Obviously there are well built machines and more cheaply built machines, but at a certain level it’s what you connect with. If you spend three years straight typing on one machine, then it will be comfortable and perform well for you. Back in the day, people may have encountered different typewriters and occasionally tried them, but MOSTLY they picked one out in the store they connected with and used it. After years and years (if they don’t have issues), they will think it’s the best typewriter ever. It’s like buying a car, most modern cars are very reliable. So you do some basic research, look at costs and make a pick. If it has something annoying about it (bad visibility or crappy AC or reliability), you’ll never buy one again. But if it works well and you like it, then you’ll think great. You’re comparing two top brands that took very few shortcuts. It’s like comparing a BMW to a Mercedes - maybe one here or there will have issues - but they are both great cars. That doesn’t stop BMW people from talking shit about Mercedes and the other way around.

Josh Brolin, who starred in No Country for Old Men, at his Southern California home. He became close with McCarthy and sat with the novelist right before he died. He’s also the proud owner of McCarthy’s Olivetti typewriter. Wayne Martin Belger

She was unable to calculate the total number of books because the cataloging software didn’t account for multi-volume works. McCarthy’s 36-volume history of Utah, for example, registered as a single entry. Nor did the software tally multiple editions of the same book, so McCarthy’s 13 copies of Moby-Dick registered as one entry. The total number of entries was 18,520. Taking into account duplicate copies and multi-volume works, Peebles felt confident that McCarthy’s library contained just over 20,000 books, with 2,170 annotated.

“Cormac considered contemporary fiction a waste of time,” said Dennis, “because contemporary writers no longer have a legitimate culture to feed their souls.”

With the exception of Moby-Dick in multiple, gorgeous leather-bound editions, the scholars found hardly any novels until they started cutting open boxes that Dennis retrieved from a storage locker in El Paso. Out came the entire canon of Western literature, from ancient Greece and Rome to the best novelists, poets and essayists of the 1970s, nearly all in cheap, worn, paperback editions. “These are the books that he read in his 20s and 30s and maybe into his 40s, and he was broke that whole time,” said Dennis. “Once he got money, Cormac bought all his books in hardback if possible, and for the last 40 years of his life he read almost no fiction at all.”

As Rick Elmore, a philosophy professor at Appalachian State University with floral tattoos climbing up his neck, puts it, “Wittgenstein was always asking how the systems we use to represent the world relate to the world we want to represent. It’s one of the central questions in McCarthy’s work.”

His great friend Murray Gell-Mann, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, invited him to join the Santa Fe Institute, serving as a sort of in-house literary intellectual.

I asked John what else his father collected apart from books, cars and kitchenware. “I would say clothes were the other big one. He had hundreds of tweed jackets, hundreds of shirts, hundreds of suits that he’d never worn.” John once spent three days dragging stuff out of a room he wanted to use as a bedroom. “When I was done, I said, ‘You ever think you might be a little bit of a hoarder?’ And he looks at me and he goes, ‘Yeah, probably.’ He attributed it to all those years when he had no money.”

It was John who told me that McCarthy worked in bed—a California king with high-thread-count sheets, the Olivetti on a wooden platform with a leather pillow underneath it, and piles of typed pages, magazines, books and catalogs. Writing, McCarthy once said, was not a conscious process for him. He put a blank piece of paper in the Olivetti, the words arrived, and he typed them down. But that was just the first stage of an extensive rewriting and structuring process, and some of his books took 20 years or more to get right. “Dad didn’t like being interrupted when he was working, or when he was reading,” John said. “‘No, no, no. I’m reading. Go away!’ he would say.

Oprah, knowing it was true, asked if The Road was a love story to his young son John. “In a way, I suppose, that’s kind of embarrassing,” he said. She made slightly better headway on the subject of punctuation. McCarthy didn’t use quotation marks, hated semicolons and kept commas to the barest minimum. “There’s no reason to block the page up with weird little marks,” he said. “If you write properly, you shouldn’t have to punctuate.”

