A Busy Type-In Month!

Our 12-typewriter setup at the Albuquerque Museum

This month has been busy for the ABQwerty Type Writer Society! We kicked off the month on August 2nd at the Ernie Pyle library with a Type-In celebrating the famed journalist's birthday. Check out this blog article for details.

THE SECOND EVENT:

Next came our biggest event yet: a public typewriter gathering in conjunction with the Albuquerque Museum's third-Thursday-of-the-month Open House, that promised hundreds of guests and the opportunity to rub elbows with a wide variety of creatives from the community.


The official program of the evening's events

Along with our public Type-In, our very own Woz Flint graced the main auditorium with several presentations throughout the evening on the topic of "Embracing the Typewriter in a Digital World," based on her book The Distraction-Free First Draft. I would also like to encourage you to click the link and consider acquiring Woz's book, it really is a great motivator if you are a typewriter geek who also aspires to write.

Our friends Bill Tefft and Ethan Moses were a great help to me in hauling typewriters to and from my vehicle, assisting in setting up and tearing down, and interfacing with the public throughout the evening; along with Woz's help, I couldn't have managed this event without them.

For this event we set up in the main hallway that connects various gallery rooms, just adjacent to the auditorium where Woz made her presentations. This turned out to be a great location, as people exploring the museum were immediately attracted to our interactive display of a dozen typewriters, ranging in age from 1947 to 1978.

For this event I brought the following machines: 1960 Smith-Corona 5TE Electric (the only electric I brought); 1947 Royal KMM (in its laser-cut plywood transport box); 1952 Royal Arrow (surprisingly popular with the crowd!); a sampling of three Hermes 3000s, one from each body style; 1954 Smith-Corona Silent-Super; 1966 Olivetti Studio 44; 1962 Underwood-Olivetti Studio 44; 1973 SCM Galaxie Twelve; 1978 Olympia SM9; 1976 Brother/Kmart 300 Deluxe.

We were continuously busy for entire duration of the event, helping to familiarize newbies to typewriters, getting them set up to write and answering (or attempting to) their many questions. We also gained dozens of new contacts to our mailing list, who we hope will become active participants in future events.

As has been my recent style, I've photographed the hands of many of the participants upon keyboards, illustrating the popularity of the event while helping to anonymize their identities. Here's a long list of such images; the rest of this article follows these photos.













The surprise highlight of the evening was the coordinator of the event collected an assortment of "typings" from our tables and a local poet used them to create a spoken-word poem, which was then performed by a trio of young people. This and other highlights from this evening are included in my video:




THE THIRD EVENT:

This month's third typewriter event was a "Type-Out" at one of our favorite locations, Pennysmiths Papers, located in the Rio Grande greenbelt of Albuquerque's north valley. Emily and her staff were super helpful in getting tables, tablecloths, chairs and decorations set up for the event, which went from 11am to (officially) 3PM but actually ended near 4PM, with enthusiastic visitors wanting to try the typewriter even as we were tearing down!

Here are some photos from that event:



This Skyriter was brought by one of our members:


For this event I swapped out the KMM and oldest Hermes 3000 for the Remington Ten Forty, Seiko-made Royal Century and KUKA (Kellar Und Knappach Augsburg) Exemplar 300:













A common theme from these latter two events was the question "Where can I get a typewriter?" I can't count how many times I heard that question this week! Our usual response was "Visit John Lewis" or "Look online," but those answers seem so inadequate. What people seem to be looking for are a ready-to-purchase consumer product, not necessarily a lifestyle of tinkering and DIY-ingenuity.

I think over the last few years we've done a great job of evangelising the local populace to the fun and inspiration that comes from a dedicated, direct-to-paper writing device like a typewriter, but there remains a gap between demand for such a device and actual supply. Which has me think ... but that's a topic for another blog article, and/or video! Stay tuned!

In the meanwhile, I've made it a habit to test out each machine before and after each event; beforehand, to ensure a reliable machine for the event; afterward to catch any mechanical faults induced by the public's hard use. (Just between you and I, I'm nervous whenever I see a young child heading for a typewriter, and keep my third eye on the lookout for possible abusive behavior, such as jamming the typebars together then trying to move the carriage -- which can break the escapement starwheel.) I'm fortunate to report that all my machines survived intact and with zero problems noted! I also clean up the cases and wipe the body panels and keyboard, ready for yet another upcoming event!

At Last, an Update!

Here's the work I did on the Royal Century:



Here's the 1941 Underwood Universal, at the Ernie Pyle Library event:



I think the standout machine at this event was the Remington Portable No.2 (which formerly was my machine but I've since given it to my friend Bill), as Ernie evidently used one of these as a traveling journalist in the 1930s.



Okay, back to that pretty blue Seiko-made Century, I was impressed with the consistency between it and both Mercurys I've owned, in terms of build quality, precision of alignment, type quality and feel on the keys. I've discussed this before many times with friends, and did at least one video on the subject, but if there is a spectrum of quality in typewriters, where the smaller and lighter the machine the poorer it is, I'd rank the Seiko machines as the smallest, lightest with decent build quality, alignment and typing feel. Any smaller, like the Hermes Baby/Rocket and SC Skyriter and there always seems to be noticeable compromises at play. This is my experience from having owned three Seikos (four if you count the electric Saturn), two Rockets and a Skyriter. Here's a video where I discuss small typewriters:



Both Mercurys I've owned were made in the early 1970s ('71 and '72) while this Century appears to be vintage 1967. The electric Saturn was also made in 1971.

Both the Royal Saturn and Century are irresistable if for no other reason than their blue color; there's something about a blue typewriter!

Before I close, I must also mention another machine that entered my collection, a green Kmart 300 Deluxe, made by Brother. This was a gift from our friend Matthew, and the machine comes in a handy clamshell plastic case that I think is very convenient for protecting the machine and makes it easy to carry too.



It features keyset tabs, a repeat spacer and a 12 inch carriage. Brothers are another Japanese-made machine that seem to be high quality, but it's been a few years since I've had one. I think this begs for me to make a comparison video between the two Japanese-made brands in my collection, the Seiko and the Brother. Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, here's my review video on the Brother-made Kmart 300:



Since my last blog update I also made a video about how to use the Typewriter Database:



Finally, I also made a video about this crazy idea for a typing scale, inspired by our friend David Karoly: