The Last Generation of Typewriter Repairmen (2010) | Hacker News Reader

The Last Generation of Typewriter Repairmen (2010)

wired.com

12 pointsTomte4 comments

"Despite these inefficiencies, there are a few places where typewriters still clack away. New York City police stations, the desks of a few stubborn hangers-on, and, increasingly, the apartments of hip young people who have a fetish for the retro."

And those who have a passing interest in securing certain types of information. [0] Why? Each machine uniquely fingerprints a typed document making it easier to trace leaks. [1]

[0] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=typewriters+security

[1] "Unlike printers, every typewriter had its own individual typing pattern which made it possible to link every document to a particular machine, Izvestiya said."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23282308

For all practical purposes, so does any other way of producing a document from plain old desktop printing (http://33bits.org/2011/10/11/everything-has-a-fingerprint-%E...) to handwritten letters.

Agreed, though I think the idea was also to remove the chance of any snooping via elint. I do notice the Ruskies choosing electric type writers probably for reliability and evenness of the print output. I remember the IBM Selectrics [0] I used hacking up for "text repro", [1] far superior to manual typewriters that had, depending on the quality of the machine uneven application of ink. If you scan a copy you get superior reproduction.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Selectric_typewriter

[1] To make print ready artwork you can type up the text, print a negative and reproduce positive film copy to work with. Old school optical reproduction technology.

My dad had an IBM Selectric typewriter with a typeball head. I remember I was 9 or 10 and it was so satisfying how a soft key press let the typeball moving & rotating incredibly fast to the right letter and hammering the paper. Actually it was so fast you barely could see any movement. The printed letters were ultra crisp and clear (like a today's 2400dpi b/w laser printer) since it was kind of an one time ribbon. A total different experience to previous typewriters where you needed to hit the keys hard and the printed letters were of inconsistent quality.

Since then I was fascinated by devices with keyboards.

I found a commercial where you can see the typeball in action including slow motion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNUEUth7qjc

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