After leaving her without an explanation in 1974, McCarthy drifted around cheap motels with his typewriter, a pile of books and a light bulb for good reading light.

McCarthy often had a pencil when he was reading and would make tiny vertical marks next to sentences that interested him and add comments in the margins in small print handwriting. Sometimes he jotted down thoughts on slips of paper that he left between the pages. Inside The Life of Saint Teresa of Ávila by Herself, first published in 1565, we found him musing philosophically: “There is an intelligence to the universe (of which we are fractal) and that intelligence has a character and that character is benign. Intends well toward all things. How could it not?”

McCarthy was starting to seem like a man whose talents and intelligence were without limits, yet he lived in a hoarder’s shambles and couldn’t stop buying nonstick skillets and fruit bowls.

McCarthy was a devoted carpenter and designed these nine-foot-tall shelves along the walls of his living room, with room for 1,000 books—a mere 5 percent of the author’s sprawling personal library. Wayne Martin Belger

The second major discovery, discernible in his work but confirmed beyond doubt in his library, was that McCarthy was a genius-level intellectual polymath with an insatiable curiosity. His interests ranged from quantum physics, which he taught himself by reading 190 books on the notoriously challenging subject, to whale biology, violins, obscure corners of French history in the early Middle Ages, the highest levels of advanced mathematics and almost any other subject you can name.

Nor did McCarthy use a computer—ever. He typed out his pages on a cheap, durable Olivetti typewriter and, I learned later, did most of his work propped up on pillows in bed.

I was invited to the house by two McCarthy scholars who were embroiled in a herculean endeavor. Working unpaid, with help from other volunteer scholars and occasional graduate students, they had taken it upon themselves to physically examine and digitally catalog every single book in McCarthy’s enormous and chaotically disorganized personal library. They were guessing it contained upwards of 20,000 volumes. By comparison, Ernest Hemingway, considered a voracious book collector, left behind a personal library of 9,000.

My SG1 doesn’t handle thick cardstock well. I have some index cards that are thicker than normal index cards and they are the thickest I can feed. Greeting cards or the nice letterhead cardstock my wife got me, do not fit.

I am looking at purchasing a manual typewriter, specifically an ultra-portable or a portable. I mainly want to be typing cards with thicker paper. the world of typewriters is more vast than I thought and I keep going down multiple rabbit holes and can’t come to a conclusion on what would be best. please give me your thoughts! thanks!

I am a displaced western Nebraskan.

Given your username, if you are in Lincoln, send me a DM and let’s get a coffee.

Its just a ball bearing. Pull hard and it'll pop out. Might want to keep a finger on it so it doesn't fly into the Abyss and you can use it to attach the new ribbon.

Those, for example, who have carelessly practiced gluttony, violence and drunkenness are likely to join a company of donkeys or of similar animals. Do you not think so?

courage is a virtue, and moderation, wisdom, and munificence,and very many others

if you want the virtue of aman, it is easy to say that a man’s virtue consists of being able to manage publicaffairs and in so doing to benefit his friends and harm his enemies and to becareful that no harm comes to himself;

can virtue be taught?

The 1944 Oscar statues that were handed out at the ceremony were made of plaster, which was part of the industry’s agreement to preserve metal during the war. Metal awards were later made and given to winners to replace the plaster stand-in.

I've tested smith-corona from a super silent, and have read a post of someone testing underwood sound insulation, and neither had any trace. I'm working on testing a hermes 3000 too but the conditions make it unlikely. Its the wrong color and consistency for Asbestos, beyond the fact it would make no sense to use in that way.

