Typewriters and Typecasting from Winterthur, Switzerland

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Tag Archives: IBM Selectric III

Win a Letter

If you followed my last few posts, you might have read about the misterious typewriter whitch I've picked up in Bellinzona and brought back by train.
Now before revealing its identity, I'll have a small competition: the
first person correctly guessing the brand and model of the "Bellinzona" machine will get the first letter which I'll type whit it, plus a real analogue Polaroid picture of it.
First hint: it didn't need to travel too far from the place where it was built to the city where I picked it
up.
At least another small hint can be found in one of my older posts.
Rules: post your answer in the comment section, only one answer per person.
If necessary more hints will follow, with the possibility for everybody to have another try.
Typed on my IBM 96C with my freshly acquired Light Italic typehead.
Winterthur, 19 May 2019
19 May 2019 by Stève Leave a comment

Old Railway Technology

Today I was travelling back home from Germany by train. The fastest connection I could find was leading me through the Black Forest region on really small railway lines.
I was just reading "The Typewriter Revolution" when I saw this strange and interesting installation at a small station. Probably strongly influenced by my reading, this sight reminded me of the wires used in the Selectrics and the type levers in mechanical typewriters.
Only that these cables were some hundreds meters long and moving railway signals instead of types.
A nice example of another technical system where the way it works is easily understood, unlike todays black boxes.
Typed on my IBM 96C (aka Selectric) Winterthur, 10 May 2019
Railway technology close to Langenbrunn, Baden-Württemberg
10 May 2019 by Stève Leave a comment

IBM Selectric Foam Removal

25 April 2019 by Stève 2 Comments

Speed Tests

As a part of my process to decide which typewriters to keep, I've performed some speed tests with quite interesting results. I selected a random text with about 70 words and typed it using all of my working typewriters. And here are the results: IBM Selectric: 1:53 min Hermes Ambassodor 2:45 min Hermes 3000: 2:54 min Erika 120: 3:09 min Just to have a benchmark, I compared it with the time it took me to write the same text by hand and on my iMac, with the standard Apple Wireless Keyboard. Pencil: 2:29 min iMac: 1:40 min And then, just for fun, I tried to use the dictation function in macOS Mojave. I stopped this after several attempts which took way more than 3 minutes each to get to the correct text. But I am convinced that this technology will beat any of the other methods soon, once the recognition accuracy gets better. The time required to read the text, even slowly, being just about 40 seconds. So far, I draw three conclusions from these tests: 1.I definitely keep the IBM
2.Fast typing still beats dictation (for now)
3.I should get a decent keyboard for my Mac written on my IBM Selectric Winterthur, 18. April 2019

18 April 2019 by Stève 1 Comment

IBM Selectric III

IBM Selectric III After some very busy months, I finally found some time for an update on my blog. Even if I didn't manage to post anything here, I was not completely idle regarding typewriters. Even if my first typeball machine (Hermes 808, see my last post) was a quite disapointing experience,
it got me quite interested in this fascinating technology. This resulted in several attempts to get another typeball machine, ideally 
in working condition or at least easily repairable. This hunt finally made me the owner 
of now four such typewriters: the initial Hermes 808, an IBM
 Selectric II (not working), a
 second Hermes 808 (not working either) and finally this IBM Selectric III, probably dating from 1981 and in perfect working condition. Even if I still really like my mechanical Hermes Ambassador (with electrical carriage return), this IBM is now my clear favourite: it types really well and the correcting feature and interchangable typeheads make it the perfect work horse. Winterthur, 28. July 2014

Typecast_012_1

Typecast_012_2

28 July 2014 by Stève 4 Comments

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