Typewriter Factories Map

This isn't really that useful, but it's fun to see where our favorite typewriters were built. I've been working on this in Google Map Engine over the past few days and currently have 69 factories marked on the map across 5 continents. I've gathered my information mainly from Will Davis's Portable Typewriter Reference and Robert Messenger's oz.Typewriter. My current goal with this map is to mark the location of every typewriter factory that was producing any decent quantity of machines during the 20th century. I'm not counting factories where typewriters were assembled from parts made in another factory, like the British-built Remingtons. It's better to view it in Google Maps Engine.



There are three fields to each point on the map--manufacturer (and model if the manufacturer is not immediately recognizable), location, and year production began there. If you notice any errors or want to add more information to the map, I can add you as an editing user if you have a Google account. (contact: schreibstang at gmail dot com)

Trivia:

Northernmost: Facit (Åtvitaberg, Sweden)
Southernmost: Olivetti (Johannesburg, South Africa)

Question:

Was the Brazilian-made Hermes Baby built at the Olivetti's São Paulo factory?

Full version in Google Maps Engine

What Does the Rhino Say?

Another NaNoWriMo is in the box/bag/container of your choice and the Typewriter Brigade came out in force this year with typebars swinging. For the stats wonks in the room, here's NaNoWriMo 2013, by the numbers. Remember that the Brigade has an open-door policy to membership, mainly because the Rhino ate the door. If you so much as look at the topic, you're considered a Brigadier for the year.

All figures are as of December 6, 2013, as of my highly-scientific copy-and-paste of the forum text...

• Total novelists posting in the topic: 77
• Total "fans" posting (did not set up a novel): 8
• Total posts in the Brigade topic: 1,202
• Occurrences of the word "rhino" in the post bodies: 148
  
• Post count that used to break the forums: 250
• Total words written by Brigade novelists in 2013: 2,973,180
• Approximate number of double-spaced pages @ 250 words/page: 11,900
• Average number of words per Brigade novelist: 38,613
• Median number of words per Brigade novelist: 50,062
• Most words written in 2013 by a single Brigadier: 112,140
• Number of Brigadiers that exceeded 100,000 words in 2013: 3
• Total number of winners (met or exceeded 50,000 words): 46
• Narrowest win margin, in words: 0
• Percentage of Brigade winners: 59.74%

Personally, I think that last stat is a little wrong, since you're all winners in my book. Trying to squeeze the time and motivation to draft a novel in a month is challenge enough. Rocking it old school automatically wins you non-redeemable Bonus Points. In short:

Well done, Brigadiers! 

For more than a few of us in the 'sphere, the Brigade was the gateway drug to getting into typewriters and retrotech in general, and despite the cries of "hipster!" and the usual level of mockery and disbelief that Brigadiers had to face this year, I'd say we kicked some serious rhino hindquarters. Same time next year?

Jackalopes, mermaids, and typewriters

News story:

A new organization that aims to enchant Cincinnati youngsters with the power of the written word launched a fanciful fundraiser Dec. 1 with the help of local and national authors. ... WordPlay asked 20 authors “to contribute a previously unknown fact about a legendary animal,” such as a jackalope or a mermaid. “They have to write this fact on a physical object – a canvas, a bus ticket, a map – to create a unique work of art, with the authors expressing their creativity in a new way,” she explained. The objects will be sold at online auction, and all proceeds will go to WordPlay. ...

To make words a more tactile experience, WordPlay’s space features devices that most computer-age children have never seen: typewriters. ... “They actually fight over who’s going to get to use them. They think they’re the coolest thing ever. The experience at WordPlay makes writing cool, so to speak. It’s where the kids are learning that writing is not just an assignment; it’s a self-expression.”

***

The whole story is here, including a video in which WordPlay's director tells the story of the organization. As many typospherians know, I volunteer as WordPlay's typewriter guy, but it's much bigger than typewriters.

And here are the eBay auctions for this unique fundraiser.

Long live the Typosphere

The Busy Secretary is saluting us!

typewriter sighting

Stop me if you've heard this one.

SM-3 in a rerun of "Modern Family" originally aired last May.

Photo credit:  abc.com

The episode synopsis may be found here, and the writing bit is pretty good.

They even added a page of manuscript excerpts, as read on the show.

Typewriter collector appears on SNL horror trailer

WTF?

Full video here:


 

Philly's fifth type-in

"The typists followed [Mike McGettigan's] instructions to write a brief message and then keep hitting the carriage return until the white sheaf of paper, tied by ribbon to a balloon, lifted up into a bright blue sky."

Full story here.

PS: "The Typist" is just a few hundred dollars away from its target.

"The Typist" -- an indie film that needs our help

"It's about a young man who likes to type on an old-fashioned typewriter. But he's lonely. So he goes out on an adventure to look for people of his type..."

Filmmaker Abraham Heisler is looking to get his movie into festivals. You can support him on the Kickstarter-like site Pozible.

Thanks to Peter Eipers for drawing this to my attention.

Post Typewriter Repair Links Here

I'm going to go ahead and get started gathering information, as it is never too early to do so. We are definitely going to have to set up a day and time to run a Google Hangout, or set up a forum of some kind, to work out what to do after the information is gathered and set up in a primitive webpage. It's imperative to archive each submission as links and blogs aren't permanent, and I will be doing that as they are submitted. I also had some basic ideas for tagging the submissions by manufacturer, model, and repair type.

Scour your own blogs/sites for repairs! If each of us does a fraction of the work, it will be simpler for me (!) and progress faster. If you don't have much time to do so, just including the link will be fine. If you have more time, also include a little about the submission, as in this example:

http://phlsphthght.blogspot.com/2013/06/mystery-solved-frozen-facit-starring.html (plain text link)
Fixing frozen carriage and ribbon advance with a solvent (repair/adjustment description)
Facit TP2, Facit 1620 (if machine specific, manufacturer and models)