Fit_Artichoke_8668

Platen colors are for Hardness. Here is the complete breakdown of typewriter platen colors, their hardness levels, and how they perform:## Typewriter Platen Color & Hardness Chart| Platen Color | Shore A Hardness | Typing Feel & Characteristics | Best Suited For... ||---|---|---|---|| Light Gray / Off-White | 85 – 87 (Soft) | Highly cushioned, muffled "thup" sound. Very quiet, but text imprint can look slightly less sharp. | Comfort typists, ultra-portable machines, and preventing paper piercing. || Teal / Muted Blue-Gray | 85 – 88 (Soft/Medium) | Iconic historic factory standard (e.g., Swiss Hermes 3000). Smooth, buttery feel with great acoustic dampening. | Vintage European portables and mid-century aesthetic restorations. || Bright Blue | 88 – 90 (Medium) | Modern custom synthetic rubber. Perfect "sweet spot" that yields a crisp print without loud impact noise. | Modern custom restorations, antique portables (like Corona 3 or Remington). || Standard Black | 88 – 92 (Medium/Firm) | Replicates the original factory specification for most classic manual typewriters. Excellent, crisp lettering. | Standard everyday manual typewriters (e.g., Smith-Corona, Underwood, Olympia). || Bright Orange / Red | 93 – 100+ (Hard) | Incredibly dense and solid strike backing. Controls heavy vibration but creates a very loud, sharp snap. | Electromechanical/electric typewriters (like the IBM Selectric) and heavy office machines. || DIY Heat-Shrink Blue/Black | 95 – 100+ (Rock Hard) | Often a cheap cosmetic cover-up over a dead platen. Feels like hard plastic, sounds deafening, and punches holes in paper. | Avoid for regular typing; requires a backing sheet if used. |

One can't help but wonder if the naming of the private detective Milton Arbogast who was hired by Mary's boss to retrieve the money in the movie Psycho was subtly done on purpose?? 😮🤯

I've noticed that there are many pejorative terms containing "gi" that are listed in various online dictionaries: bolgi - glutton brolgi - boaster cachgi - coward celwyddgi - liar chwiwgi - rogue clapgi / clepgi - gossiper / babbler cilgi - coward llechgi - sneak / skulker llwfrgi / llyfrgi - coward

Occasionally I've signed my typewriters in inconspicuous places. I've also designed stickers that I use on machines I service and sell under the name Urban Legend Typewriters.

The typewriters I collect have to do with language.

Ryan Anderson is a recent graduate of the shop's apprentice program.

But with the machine, when you're writing on a typewriter, you're just writing on a typewriter. It does one thing really, really well. I tell people all the time, typewriter is a machine that writes. A computer is a machine that happens to write.

When my agency job was outsourced to an LLM in 2024, I felt like it was only a matter of time before AI would permeate everything. I think the worst part of that isn’t the ubiquity, but the ease with which many people have just accepted it and made it part of their lives. Either that, or the tech companies are cramming it into every damned thing. It's hollow. Annoying. Disheartening. Way too distracting. It hurts my brain.

We have a long way to go before this unit is ready to rock and roll again (if it ever will be), but it'll be a lot of fun working on it and finding out.

I ended up first getting an antique typewriter for free and then finding myself back at the drawing board when it proved to be more of a “fixer-upper” than I wanted it to be.

But, man, they’re a pain in the neck sometimes. They’re not exactly portable. Repairs can be difficult. Parts might be difficult to source. Plastic fatigue can destroy some parts of the machines. Pressing down on the keys can be a bit of a process at times. And if you get a machine where the rubber has turned to sticky sludge? God help you. The machines, while often beautiful, are absolutely not convenient in any way whatsoever. Also, you’d better be into some serious lubrication if you’re going to maintain an older model.

Some people feel that using a typewriter can enhance creativity. Makes sense. But I think the most obvious tech-related draw of these old machines is that they offer a way to create something genuine and avoid so-called artificial intelligence.

There’s a reason why screen time, social media, and LLMs have such a massive conversation around them. So, I’d say that avoiding distraction is definitely a reason why people would want to use one right now. Most “typewriter enthusiast” articles and videos online like to use this as a talking point to convince folks to use them.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is literally trying to make the act of accessing intelligence itself a subscription.

