Two typewriters were added to my collection this past week.

[lordkenmore]

I don't know if Selectrics could be bought or not. I've assumed they could be--I'd never heard anything about lease only. But then, the only typewriter I knew about in the late 70s was the one my parents had.

But even if they could be "bought" I imagine there might have been people who said they could only be "leased" for some reason. I can't say for sure, but I know in more recent times, some businesses have insisted that equipment can only be leased because of tax reasons. Tax reasons wouldn't be an issue with many individuals. Of course, a person running a typing service out of dorm room might be concerned with the tax issue. Assuming, of course, that the business does well enough, and that this person is honest enough to properly file taxes....

Of course, the buy/lease question was probably irrelevant for many people. I got the impression that the Selectric wasn't exactly a cheap choice in the 80s, judging from what my high school typing teacher said. (We had a lab of nothing but Selectrics.) So one would need A)good reason to get one or B)to be rich. Everyone else would make do with something cheaper. I can't remember typewriter years well enough, but I sure remember that this was the case with computer printers. When I got my first computer, I liked what LaserWriters could do. But, instead, I got a humble dot matrix printer which worked well enough for most of my needs and was a lot more affordable.

 

[rp2813]

I do kind of remember that leasing scenario with Selectrics.  I've seen a couple at Salvation Army in recent months.

 

In Typing 1 back in 1968 we had Underwoods with blank keys.  I didn't like them.  The key travel was ridiculously huge, even for a beginner.  There were some Remingtons in the room as well and they had a much better feel to them.  I switched over to one of those as soon as possible.

 

My WPM were the reverse of Charlie's.  I barely got to 60 WPM with typing, and once hit 90 WPM with shorthand. I can type a lot faster now in the days of keyboarding, and used to have people in other cubicles remark about how fast they could hear me typing.  It's just me being more reckless, knowing I can backspace away any mistakes.

 

Stenography is as much to me a lost art as it is a dead skill, and every once in a while I'll write something out for a friend, like their name, and they'll just have this baffled look on their face, even after you spell/sound it out for them. 

 

 

 

 

 

[lordkenmore]

"Because of my age when I was taught typing, they didn't really focus on the numbers or symbols, and even today I have to look if I am typing numbers, but it was a good foundation for a lifetime of typing skills."

They did numbers and symbols when I took typing. But for many symbols I often have to look. Part of this is probably how little I use symbols.

But it also really doesn't help how keyboard layouts have changed. The basic QWERTY has been unchanged since forever. Symbols have changed--and in some cases, possibly more than once. I learned on an IBM Selectric. Then, I went to using my parents electric portable, which had several changes. Then, I switched to an old manual typewriter sourced from a yard sale. (Call me crazy--many people back then did--but I really liked it. Partly because it was mine, and I could use it when I wanted, although my parents were pretty flexible about letting me use their typewriter. But I also did not like the high sensitivity of my parent's typewriter keys--it made my typo rate go higher than it would have otherwise.) Then I went to computers, which often were inspired by the IBM Selectric, but did some things differently. I made the first 3 changes mighty fast--fall ninth grade, IBM; spring ninth grade, parents typewriter; summer after ninth grade, my manual was acquired. I had to relearn some things two times in less than a year. I'm sure I only bothered with the stuff I used--quote key, for example, and not the cents key. And I imagine there were moments with seldom used keys that I was in temporary limbo, simply because it might be in 2, 3 different spots.

I don't know if memory of years gone by lingers, or if it was accident. But not too long ago, I was using an old typewriter to address an envelope. The funny thing was that I automatically typed the lower case "L" for the 1. It was wrong for that typewriter--it has a true "1", but I wonder if my mind hadn't shifted into "old typewriter mode" somehow.

 

[lordkenmore]

I just took some photos of some old Smith-Corona typewriters I have lying around. I don't collect them--although I'm aware of the rule that if you have 2 or more of something, it's a collection!

