Old-fangled technology is AWESOME

Richard M. Nixon

Okay so I just spent a very instructive afternoon restoring/repairing one of these bad boys:



It is an Underwood Number Five, one of the most successful manual typewriters that ever there was. The one I have was built in 1906 which makes it older than anybody I personally know.

I am going to write some letters on this sucker right about now.

Butters

Old cars are better

Monkeyfeet

That's my last name. So give it to me

Quoth

my jealousy

let me show you it

vsove

In the time it took you to restore that typewriter, I wrote, published and starred in the movie adaptations of no fewer than three novels.

Nah I'm just kidding, typewriters are alright.

Auntie Shibby

Monkeyfeet wrote: »

That's my last name. So give it to me

Are...Are you Carrie Underwood?

Monkeyfeet

I am

Aneurhythmia

So, how many posts 'til bad steampunk?

Richard M. Nixon

Apparently my father-in-law wrote all of his university papers on this. His grandparents bought it sometime in the 1910's. The biggest thing that was broken about it was the tensioner (variously called the drawband or carriage strap) had broken so I replaced it with a length of gift-wrapping ribbon and generally cleaned things up. I am so very, very pleased with it. I put the actual typing ribbon in upside-down so the red/black selector is backwards but that's okay.

I need to clean out some of the letters. They are kind of blurry so I'm going to pick out whatever crud is in them and hope they start to work better.

Auntie Shibby

Monkeyfeet wrote: »

I am

Can I have your autograph and/or videotape you doing things you don't want the public to know and then you can pay me to not go public with the tape?

Monkeyfeet

Give it to me Shibby. Give IT to me

Liiya

That is a beautiful typewriter, such a good find!

Barcardi

is steampunk the new hot thing for sale at Hot Topic?

Horseshoe

Butters wrote: »

Old cars are better

My first car: 1967 Chevelle Malibu.

I could love no current models of cars more than it.

She's gold with a white top... two speed 'powerglide' transmission... 283 small block.

I her.

Auntie Shibby

The video tape?

Well I could, but then what would I do with all these digital copies I made?

lostwords

i played around with a typewriter back in elementary school for some reason. such a pain having to use the whiteout for every typo.

Butters

lostwords wrote: »

i played around with a typewriter back in elementary school for some reason. such a pain having to use the whiteout for every typo.

There were typewriters with a backspace key that could actually pull a character off the page.

lostwords

don't think i had one of those. you silly gooses with your fancy backspaces

naporeon

Someone has lit the naporeon signal, and lo, I appear!

I mailed your Old-Timey Correspondence Club letter on Tuesday, Mr Nixon.

You and I will be the only typewriterists, I believe!

Also, my baby...

Quoth

i have a typewriter with a white-out ribbon

convenient

FAQ

what a surprise, I type in steam bicycle and it turns out it was a thing



it's not surprising at all really

bsjezz

i have a corona portable typewriter from 1910 (with the case). it's excellent

was it hard to get that baby going? is it worth doing? right now this is strictly display only

Richard M. Nixon

I got this one for Christmas and haven't had time to sort it out until today. I also have an electric with a correction ribbon but that's not nearly as cool as just going back and typing x's or whatever through typos. Looks more authentic (especially as I'm using non-white paper and white-out would look churlish)

t napo: hooray! I will almost certainly type my next one. This thing is not portable at all so I will have to plan my time better.

t bsjezz: it was actually really straightforward. it was apparently in working order (though not regularly used) up until a decade ago and then it spent about ten-fifteen years backstage at a highschool where it was generally abused. I think these are kind of the volkswagon beetle of typewriters so you might have a harder time with yours.

Monkeyfeet

I have a collection of steam powered sex toys

THEPAIN73

These are so fucking useless, but people at my job and surrounding shops love them.

We have this exact model too.

naporeon

Richard M. Nixon wrote: »

t napo: hooray! I will almost certainly type my next one. This thing is not portable at all so I will have to plan my time better.

