Type-in | nathanguitars

Category Archives: Type-in

December 16, 2016 · 11:02 am

Recipe Boxes & Typeface Detective Work

Once again I’m finding things seem to come in waves, and here is another example: I found my 2nd old metal card file box in as many days. This time the box was empty, but nevertheless the same box with a different paint job.

Meanwhile I’ve been amusing myself trying to discover the sort of typewriter that was used to type the pastry recipe on the index card I featured previously. I typed the same words using an old Underwood Golden Touch but that didn’t look like it, so I then tried with a 1948 model Royal Arrow. That looked very similar.

Here is the direct comparison of the new card (Royal Arrow 1948) and the original card (unknown). The old ink is now brown, and it looks fatter, but that may simply be how it was absorbed by the paper when it was typed in the first place.

Going through the recipe box thoroughly I discovered a few more typed recipes, which I present here.

This next recipe comes from a different machine, at 11 characters/inch. My first guess would be a Brother, but it could well be an Olympia too, as they made plenty of 11 pitch machines. I have not investigated this typeface yet.

Back to the other typewriter again for a Mystery Cake.

Typing – the Next Generation

I recently attended a birthday party for a friend who turned 80. It was a multi-generational event, where ages ranged from 80 to 8. I decided to bring along a pair of typewriters and set up a station where people could type messages to the honoree. Expecting there would be plenty who were familiar with typewriters, I was confident this would be a hit. The typewriters I brought were: a Smith Corona 5 SS (branded Eaton’s Prestige) and a Brazilian Hermes Baby. I set them up, loaded the paper, put up a card explaining the idea, and waited.

type-a-greeting station

After a while it was obvious the older crowd was less than enthused, but not so the younger crowd (or as it happened to be, the youngest person).

Youthful typist

My friend’s youngest granddaughter soon took up semi-permanent occupation of the Silent Super Station (SSS) and with instruction from a helpful aunt began to peck out line after line.

At first disheartened at the lack of interest from the adults, retrospection lightened my heavy heart. Typospherians, the uplifting news is that our beloved machines will live on via the youngest generation! We must hope this signals a resurgence that will redeem our compulsive buying, cleaning, tuning and doing whatever it is we do; putting them on shelves or writing books, poems and other nonsense. Though the typewriter may be of little interest to those for whom they were once ubiquitous it may yet prove to be a great interest to those who don’t yet even recognize them.

So I declare my mini-type-in a success. It all depends on interpretation. Several brave adults did manage to type messages, and I salute their courage.