World's last typewriter plant stops production. Heidi and CMW in mourning.

[Ptah]

The owners of the world's last remaining typewriter factory have shut
the plant's doors because of declining orders.

Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Co. Ltd. has shuttered its facility in Mumbai,
India, where as recently as 2009 the company was making 12,000 typewriters a year.


http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2011/04/26/typewriter-factory-closing.html


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVrn8FG4-6s

[Heidi]

1. The good news is that it's not true!

Typewriters are still being manufactured in Asia. :loveya:

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/04/worlds-last-typewriter-factory-offers-it-final-500-machines-for-sale/1

And here's a new Olympia at Manufactum: http://www.manufactum.de/Produkt/189689/761558/Olympia-mechanische-Schreibmaschine-SG-3N.html

[Ptah]

10. I stand corrected.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

2. I prefer IBMs.

I can't type on a manual.

My mom had an IBM Executive with variable spacing in 32nds of an inch.
she did dad's typing, he was an attorney.

I started typing on it when I was five. I learned touch typing in high school. I took an IBM typewriter with me to college. When my dad hauled it in, my roommates looked at me with horror. "Oh my gosh, she's serious! She types papers!"

I could jam IBMs with separate barrs for each key, and I could make Selectrics burp. when they burp, they print a hyphen.

Back in 1974 I could do 82 words a minute on an IBM.

The last typing test I took for a job was on a computer, and I did 114 words per minute, and that was including going back and correcting my errors.

Of course, I had twelve years of piano lessons. My secret weapon--coordination.

:rofl: Can't say I'm not a fast woman!!! :rofl:

[bluesbassman]

3. I used to repair typewriters. Loved the Selectric I's & II's, but the III's just got way to busy.

They were a pain to keep in adjustment. Simple case of trying to make something do too much.

There were a few executives around (I worked for the sevice department of a large bank) but I never worked on those, required a certain touch that you could only get by many hours of experience and there just weren't enough around still in the 80's. Nice machines though, the typists who used them swore by 'em. :)

I did work on these thouh as they were still quite common in the branches until the mid 80's. The venerable Burroughs 10 key adding machine. Really a nightmare to adjust. We basically kept them running by hosing them down with WD40. :rofl:

[Heidi]

4. What a cool job!!!

Did you do more work on manual or electric typewriters and adding machines? An IBM Selectric was my college typewriter, a gift from my parents, and I had never used a manual typewriter before we bought our first one.

You know what I love about a manual typewriter? No need for a power source; CMW or I can fix just about anything that goes wrong with a screwdriver, tweezers or a Dremel; I like the idea of keeping such fine old machines in use for art and correspondence; and there just something lovely and familiar about the sound of hammers against platen.

P.S. :hug:

[bluesbassman]

5. I started in 1980, so by then the Selectrics were pretty much the standard.

There were a few manuals around the branches, one old gal (who was a nun at one point in her life) had an old Olivetti that she wouldn't let anybody near for fear they'd take it away from her! :)

I started out on the Dictaphone Dictabelt transcriber before learning the Selectrics. Then I moved on to the NCR Proof machine. This was the most important piece of branch equipment as this is how they balanced all of the checks every day. Looked similar to this:




Ended up as a Senior Tecnician, and worked on every piece of equipment you could think of including the Bell & Howell microfilmers, photo copiers, and even the vault doors. Near the end the real focus was on the ATM machines as electronics did away with most of the mechanical machines. It was certainly an interesting job. :)

Very cool that you guys work on your own stuff. Kinda hard to find anybody that still does it for a job.

P.S. Back at you. :hug:

[ScreamingMeemie]

9. We used those, at Huntington Banks, until 1996.

:)

[elleng]

7. "Executive" variable spacing a pain! LOVED Selectric.

After all those innovations, decided to go to law school INSTEAD of office work!

[tigereye]

6. I thought they were popular again with younger folks

who don't know what a pain in the ass they were to use- well, when writing term papers, anyway! :D


on edit, they did make a cool sound. But too many messy ribbons, white out and typing mistakes led me to salivate when I typed my first grad school paper on an old PC.

[kentauros]

8. I need one that writes stone tablets.

In digital.

:P