That's what I love about my Hermes. I have literally never seen a manual typewriter this compact and well-made. Though not nearly as old as your lovely Underwood, it's by no means new, and it looks/functions as if it were just assembled yesterday.

I hate to be a ponce, but the Swiss engineering really shows.

bsjezz

also, i just purchased this off my work. they were never going to use it anyway

FAQ

monkeyfeet can put a lump of coal up his vagina and it comes out a diamond

Monkeyfeet

It's a metaphor for being able to turn boys into men

Aneurhythmia

Monkeyfeet wrote: »

I have a collection of steam powered sex toys

I just run one of those 5mm rubber tubes out of a boiling kettle into my urethra.

Donovan Puppyfucker

bsjezz wrote: »

also, i just purchased this off my work. they were never going to use it anyway

[/spoiler]


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCQxU_W5dAQ&fmt=18

Richard M. Nixon

naporeon wrote: »

Richard M. Nixon wrote: »

t napo: hooray! I will almost certainly type my next one. This thing is not portable at all so I will have to plan my time better.

That's what I love about my Hermes. I have literally never seen a manual typewriter this compact and well-made. Though not nearly as old as your lovely Underwood, it's by no means new, and it looks/functions as if it were just assembled yesterday.

I hate to be a ponce, but the Swiss engineering really shows.

Oh, no doubt. Now that I've picked the bits of old ink out of the letters this thing prints an absolute treat. I prefer it to the electronic one by quite a bit though it's more work to make decent impressions. I actually have to hit the keys pretty stinking hard to get a good form on the paper. The ribbon doesn't auto-advance, either (I think it is supposed to but just apparently doesn't) so I have to wind it forward or backward every few words.

Donovan Puppyfucker

The ribbon should move a teensy bit with each character strike.

naporeon

Richard M. Nixon wrote: »

naporeon wrote: »

Richard M. Nixon wrote: »

t napo: hooray! I will almost certainly type my next one. This thing is not portable at all so I will have to plan my time better.

That's what I love about my Hermes. I have literally never seen a manual typewriter this compact and well-made. Though not nearly as old as your lovely Underwood, it's by no means new, and it looks/functions as if it were just assembled yesterday.

I hate to be a ponce, but the Swiss engineering really shows.

Oh, no doubt. Now that I've picked the bits of old ink out of the letters this thing prints an absolute treat. I prefer it to the electronic one by quite a bit though it's more work to make decent impressions. I actually have to hit the keys pretty stinking hard to get a good form on the paper. The ribbon doesn't auto-advance, either (I think it is supposed to but just apparently doesn't) so I have to wind it forward or backward every few words.

My ribbon wasn't advancing either, until I removed it and put it back in. Turns out, Emma had just installed the spools off-center.

Silly girls!

Richard M. Nixon

chrishallett83 wrote: »

The ribbon should move a teensy bit with each character strike.

I know. There's a small lever that's supposed to advance it but for whatever reason it's not doing it. I am just pleased that it's advancing the carriage because it wasn't when I started. I could probably find and buy a manual for it someplace but it's not that big a deal to me, yet.

Donovan Puppyfucker

http://www.mytypewriter.com/explorelearn/factstrivia.html

TankHammer

I found an old Sony portable AM/FM radio at a salvage shop in Savannah when I was in college. The plastic was yellowed but otherwise it was pristine. There was even a gold 2-year warranty sticker still on the grill even though the thing was at least 25 years old at that point. The battery power didn't work but the wall plug worked like a charm.

I used it a bunch when I was painting my old office but at some point one of the little metallic accents came off. Coupled with the very loose antenna brought me to finally junk the thing when I moved to the new apartment with VoC.

I kinda feel guilty about that.

Abracadaniel

My brother has a good hundred or so old mid-50s and 60s cameras and some later-model video cameras, including an old reel to reel. Right now they're all sitting up in my mom's attic, as he hasn't sufficiently motivated me to dig them out to sort and pack'em.