Avoiding that pesky auto-correct
Manual typewriters are enjoying a comeback at Amherst College.
As a September activity, student Crista Reed proposed a “letter-writing social.” She ordered three manual typewriters, some hand-cut quill pens and stationery.She was expecting 150 to 200 students to show up. She drew 350.
» via The Chronicle of Higher Education (Subscription may be required for some content)
What, no monkeys?
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Civilian Conservation Corps, Third Corps Area: typing class with W.P.A. instructor, ca. 1933
Would have thought this would happen in Brazil
The typewriter lives on in India: India’s typewriter culture survives the age of computers in offices where bureaucracy demands typed forms and in rural areas where many homes don’t have electricity.
Nearby, hundreds of other workers clatter away on manual typewriters amid a sea of broken chairs and wobbly tables as the occasional wildlife thumps on the leaky tin roof above.
“Sometimes the monkeys steal the affidavits,” Yadav said. “That can be a real nuisance.”
Photo: Repairmen work at New Delhi’s Chawla Typewriters. Credit: Mark Magnier / Los Angeles Times
But Ribbons Are Another Story
When we saw the Daily Mail headline declaring that the “Last Typewriter Factory Left In The World Closes Its Doors,” we were suspicious. But as this Two-Way post from July 2009 shows, New Jersey’s Swintec has been doing a very good business in typewriters for quite a few years now. Convicts and cops are among their best customers. And you don’t have to look too far on the Web to find other typewriters, from companies such as Brother International. (via NPR)
