A CENTURY AND A HALF OF THE TYPEWRITER. — Dr. Boli’s Celebrated Magazine.

Transcribed below. The typewriter is the Woodstock. The Christian Science Monitor article has not yet appeared on the Monitor’s site; it is in the weekly print edition.

A Century and a Half

The Christian Science Monitor has an article about the typewriter revival in its February 27 issue, and it reminds us that typewriters are celebrating their 150th anniversary this year. It was in 1873 that the Sholes and Glidden went into production—the machine that established the basic form and mechanical principles of the typewriter, that gave us the QWERTY keyboard, and that first taught the world to call such a thing a “Type Writer.”

“Surprisingly,” says the Monitor, “the 2000s brought a typewriter renaissance among young people.” There you have it: the typewriter revival is endorsed by the Christian Science Monitor, the arbiter of all that is “hep” and in the groove” among the youth of today.

The syncopation of the keys,
the rhythm of a well-turned phrase—
word processing is only fit for squares.

Comments

The Shadow says:

February 23, 2023 at 9:47 am

Proudly a square!

James Henry says:

February 23, 2023 at 2:51 pm

Boo, sucks to the hand bangers. The only thing true about manual typewrongers is that they exist in only three places.

First in the closet waiting to go in for service.

Second: belted into the passenger seat of your car going to or from the some dingy shop where, rumour has it, these things can actually be cleaned, or repaired, or even reconstructed.

And last: In the hands of an elderly man with a strong European accent. He will stroke the casing, a man gentling a feral cat, while explaining in a loving tone that, “They don’t make them like this anymore.” This is European for “Maybe I can make it go, but only if I can find the parts.”

It is said that Henry James, in his old age, used to enjoy the sound of his secretary typing. This is a wonderful reason to have manual typewriters, but only until March of 1917.