Typewriter Stationery

What's even more awesome than sending a hand-typed letter is getting one in return.  It's better to receive than to give, ha!  I'm filled with pure happiness when savoring a letter from a type pal. It's better than feeling a little insecure about writing & mailing them.  Is my writing too simple?  Am I going overboard with the typewriter talk?   Will they like the stationery?  Lately I've grown confident that I'm being totally silly.  We'll all adore each other's letters no matter what, because we're all neat folks and we use cool TYPEWRITERS!
 

 
Slowly but surely I'm catching up with correspondence.  I've sent out several letters these past few weeks and already I've gotten a few in return.  Fun!  Here's an example of the typewriter-themed stationery I make, with a letter from a year ago.  I meant to post it our TypePals.com community but never got around to it, much like some of letters I've digging out and sending.  Y'all know who you are! ;-D 
 

A Medley from my Machines

Sometimes I type stuff and then leave the paper in the platen to write more later. It makes sense for recurrent events and journaling. It's a little awkward when replying to Type Pals. I've spent way over a month writing letters, which is sort of neat to me, so I'll finish what was started and mail them off anyway. I'll even add a whole new letter, like a cover-page with apologies for taking so long to respond. This post is like one of those letters: Something old, something new, something random, something cool, in a typecast just for you.

Cute, huh? All lines are 8 syllables, so they could be songs too. I'd have to investige which typewriter was the first one. The other two are definitely from that first Electra 220 because I recognize Regency #80 by the unmistakable "g" like it's handwritten

Next are ramblings during two Typewriter Club Live chats. If you're the type of person who'll read anything just because it was written on a typewriter, then here's just the thing for you. ;-D

Yikes! That was way too many first person "I..." sentences. Learning to write better will require more thoughtful typewriting time. Fun!

 

She's Got a Ticket to Ride

Here are some older typing prompts that I banged out during Typewriter Club Live in April and May.  I've been known to scan and post typecasts long after composing them. :-)

https://arkansastypewriter.blogspot.com/2022/04/what-is-strangest-thing-youve-ever.html

https://arkansastypewriter.blogspot.com/2022/05/typewriter-club-live-scm-electra-120-in.html

I also posted one earlier this evening.  Two in one day!  Ted would be proud. :-D

https://arkansastypewriter.blogspot.com/2022/10/i-like-big-type-and-i-can-not-l.html

The Dial-a-Type Element for Montgomery Ward's Signature 511 & 511D Brother Typewriters

Behold the elusive Brother Dial-a-Type element! It was available as an extra feature on some JP-3 models but not commonly found because it was expensive. Adjusting for inflation, the attachment costs an additional $100 added to the $750 price of the typewriter. The fully featured Signature 510, 511, and the 511D were sold by Montgomery Ward from late 1960s to early 1970s. The latter was my very first typewriter, now I have the three typefaces, Pica, Elite, Script, and this element works on all of them. Will I ever type real mathematics on a typewriter? Probably not, lol, but it sure is neat!












These pictures make the dial-a-type element look huge! While it is larger than the other slugs, it's still quite a tiny little thing. I want to take it off to get a closer look, but I'm too scared that I might break it.









My boyfriend doesn't collect typewriters, but he is happily supportive of my obsessions. Fifty machines doesn't faze him at all. A couple of days ago he grabbed the two busted Signature 511 cases from my trash, "Let me try to fix them." He then worked some magic with a soldering iron. The scars could be covered with paint or stickers, but I like seeing the evidence of how much he loves me. The cases are perfectly solid again and will protect my beloved JP-3's from evil dust. Should I ask him to marry me?





If you want to see the dial-a-type element in action, head on over to Type Pals. Better yet, come join us and tell us about your typewriters too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUGqsLrVIjU

Typing for the Pure Joy of Hitting the Keys

I'm always snapping away at the keys while we're all chatting on Typewriter Club Live. Sometimes I make creative stories and songs in response to the typing prompts. Other days I'm just taking minutes of the meeting, like today....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUGqsLrVIjU

My Favorite Brother Typewriter: The Wards Signature 511D with Auto Repeat

I bought my first typewriter again, only 356 serial numbers later. Perhaps they were made on the same day, around the same time my parents were making me in 1971.

