Last month we had our most successful public typewriter event yet at the Albuquerque Museum, where hundreds of people had the opportunity to try their hand at a dozen typewriters we had brought. Check out the blog article for more details.
Just like with previous events, once the crowds have dispersed we are left to pack up our machines and collect the papers strewn across tables and left in carriages. I'm always enjoying the after-event reading of the culled typings, sometimes a day or two later, which has become for me a kind of private celebration of yet another opportunity to see the Venn Diagrams of typewriters and the public at large converge and overlap, if but for a brief moment.
Often times the typings are roughly done or barely legible with too slight of neophyte finger force upon keys, and too often riddled with repetitive hints of quick brown foxes and lazy dogs galore. Yet in the midst of the drivel are hints, barely perceptible perhaps, of the inner spirits of poets and writers struggling to be set free. With that in mind, I present to you the culled typings from this event. Enjoy.
This is the original dealer tag, from Boulder, Colorado.
There's a second tag on the left side from a California-based office supply store in Universal City.
The styling of this machine is wonderful! The three levers visible here are, from left to right, paper release, carriage release and all tabs clear. The carriage lock lever is visible on the bottom.
Another beauty shot!
I think the feel of the keys is great, similar to either an Olympia SM3/4 or Optima Super, but slightly different, enough such that each of those machines has their own personality, and whether a person prefers one to the others is up to how their personality gels with the machine's. Yes, the SM3/4 has a metal body shell, as does the Optima, but the styling of the Adler is superb.
To remove the body shell, you remove the four screws on the bottom, then unscrew the left platen knob and three screws securing the left carriage cover, then remove the cover. Then loosen the screws on the right carriage cover and remove the rear panel with the paper support. This then gives you enough room to move the carriage fully to the left and lift the right side of the body shell up and over the carriage tracks.
I've noticed that many portables have carriage bearing races made of formed sheet metal. But the Adler's are machined, a manufacturing method more involved, but possibly producing a more accurate part.
Above is a side view of the one remaining intact locking lever bushing. The righthand mechanism was entirely missing the rubber bushing, so I installed some grommets that work well enough to lock the machine into its case bottom.
Here's a blog article from Mary of My Old Typewriter where she shows how she fixed the case lock bushings, and also mentions Ted's blog article on how to finnagle the machine from its case bottom when the locking mechanism is broken. There's also a link to the Adler J3 manual in Mary's article so be sure to check it out!
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!
