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Smith Premier 1 Typewriter

antiquetypewriters.com

42 pointsbrudgers18 comments

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Fun to see that user support hasn't changed.

https://www.antiquetypewriters.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/0...

I have to disagree:

1) The English is perfect. 2) The grammar is impeccable. 3) It was hand-typed, individual response.

Glorious!

Seen on wikipedia after lookup up typewriter:

"A rather specialized market for typewriters exists due to the regulations of many correctional systems in the US, where prisoners are prohibited from having computers or telecommunication equipment, but are allowed to own typewriters. The Swintec corporation (headquartered in Moonachie, New Jersey), which, as of 2011, still produced typewriters at its overseas factories (in Japan, Indonesia, and/or Malaysia), manufactures a variety of typewriters for use in prisons, made of clear plastic (to make it harder for prisoners to hide prohibited items inside it). As of 2011, the company had contracts with prisons in 43 US states."

(judging by their web site, they still do)

Interesting features:

  - No 1 or 0, just use l and O
  - Page width is measured using decimal-divided inches
  - That lowercase g glyph!

Decimal inches suggests 10 characters per inch, i.e. Pica. Pica was pretty common on US typewriters.

Absent 1 and 0 keys were pretty common before the 1950’s and 60’s. Particularly on portable and lower end models. $, @, and ! are often absent as well.

I am not a typewriter aficionado at all, but since I met the Brother Deluxe I've had a big crush on this machine. I would have no use for it, but I think it is just beautiful.

I'm thinking of 3D printing a lookalike case for some SBC so I can use it as a computer.

See it here: https://www.mrmrsvintagetypewriters.com/products/pristine-vi...

My family had one of these when I was growing up (in gray - not the great blue color you linked to).

When I was 11-12 and didn't have a computer, I used it to type up BASIC programs that I either took to school to type into the Apple ][ there, or just imagined how they worked...

Sort of the opposite of your plan, I guess...

That is pretty

Interesting that it didn't have a "shift" mechanism and so you end up with both upper and lower case keys, which must make typing full sentences a pain. But they maintained the "upper case" being on the top and the "lower case" being on the bottom, like from a printmaker's type box.

I have an Erika 11 at home that I frequently use. Using a typewriter is a rare and delightful experience if you have never tried one before.

Amusingly it cost about as much as an Apple Vision Pro. Nice to see some things don’t change.

What’s the best way to sell these? I have a 30/40’s Smith Corona (inherited) I’ve put in garage sales a few times with no takers.

Make it nice for the buyer. If it is presented like junk, that’s how people will see it.

Clean, working, cheap.

EBay is probably the best place to sell a typewriter.

It cost $100 in 1889 which would be roughly $3,400 today.

Now a-days my $3,400 machine can imagine up over 25,000 1 megapixel images per day from text, and author tomes heavier than Carroll Quigley's history of the world in his time.

That’s at least $1,360 more than I’d pay for a carriage!

I cant see what I'm typing!

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