Goa’s last typewriter repair shop defied the digital age
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
https://www.theawl.com/2013/09/i-am-an-object-of-internet-ri...
I read So You've Been Publicly Shamed[1] recently which detailed more stories like this. It should be required reading in every high school. The Internet mob is a cultural phenomenon of the current moment that we aren't going to look back on fondly.
[1]https://www.amazon.com/So-Youve-Been-Publicly-Shamed/dp/1594...
(I just mention it to avoid dupes, and maybe further discussion is better there than as a tangent here.)
I don't know if it was mandatory, but I had packages sewn up in Hyderabad as recently as a few years ago. There's a bunch of guys who sit outside the GPO that do this. Show your package to the clerk inside before to make sure its kosher, and then the guy will wrap and seal it for 20 rupees.
I had them do a tune up on a 1930's Royal Quiet Deluxe typewriter I bought while living in the area and was blown away by how they were able to bring the machine back to like-new operation.
There were once entire schools dedicated to training typewriter repair and now the art is almost completely lost for some of the older mechanicals.
Non-broken link to Chronicle story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjapP3tNKOU .
There's a blog[1] and more active facebook[2].
[1] http://cambridgetypewriter.blogspot.com/ [2] https://www.facebook.com/pg/cambridgetypewriter/posts/
New typewriters out of China run about $200, but most people would rather spend $600-$1,300 for something vintage made in America, Spain, Brazil, or the UK.
Not too long ago there was an article in the Sun-Times about one in Chicago that is kept in business repairing typewriters for the police department because many CPD forms still have to be done in paper, and in triplicate.
The thing is, these are now more of a hipster lifestyle accessory. There's nothing pragmatically useful about typewriters. They can be beautiful things and have great object appeal just sitting on a (large-enough) desk. I expect that the majority of typerwriter shops in the USA are focused on the aesthetic concept of typewriters rather than their actual utility.
There's something magical about an Olivetti Valentine typewriter, for example, it reminds one of a more civilized era (even though it's ridiculous to say that about the 60's). It evokes dreamy romantic visions of writing eloquent prose, effortlessly, without batteries without spell-check. (https://www.massmadesoul.com/olivetti-valentine)
The earlier IBM Selectrics, a very different but also magical machine but decidedly not romantic like the Valentine. It uses a metal ball of fonts and has a pleasing motion every time you slap down a letter. It was supposed to be all business and even the colors were drab, but there is something joyful about it.
But as writing instruments? F-that! These things suck for writing. They great at cocktail parties though... "Hey, check it out, I got a TYPEWRITER, let's TYPE a LETTER and MAIL IT!"
The same could be said about smartphones. One person's pragmatism is another's lifestyle.
a more civilized era (even though it's ridiculous to say that about the 60's)
I think the 1960's were far more civilized than today. I won't have to walk far to find a dozen similar opinions.
The earlier IBM Selectrics
I have a fondness for the Selectrics. That's what I learned on. I've tried using my wife's typewriter, and it's really not for me. IBM really built a Cadillac with those.
These things suck for writing.
Like most things in life, only if you suck at it. My wife types letters all the time, to friends in the U.S. and half a dozen countries. There are hundreds of thousands (millions?) of people in the world* who use typewriters every day. Just because they don't exist in your bubble doesn't mean they don't exist.
* The stamps on the letters she gets back are a point of delight for me.
Well, sure, I guess it depends on who you ask too. Really good design sometimes operates like fiction when viewed from the future into the past. It paints a rosy picture of a past era and makes you overlook the bad stuff and focus on what the design is saying to you emotionally. The 60's were a hot mess, but we can still get good vibes from that era-- partly because of the design of objects from back then.
> Just because [typewriters] don't exist in your bubble doesn't mean they don't exist.
Hey, typewriters DO EXIST in my bubble. I live a few blocks from an actual typewriter shop. They're just not utilitarian items anymore. They're more about style and nostalgia. There's nothing wrong with that. It's great. And if your wife likes to bang out letters on a typewriter to friends that's delightful but also a deliberate aesthetic choice rather than a necessity (pragmatic).
Yeah, I was curious about that when I saw the caption on the article's leading photo:
> [...]. The last typewriters in the world were made in India.
I needed Canon nFD lens fixed and found out that only one out of dozens camera repair shops in my area still touches manual lenses. When I went there I chatted a bit with the owner and he said that in the past few years they are overwhelmed with repairs as other technicians knowing how to repair those are simply dying out or retiring. At the same time the rise of mirrorless cameras made adapting of old glass to new cameras super easy and cheap, especially for videographers. And now I have to wait 3 weeks for a simple repair.
For anyone interested in typewriters in general, The Typewriter Revolution is a fun book.