Actually, a major reason I got at least 2 of them was a rescue operation at a thrift shop--either "you take this for a few cents today, or we'll toss it in the Dumpster in the morning!"

I also have sentiment for the brand--so many people in I knew had one.

First typewriter is the one I got most recently. It is an electric. It works pretty well, and I've used it for envelopes and the like. I think it's pretty high end for Smith-Corona, at least compared to models I remember people having in the past. It has features like electric carriage return.

Excuse the fact that it's not 100% squeaky clean--cleaning has been one of about 5 million projects I haven't gotten around to.

 

[lordkenmore]

Back of typewriter. Note "Made in USA." Last Smith-Corona models I saw were, if I recall right, made in Mexico.

 

[lordkenmore]

This machine also came with the key for the case. I seldom see that. (I see these turn up somewhat regularly in thrift shops.) That key seems to be a "it fits every Smith-Corona case made!" type. So much for security!

It also has the 2 color style (black and red) ribbon. My parents used black ribbons. One time, my parents typewriter got serviced and came back with a red and black ribbon. I seem to recall my father trying to get some good out of the red side by typing personal letters in red.

 

[lordkenmore]

Another electric. This one has some issue with the space bar not working.

This one has the manual, and something on the changeable type feature. The keys on the keyboard that have a black background (like the "1") had an easily removed type bar face. Thus, the 1 could be replaced with special characters for foreign languages, etc. (Although at least one foreign language teacher I knew preferred to simply use a typewriter imported from a country where the foreign language was used.)

 

[lordkenmore]

Finally, a manual portable. It wasn't as much of a rescue operation, but it was next to nothing at a yard sale. I had the vision of actually using it for envelopes. It works, but is well worn, and if I recall right, the type alignment is pretty bad.

 

[lordkenmore]

The manual portable also had a manual, and those white plastic correction strips. (I really remember those--that was my #1 way of fixing my numerous typing mistakes!)

Interesting that the manual says "standard" typewriters. It calls to mind "standard transmission" for "manual transmission."

 

[passatdoc]

Love the SCM portable!! Mine was harvest gold. Yours must be early 1970s. I bought mine (11th grade high school) for $119 at FedCo. Mine had the MANUAL carriage return. They sold your model (power return) for $149. My parents were buying it for me and I opted for manual return because I didn't want them to spend the extra $30 (in retrospect, had I known the prices and features when we went shopping, I could have brought $30 of my own money and added it in, but I digress...).

When I arrived at college in September 1974, some of my classmates had brand new Smith Corona portables with the ribbon cartridge. Many of them received their new typewriter as a high school graduation or off to college gift. So I would surmise that the cartridge hit the market in 73 or 74. It was not an option when I bought my machine in mid-72.

 

[lordkenmore]

And finally, before everyone falls to sleep...

A comparison of keyboards. Note how some things (like quotation marks) changed from electric portable to manual portable.

First, the electric (the blue machine pictured above):

 

[lordkenmore]

Brown manual:

 

[passatdoc]

ps my mother's machine was a mid-60s Electra with the half space key and the power space key. I believe my own model was the Coronet, except that I seem to remember a half space key (perhaps a manual one). Half space was good if you did a typo because you could squeeze in an extra omitted letter or remove an extraneous one and still make the word fit the space, by creating either a half space or 1 1/2 spaces before and after the word in question.

Since my Smith Corona lacked the power return key, the half space key may have been located there. I just don't remember and I gave away the machine 15 years ago to a charity.
My model had one changeable key, at the "1" position. You could order special foreign character keys and pop them on-off. I do remember my mom's Electra having two custom keys. The German set offered an eszet (ß) and an umlaut " so you could backspace and "umlaut" a vowel. I just backspaced and hit the quotation marks and it sort of umlauted the vowel. For an eszet I just used an upper case B...my German professors knew what I meant. Alternatively, we were allowed to draw the umlaut or eszet with a pen after typing an assignment.

