29 Dec
2005
29 Dec
'05
9:14 p.m.
On 12/29/2005 at 11:34 PM Scott Stevens wrote:
There's really nothing else to compare to the
immediacy of using
a typewriter. These days everything written is transferred into
an electronic ether, to possibly be printed someday, more likely
to just disappear. It's a very 'real' experience to type a page
of thoughts direct to a piece of paper. And it is something that
many people no longer experience.
A friend of mine resells IBM Wheelwriters (gets a couple of hundred the
each, depending on condition). I could never stand the the things--press a
key and there's a variable delay between when you hit the key and when the
print hammer goes "chunk".
The sensation reminds me of playing in an antiphonal brass choir in a large
church. You have to time your playing visually by the director's baton--if
you try to play by what you hear, the result is a mess because of the time
it takes the sound from the other players to reach your ears. So you have
to tune one of your senses out.
Give me a Selectric (or even an Executive) any day.
Did someone mention IBM 1620's using Selectrics? The only 1620's I ever
saw used the traditional typewriter mechanism. OTOH, the 1130 used the
Selectric mechanism.
Cheers,
Chuck