The Last New Typewriter

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The Last New Typewriter

Postby jon » Tue Nov 15, 2011 2:23 pm

The end of the line: Last typewriter factory left in the world closes its doors
By Daily Mail Reporter
Created 2:21 PM on 25th April 2011
  • India-based company has just a few hundred machines left in stock
It's an invention that revolutionised the way we work, becoming an essential piece of office equipment for the best part of a century.

But after years of sterling service, that bane for secretaries has reached the end of the line.

Godrej and Boyce - the last company left in the world that was still manufacturing typewriters - has shut down its production plant in Mumbai, India with just a few hundred machines left in stock.

Although typewriters became obsolete years ago in the west, they were still common in India - until recently. Demand for the machines has sunk in the last ten years as consumers switch to computers.

The company's general manager, Milind Dukle, told India's Business Standard newspaper: 'We are not getting many orders now.

'From the early 2000s onwards, computers started dominating. All the manufacturers of office typewriters stopped production, except us.

'Till 2009, we used to produce 10,000 to 12,000 machines a year. But this might be the last chance for typewriter lovers. Now, our primary market is among the defence agencies, courts and government offices.'

The company is now down to its last 200 machines - the majority of which are Arabic language models.

The firm began production in the 1950s - when Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru described the typewriter as a symbol of India's emerging independence and industrialisation. It was still selling 50,000 models annually in the early 1990s, but last year it sold less than 800 machines.

The first commercial typewriter was produced in the U.S. in 1867 and by the turn of the century had developed into the standardised format - including a qwerty keyboard - that we know today.
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Re: The Last New Typewriter

Postby jon » Tue Nov 15, 2011 2:43 pm

I posted this under Computers and Technology because it is 19th Century Technology at its finest. And a technology that was important not just to the Radio and TV Newsroom, but also to the Copywriter. In fact, I spoke with an Edmonton broadcaster recently who had worked in Continuity at CKUA in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Every word that come out of the mouth of a CKUA announcer in those days, was typed by someone in the Continuity Department. Except Newscasts and such.

A couple of nice picture accompany the original article here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... doors.html

Learning to type in Junior High School really helped me. In Radio, in Computing, in high school, in University, even keeping in touch with friends and family. In fact, it was Radio that made me want to learn to type. As a DX'er, I hated handwriting letters to radio stations with my reception report. My parents had to actually hold me back, as they didn't want me typing until I had learned to touch type, as opposed to hunt and peck, and they wouldn't let me learn to touch type until my fingers were fully grown, as I'd only have to re-learn.

I learned on a manual typewriter, which actually helped, as it gave me a strong enough "touch" that I could actually use a teletype. In the early days of my Computing education and career, we would occasionally have to use a teletype as a computer terminal and occasionally where I worked to send inexpensive messages to other offices or companies. And, at CFYK in Yellowknife, I used a teletype to get Bill Laing to send me Sports scores from CBX, since CFYK did not have its own BN wire service.
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Re: The Last New Typewriter

Postby ithom » Wed Nov 16, 2011 7:35 pm

I just returned from the Philippines where my wife and I bought some land. Much of the paperwork at the lawyer's officve was prepared on a typewriter.

I still remember writing the morning news run on a Smith Corona.
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Re: The Last New Typewriter

Postby Tape Splicer » Wed Nov 16, 2011 8:21 pm

Went to school in Vancouver where most of the students were blind and the balance had various degrees of sight. We learned touch typing on typewriters that had BLANK keys -no letters, numbers or punctuation.
The first typewriter I had was an "Underwood" portable Did much of my high school work on it.

It is interesting to see how the typewriter has developed over the last 200 years of so. below are two museum sites for typewriters....

This site is "Early Office Museum" (The earliest writing Machines)
http://www.officemuseum.com/typewriters.htm

This site "Mr. martin's Web Site" On the intro page is the title:
"From Typewriters to computers" - There are links to various brands with images and text.

http://www.mrmartinweb.com/type.htm
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Re: The Last New Typewriter

Postby Mike Cleaver » Thu Nov 17, 2011 10:22 pm

I remember the first "hybrid" typewriter/computer in the early '80s, an IBM Selectric hooked up to a CPU with a screen and a 5 1/2" Floppy Disc.
The news director's EA had it in her office.
I used it to compose "RTNDA NewsBreak" when I was editor and publisher of the magazine.
The printer came around to pick up the disc for each issue, the disc being used to import the text into their editor where composing and formatting was done before the magazine was ready for printing.
The BN INES computer system arrived shortly after that and we were the beta testers for Broadcast News.
Mike Cleaver Broadcast Services
Engineering, News, Voice work and Consulting
Vancouver, BC, Canada

54 years experience at some of Canada's Premier Broadcasting Stations
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Re: The Last New Typewriter

Postby jon » Thu Nov 17, 2011 10:41 pm

Yes, the IBM Selectric was the real flagship for IBM. They were used for IBM Mainframe Computer "Main Consoles" where the computer operator would be told what tape to mount, and would have to reply.

As a computer user, it was probably the device I used for my first "interactive" computer experience, as opposed to punch cards. At UBC at the beginning of the 1970s, we even had free dial-up access to SFU's computer, again using an IBM Selectric connected to a telephone modem.

There was no monitor attached to our IBM Selectric computer terminals. In those Command Line days, computer responses were printed on the same continuous forms paper where you checked your typing as you typed.

Because the Selectric had no "pin feed" option, the paper often got misaligned enough so that output was printed off the edge of the paper. Or at least in the paper's pin feed holes.

But, as I said earlier, it sure beat hammering away on a teletype.
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