And before you say, “Well, why don’t you use an Ethernet cable and buy non-HP ink cartridges?” Well, I did, but that’s not the point. The point is, I bought a friggin’ printer and feel like I should be able to use the darn thing without a subscription or maintenance fee. I’m a firm believer in OWNING WHAT I PAY FOR. I’m not the only one who feels that way (Louis Rossman and the FULU Foundation are big on owning what you buy). I would rather deal with the hassle of typing up several pages on a typewriter than deal with a stupid subscription-based printer. The need to get away from the constant bombardment of ads, subscriptions, and owning nothing is a big part of why physical media is coming back, at least according to Rolling Stone. Streaming sucks, anyway.

“They’re not causing a typewriter revival, because the typewriter people just aren’t interested in these.”

Let’s just say it makes perfect sense as to why someone would actually want to use a typewriter in what is now the mid-2020s, even if it kind of sucks sometimes. I can think of a few reasons, but the simplest one is: no subscriptions and the right to repair.

in 2024, PBS claimed typewriters were “having a renaissance.”

In 2019, the Voice of America reported that typewriters were becoming popular again, especially among younger folks.

onomatopoeia (thanks, Todd Rundgren)

At FULU, we believe that people should control the tech they bought and own.

“The kids get it,” Lundy says. “They’re not trying to be nostalgic for something they never experienced. They’re trying to escape what they experience every day.”

In 1919 essayist Christopher Morley published a collection of essays titled “Mince Pie: Adventures on the Sunny Side of Grub Street”. One piece commented satirically on an overwrought style:2 A letter should, if possible, be written on rose or lemon colored paper of a rough and flannely texture, with scalloped edges and initials embossed in gilt. It should be written with great rapidity, containing not less than ten exclamation points per page and three underlined adjectives per paragraph.

“I type very quickly, very badly, with many errors [ fautes],” Jacques Derrida confessed in a late interview. This paper proposes that the typographical error – usually viewed as a mere “accident” – may in fact be understood as a productive site for deconstructive reading and thought. Drawing on Nietzsche’s suggestion that the typewriter acts as a “collaborator” in thinking, this paper examines Derrida’s use of the typewriter, with particular attention to his typos. Following Derrida’s reading in the Geschlecht series and his own typographical practice, this paper argues that the typo should be thought of as the condition of possibility of every type – and as a defining difference between Derrida and Heidegger.

These may help: http://www.crisvandevel.de/cst.htm https://www.johnwolff.au/calculators/Tech/TechIndex.htm https://www.jaapsch.net/mechcalc/index.htm http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/mechanical_calculators.html And another you absolutely must bookmark: http://badonoer.blogspot.com/ Peruse the whole site! Do not just blindly oil things in here. Probably it wants no oil at all, and these sites will have detailed advice.

I recently got a 1924 Stoewer Elite with this gorgeous wooden case. The veneer survived the past 102 years remarkably well, apart from a small chip on one of the rear corners. The finish, however, was showing its age. The wood looked dull, with a couple of deep scratches and the nickel plated parts had started to rust. It needed some work, so I decided to refinish it. In a few places the veneer had started to lift slightly. I filled a syringe with wood glue and used a hypodermic needle to get the glue underneath it. This worked really well and avoided having to lift the veneer too much and risk breaking it. Luckily, the veneer was also thick enough to carefully use an orbital sander to remove the old finish and stain (low RPM, light pressure). I chose a mahogany stain that was quite close to the original, followed by six coats of shellac to bring out the wood grain. Finally, I buffed it with extra-fine steel wool and applied a coat of beeswax for some protection against moisture. It also smells very pleasant now! I’m really happy with how it turned out. It was a fun project, and the shellac/beeswax combination gave it a beautiful satin sheen.