Now that I've taken a close look at your blue Coronet, I seem to recall that the cheaper model (manual return) came in harvest gold only, and the power return (your) model came in blue only. Blue is my favorite color, but I didn't want my parents forking over the extra $30.

 

[lordkenmore]

I have wondered if the blue electric wasn't roughly early 70s product. It's hard for me to say--I don't know what colors were used when, etc. But I do know of one Smith-Corona in my family that had this color scheme and was probably bought in the 70s as a school typewriter. I'm guessing that machine was bought closer to the mid 70s--long after cartridges came in. But, of course, it's not entirely impossible that old machines would linger in production as an entry level buy. Or that an old model that has never been sold might be bought at a special clearance price. Or something like that. The buyer of that machine (like me) would probably value "cheap" over "the latest thing."

 

[passatdoc]

I found a photo of a Coronet 12 with manual return:

 

http://www.tias.com/13486/PictPage/3923802651.html

 

and my memory was partly correct: only one custom foreign character key. However, there was no half space key, so my memory of using the half space must have been from my mother's Electra, which had half space. The area used for Power Return on the model 12 is empty/unused on Model 10. Evidently it was available in blue as well as harvest gold.

 

[kenmore58]

The blue Smith Corona Coronet Automatic 12 is early 1970's. I bought the exact same machine in February of 1973, my sophomore year in high school for $149.99. I upgraded to an older IBM electric and gave the Coronet Automatic 12 to my sister. Years later, she gave it back to me. It sits in my closet in my office. I'm still hanging on to it for the sentimental value.

The difference in the arrangement of the manual and electric keyboards had to do with the "repeat" keys. In order to get the hyphen and the underscore on the same key, which would "repeat" if held down, they had to rearrange some of the symbols on the keyboard.

Ron

 

[lordkenmore]

I once knew a little (VERY little) German. But I remember hearing about the "B" trick. Plus, maybe I'm wrong, or remembering something else, but it seems to me that I remember having heard that the ß was basically "ss" and so one could use "ss" instead.

As I mentioned above, at least one foreign language teacher I knew just used a "native" typewriter. But that probably only makes sense for those really into the language.

When I was younger, and even more out of it than I am today--if that's possible--I wished that I had a typewriter with the "¨"accent. Just so I could be old fashioned and pretentious when typing words like "Noël". Instead, I had to manually ink it in--using a fountain pen, of course.[this post was last edited: 8/24/2011-20:02]

 

[lordkenmore]

The keyboard changes were, in some ways, a good thing. The apostrophe is probably easier/more efficient now than it was in manual typewriter days.

On the other hand, I'm not so sure about Smith-Corona's placement of the tab key (above the keyboard). It seems like a little bit more of a reach than some would like. And tabs are something that would have been pretty necessary for a lot of writing.

 

[joelippard]

Here is my Selectric II Correcting.  I so love this machine and have collected all of the various font balls for it.  I prefer the Selectric II over the Selectric III for one simple reason.  The keys.  The Selectric III has a more flat style key and the Selectric II keys are slightly "dished"

 

[whirlcool]

I also received a typewriter for HS graduation. But I did not like it one bit. It was a hybrid. I think it was a SCM/Sears typewriter. The return, space bar and backspace key were manual and the rest were electric. The keys always jammed. It must have been a rare model as I never saw another one like it ever.

It was strange looking too. It was maybe only 3" tall from the bottom to the cover and heavy. It was quite a squatty looking thing. The case of the typewriter itself was made of ABS. It was bought in 1968. The whole thing just screamed CHEAP!

I used it the first two years of college and then finally got a Royal. I can't remember the name of it, but it was tan & white, and manual too. After that last one, I didn't want another electric. Even though my mother typed they didn't want me to replace the first one. My mother kept telling me "A typewriter is a typewriter, ok?"

A year or two I put the SCM/Sears in a garage sale. My mother heard that I put it in there and bought it back from me! A few months later she proclaimed that there was nothing wrong with it and I never gave it a chance! Hmph!