from Hacker News

The Last of the Typewriter Men

by balbaugh on 2/20/15, 11:51 PM with 29 comments

• by Animats on 2/21/15, 5:18 AM

  I restore old Teletype machines as a hobby. Only WWII and earlier machines, ones that are much older than I am. The oldest machine I have is from 1926, and it's fully restored. It's currently in my living room, hooked to a Reuters RSS feed via a USB to Teletype converter I built and an old EeePC subnotebook hidden away in a cabinet. Push the button and the current news prints on a long paper tape.

  A completed project: http://www.aetherltd.com/refurbishing15.html

  A project in progress: http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,43672.0.html

  There's a hobbyist community restoring these machines, and full maintenance documentation is available. Restoring them isn't too tough. They were designed to be maintainable. The guys who try to restore minicomputer Teletypes from the 1970s have more trouble than those of us restoriong the 1920s and 1930s designs.

• by kfcm on 2/21/15, 4:17 AM

  A couple weeks ago, I had some paperwork to do at a county Recorder's office. As I'm standing there writing, I heard the rough sound of gears turning 3 times, and a chunk-chunk-chunk. Sounds at once both familiar yet distant in memory. Sounds which were so common yesterday--if yesterday was 20 years ago--now almost shocking to hear.Without looking, I knew an IBM Selectric was being used to fill out a form.

  I stopped writing and just listened for a bit, letting the keystrokes, the ball strikes, and the platen and roller movements take me back in time.

• by sfeng on 2/21/15, 2:44 AM

  The subtitle is a bit odd: "A dynasty of repairmen is keeping the world’s typewriters from going obsolete"

  There isn't much doubt they've already gone obsolete. They're preventing them from going extinct.

• by Pfiffer on 2/21/15, 3:37 AM

  > From the 1920s to the 1950s, steel reigned.

  Fun side fact: Straight razors are much the same way. Take a look at the sheer amount of material on an 1850's Wade & Butcher[0] vs. a more modern example[1]. I'd love to see some other examples of this.

  [0] https://www.flickr.com/photos/104820964@N07/11037188944/

  [1] https://www.flickr.com/photos/mriney/5683505146

• by shaunxcode on 2/21/15, 3:41 AM

  There is a fellow in Los Altos doing this sort of work http://www.losaltosbusinessmachines.com/. He sold me a gutted typewriter for 10 bucks that I am turning into an xy plotter based typewriter. He had a few selectrics sitting around but no apl golf balls for sale.

• by personlurking on 2/21/15, 12:12 PM

  This is interesting. I've been considering purchasing a typewriter but I fear the "clackity-clack" sounds would annoy my SO. I've heard of the noiseless variety but upon some YouTube viewing, it doesn't seem they're actually silent. This, in turn, has led me to consider an electric one.

  On a side note, while attempting to solve a -50 error on iTunes, Apple Support told me "Apple does not support vintage or obsolete products." I have an original MBA (2008)... http://i.imgur.com/UR7HsZp.png

• by keithpeter on 2/21/15, 10:12 AM

  "One benefit of being the last one standing is that when competitors close, Schweitzer won much of their business, he says." --quote from OA

  I have noticed this with electric organs (Hammond &c), (mechanical) pianos, film camera repair, vintage car maintenance. Legacy tech has a business model associated with it based on longevity! A few can consolidate and eke out the remaining volume aided by the discover-ability the Internet provides. Nice.

• by evincarofautumn on 2/21/15, 3:58 AM

  The typewriter lives on in spirit in our monospaced fonts, and our ASCII programming languages that can still be comfortably written on a typewriter from 1960.

• by CurtMonash on 2/21/15, 5:57 PM

  I had a classmate in 1969 who told me that his father's career was repairing old typewriters. He was Egyptian, had developed this skill post-WW2, and there we were in the late 1960s. We lived in a middle class/upper middle class area -- the "poor" part of Beverly Hills -- so I guess he did well.

• by agentultra on 2/21/15, 1:21 AM

  Nice article!

  I use an electric typewriter. Nothing beats it for creative writing: no app or digital device comes close to a blank sheet of paper and silence.

  I found a store like this once in Toronto. An "office machines" shop tucked away in a small corner of the city. It's really quite a trip.

• by currysausage on 2/21/15, 1:26 AM

  The title photo is cool. I like how he stows his LaserJet where other people might stow an old typewriter that they will probably never use again.

• by walshemj on 2/21/15, 2:51 PM

  I learnt to type on a typewriter the school district gave me one at 7 or 8 when I was diagnosed with dyslexia.

• by Sir_Substance on 2/21/15, 1:40 PM

  It's a shame. It's kind of a nice feelgood story, but unfortunately it's ruined by also being an ad. I find people trying to advertise to me ruins most things.