The Wards Signature 511D has all the fancy features of a manual typewriter. The rubber stills feels fresh. Its Pica typeface is straight and even. The paper injector always rolls in the sheets perfectly aligned. The Brother JP-3 is one of my favorite manual typewriters.
Unfortunately this one was not packed well and its case suffered the brunt of the damage. Luckily the typewriter survived with only bent metal levers on top and a cracked spacebar attachment. The metal arms of the spacebar were severely bent inward, but I was able to reform them well enough to work properly.
I saved another typewriter! Hopefully it will live to type more tales for 50 more years.

https://typewriterdatabase.com/1971-montgomery-ward-signature-511d.17011.typewriter

Levitating

Ah, here we are in the first days of summer 2021. Levitating by Dua Lipa is my new favorite song. I've typed it out to practice singing and playing it on my guitar.  If you're lucky enough to be my Facebook friend, you can experience my enthusiastic attempt. :-D

My First Typewriter in Decades

The homebound summer of 2020 made me antsy for some excitement beyond my usual yarn and fabric adventures. I sewed face masks, knitted a couple lampshades, learned some guitar tunes, and filled my old calligraphy pens to journalize in pretty words. Occasionally I'd look up to the photo of my grandmother holding me as a toddler, reading me a bedtime story. I have fond memories of her office where she wrote everything on typewriters until she sold her IBM Selectric when her vision went bad and had to switch to computers with large fonts. Eventually something clicked and I could almost hear her shouting at me from heaven, "Get a typewriter already, Mei!"

I first went to a local office store that had a typewriter department. Sadly I learned that area was long gone after the patriarch died several years ago and took all the knowledge with him while his children sold the typewriters and successfully expanded the electronic equipment sales. An internet search resulted in absolutely no typewriter anything in Arkansas. Amazon and Walmart had a few new models but at surprisingly high prices for what looked like clunky plastic machines. I'd seen typewriters in vintage shops and flea markets but never in nice enough condition for a novice to instantly start typing.

Not sure exactly where to begin my hunt, I turned to the trusted Goodwill where I've found many of my beloved vintage sewing machines at bargain prices. With superb quality at lower costs, department store models like Sears and Montgomery Ward can't be beat and so it made sense the same would apply to typewriters. I battled with a few other auctioneers over the shiny photos and won both for about $60 each. While waiting the two weeks for them to arrive, I scoured the internet for more information and quickly found a wonderful typewriter collector community through blogs, YouTube, and Facebook. Now I know both my "new" typewriters are made by Brother of Japan, the same company that made four of my favorite sewing machines.

Making typewriter friends has been just as enjoyable as finding and using the machines themselves. Typewriter people tend to be more intelligent, intellectual, and articulate than average, most likely because people who love typewriters enjoy both reading and writing. The Typosphere community consists of collectors, technicians, aficionados, artists, writers, and more who all share one philosophy: Typewriters are important!

It's hard to believe that for the past 25 years I used zero typewriters as computers became all the rage. After I donated my one and only in 1997, the simple delight of instantly printing to paper slowly became a fading memory. It took a pandemic to wake me up from years of technology overload, and I've pleasantly rediscovered the peaceful clickity-clack of my thoughts and feelings feeding into a machine that doesn't tell me how to think and spell.



Two months in, my collection grew to 18 functional typewriters, eight of which are made by Brother. They've become my accidental favorites, because they're so common they're fairly inexpensive and so sturdy they've held up nicely over the years. I love my first Ol' Blue so much I ended up getting three more fraternal twins. They were made in 1967 (Script), 1969 (Elite), 1970 (Script), and 1971 (Pica). My JP-1 ultra-portables were made in 1979, 1984, 1985, and my groovy aqua plastic one is from 1976, all Pica. With a little tweaking and cleaning they almost perform like a brand-new typewriters.

The history of typewriters is just as fascinating as the machines themselves. They're a huge part of the revolution into the modern world, yet the the number of folks who actually use and repair them have dwindled since the computer and internet era began. However those numbers have been slowly increasing as people are shifting towards using less technology in their personal lives. The high-quality typewriters of yesteryear are no longer produced and therefore in limited supply, so I snagged several to insure my lifetime supply just in case they all get snatched up.

On this blog I plan to review every single one of my typewriters in chronological order of acquisition, post various typewritten samples of work, and share interesting relevant information. This will be a constant work-in-progress and labor-of-love, but eventually I'll have a helpful and enjoyable blog to share with all the other typewriter aficionados as well as hopefully convince the everybody else to hunt for and save all the old typewriters.

My First Post in Antique Typewriter Collectors FB Group

    Antique Typewriter Collectors

    Hi all! Thanks for including me. I just entered the rabbit hole with my first vintage, a Montgomery Ward 511D.

    I learned to type in 9th grade on a big heavy manual. Wish I knew the brand/model because it'd be fun to collect one of those. My dad had a huge electric and us kids used a manual blue plastic one. It's now long gone, hence why I chose the color, but wisely in metal instead. 

    I knew it'd need a little work and fresh ribbon. I blew out the dust and wiped down the platen. The shift-lock key was cracked and popped off. Will super glue be ok?
The only problem is that the lower case letters ride above the line. Please tell me there's an adjustment screw to calibrate this?

    On another note, I also have a small collection of vintage sewing machines and a weaving loom that I've restored and they all work beautifully. I've got enough tools and wit to fix old typewriters, and looking forward to learning more about them. I love vintage stuff!

    The solution:  https://munk.org/typecast/2013/07/30/typewriter-repair-101-adjusting-vertical-typeface-alignment-segmentbasket-shift-typewriters/

    EDIT: I fixed it. Yay!