The Italian Super-Riter

Here's a shiny, gray, jowly machine that I rescued from an antique mall recently. (You may have spotted it on my December safari. I came back a while later and couldn't resist the $39.99 price.)





It's a Remington Super-Riter, although that model name does not appear on the machine. The serial number, TJ 409832, does not appear in Remington records, and it's marked "Made in Italy."



Here are the company records. Note the lower-right-corner note about machines "manufactured in Naples, Jan. 1960." My guess is that manufacture continued there for some time afterwards, using a new serial numbering system.


Recently, the machine has been put to work writing comments on freshman philosophy papers.



So how does it perform? It's smooth, but for some reason does not feel as snappy as my Remington 17's and KMC's, which are mechanically very similar. Letters sometimes pile. It may be that it just needs more cleaning, or a tightening of the mainspring. Aesthetically, I appreciate its businesslike exterior.

Here is its pica typeface:


Does anyone else have one of these Italian Remingtons?

Scenes from a type-in

Today's type-in at Sitwell's coffeehouse in Cincinnati was a success, bringing typists from as far away as Chicago.





Thanks to Leigh Whitaker (who's "introverted but willing to discuss typewriters") for helping to organize this event, and designing the great poster for it. We never did have the typing contest—we were having too much fun chatting and trying out each other's machines.

Fresh (?) typewriters (?) from China (?)

Here are a couple of things I spotted online today.

First, in Dayton, Ohio (an hour away from me) there's an unused BNC for sale.



A what?

The BNC is an office-sized manual typewriter that surfaced briefly about 3 years ago. I believe it was made in China, but have no confirmation of its origin. Was it made after Godrej, in India, famously stopped manufacturing standard manuals in 2009? What was the origin of the BNC's mechanical design? Someone should buy it and study it. (Please don't make me do it....)



Meanwhile, on Alibaba I spotted this "vintage metal typewriter model for tissue box." If a fake Blickensderfer no. 8 isn't enough for you, maybe you'll go for this fake Blick 8 Kleenex dispenser!



It certainly makes me want to cry, either with laughter or with despair, I'm not sure which.