20 years ago. I offered it for sale in May, but no one bit. Now, however, it is going to a woman in Cincinnati who wants to type a journal and recipes. I'm glad that this 122-year-old typewriter is going to see action again.

The Monarch Visible was produced in Syracuse by Remington, although the Remington name does not appear on the earlier Monarchs. At the time, Remington and the other members of the Union Typewriter trust were insisting that understrokes or "blind writers" were the proper way to type. But visibility was really the wave of the future, so they created the Monarch as a way to compete with the up-and-coming Underwood and other visible designs.

Will Davis tells the story:

Union Typewriter was a gigantic trust that controlled Remington, Smith Premier, American Writing Machine (Caligraph/New Century), Yost, and Densmore.  Just before the turn of the century it became apparent that visible writing machines would become important in some way even if they did not take over; the four Smith brothers, whose Smith Premier company they had allowed to be controlled by Union, wished to produce a visible machine.  When Union made it clear that it was setting up an entirely new machine design to be made by a completely new satellite company (Monarch Typewriter Company,) and that all the other makes would retain their 'blind writers' for the time being, the four brothers sold out their interest in Smith Premier, moved across town and built the L.C. Smith & Bros. Typewriter Company. 

L.C. Smith was a big success, and of course eventually joined Corona to create Smith-Corona, a company that still exists today as a label manufacturer. Monarch had a smaller niche, but Remington kept it going for quite a while, and continued to use "Monarch" as a name on portable typewriters into the 1970s.

Having recently cleaned and lubed this Monarch No. 2, I can confidently say that it's better than an Underwood and every bit as good as an L.C. Smith. First, its visibility beats Underwood easily: nothing intervenes between your line of sight and the paper.

Like the L.C. Smith, the Monarch is a basket-shifted machine (the type basket moves up when you shift). This is a quick and easy sytem.

When you pull the paper table and another panel forward, you can look down onto the tab rack and margin rack. This specimen has only one tab stop remaining; they're easy to pull off, and presumably there were originally several more. The margin rack offers one left margin stop and two right margin stops, so that you can decide how far in advance you want the bell to ring. The stops are mounted on the body of the machine rather than the carriage, which means that the left stop is on the right and vice versa. (This is also true on Underwoods.)

All the hardware is well-made and well-finished. The carriage return lever is clearly superior to the Underwood's stubby little hook. The carriage purrs nicely as you return it and rings a lovely bell as you near the end.

The ribbon spools on this typewriter are unique, but the concept is similar to Royal's: when the ribbon is unwound, the U-shaped piece will descend and trigger the reversing mechanism. A tongue with two sharp hooks on it extends out from the core of the spool to grab the end of the ribbon.

The paper fingers on this early Monarch are another unique design, and not a great one. In order to tuck the paper under both paper fingers, I have to move them both to the center; then I move them back out to the sides. If there's a better way, I haven't discovered it yet. (Having more than two hands would help!)

Next time you see a Monarch standard in good shape, give it some respect and consideration as a serious writing machine. I think you won't be sorry!

“Ask A.I.”

Accompanied by my friend Q. and her Royal O, I sat yesterday in the lobby of Xavier's main classroom building with my Underwood Champion and invited passers-by to "Ask A.I.*" 

These were the results.

The bidding of the Paradigm

 

This is how street views of pedestrian areas get made for Apple Maps. I found it creepy and offensive to have this guy wandering our campus. I followed him for a minute, filming the filmmaker, turning the tables. I asked him if he had permission to be on campus. "Not really," he said after repeated inquiries. 

Was I irrationally bristling against the information age? Was I harrassing him inappropriately? He’s just earning a buck, poor guy.

The thing is that I see this scene as a harbinger of a time when we’ll all be doing the bidding of the Paradigm. Humans will survive by doing gigs that robots can’t do yet, under watchful cameras controlled by AI. 

What do you think? Is this creepy?

Exhortations to think

 

AI knocking on my door

 

Call for submissions: MAINSPRINGS

Call for submissions

 

MAINSPRINGS

Tales of Typewriters in the Age of AI

 

edited by

Richard Polt and Andrew V. McFeaters

 

published by

Loose Dog Press

 

 

mainspring, n.: a typewriter’s reserve of potential energy, waiting to uncoil

 

 

Loose Dog Press’s COLD HARD TYPE series returns with a fresh topic that explores the technological frontier.

 

A new power has arrived like a tsunami: generative artificial intelligence, with its effects on everything from education to economy to environment. Are typewriters even more obsolete now, remnants of an ever more distant past? Or are they poised to offer surprising and essential services in this new age?

 

MAINSPRINGS invites contributions of short fiction, true stories, poetry, art, and photography. Contributors may explore synergies between typewriters and AI, conflicts between them, or creative and ambiguous encounters. 

 

Deadline for submissions: January 20, 2027

 

            Submit your work to Richard Polt by e-mail or post (see below). It will be reviewed by Polt (author of The Typewriter Revolution and Evertype) and English professor Andrew V. McFeaters.

            The maximum length for texts is 5000 words. At this stage, texts may be either digital or typewritten.

            Stories may be set in the present or the future; they may be realistic or fantastic, true or fictional. All genres, styles, and ideas are welcome, as long as both AI and a typewriter play some role in your creation. They may be intended for adults, but should not be pornographic or sadistic. As a rule of thumb, an effective story has interesting characters, a dramatic plot, and vivid sensory details. Avoid telling the reader about generalities; instead, show the reader concrete things and events. Good spelling, grammar, and punctuation also matter.

            Submissions of artwork and photos may include color cover images and grayscale interior images. Illustrations should fit the dimensions of the book’s pages, 6x9 inches. Resolution of digital images should be 300 dpi or better.

            You may use some AI to create your submission, as long as you disclose its role honestly and it serves an important artistic purpose. 

            We encourage you to find inspiration in previous volumes in the COLD HARD TYPE series.

 

Decision date: March 31, 2027

 

            The editors will either accept your work or reject it by this date. There will be no “revise and resubmit” judgments, although if your work is accepted, we may require some corrections or suggest some optional revisions. 

 

Deadline for finished, typewritten work: May 31, 2027

 

            All texts in the published book will be typewritten on real typewriters. This will require care and attention. Guidelines for typing will be sent to authors whose work is accepted. The finished typescript may be submitted on paper or as a scan.

 

Approximate publication date: August 1, 2027

 

            Around this time, the book will be available for purchase on Amazon as a print-on-demand volume. The book will contain no digital text, only images of typewriting. It will not be available as an e-book, only in print. The price will be as affordable as possible, and neither editors nor contributors will profit from the project. However, every contributor will receive a free copy of the published volume.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

            Can you give me advice on a rough draft of my work? — No, sorry. We expect many submissions, so we will not be able to review anything but polished work that you consider ready for publication.

            May authors collaborate? — Yes.

            May I submit more than one piece? — Yes, but it is unlikely that we will be able to publish more than one.

            May I use a pseudonym or remain anonymous? — Yes.

            What about foreign-language or bilingual material? — The language for the collection is English, so submissions must be in good English, and any bits in other languages must also come with a translation, so that readers who do not know those languages can understand.

            Can work have been published previously? — Yes, but we do prefer contributions that are new or not well known. Any previously published material must follow any copyright conditions attached to the previous publication.

            May I republish my work later? — Yes. You will retain copyright on your work, and after the book is published, you may publish your work in other formats, noting that it first appeared in this collection.

            Do I have to type my own work on a typewriter?— Your initial submission does not have to be typewritten, but the final text does. If you are not confident enough in your typing abilities, let us know; we may be able to arrange a substitute typist for you.

            Will I be paid? — No. No contributors or editors will make any money from this project. We will profit in the form of joy, fun, and the satisfaction of contributing to the typewriter renaissance—and contributors will get a free copy of the book.

 

Send all questions and submissions to Richard Polt

at polt@xavier.edu, or

 

Richard Polt

Dept. of Philosophy

Xavier University

3800 Victory Pky.

Cincinnati, OH 45207-4443

USA

AI in 1988: a typewritten report

A few years ago, a typewriter came to me—a Smith-Corona electric portable, I believe—with a variety of papers inside the case. They included a brief report on artificial intelligence, written by Sharon T. in 1988. It's just a few pages long, but it offers an interesting glimpse of the state of the field at the time. I hadn't realized that neural networks were already a topic of intense interest then. Now, almost 40 years later, AI is finally realizing the promises people were making in the late '80s—for better or worse. For one thing, it can generate a report like this in seconds!

This report on cutting-edge computer technology was expertly typed on ... a typewriter. The irony is never acknowledged here, and Sharon may not even have realized it. In 1988, typewriters still hadn't been replaced by personal computers everywhere. That was the year when I got my own first computer (a Macintosh SE); until then, I'd been using my faithful 1937 Remington Noiseless 7. I believe Sharon was a high-school student: her research, grammar, and typing skills are excellent, but the report doesn't have the length or depth one would expect in a college paper. Plenty of high-schoolers in 1988 would live in homes without personal computers (or "microcomputers," as Sharon's class calls them).

Here is Sharon's report:

Here's a PDF of the report if you'd like to have it.

Keep your eyes on this blog for a major announcement about typewriters and AI!