The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog
This week I didn’t go out to take any photos so used the time inside to look at things in my house to photograph. My old Underwood typewriter was the subject this week.
I wish it still worked, I like the style of the old courier font. A computer will never have the style, the curves and the mechanics to replace the typewriter. I remember when I first started typing at secretarial college how hard it was to use one of these especially with our smaller fingers not used to doing much exercise. We had to do repetitive lessons practising with each key over and over until we could do it without looking.
Half way through our course we managed to get a new ultra modern golf ball electric typewriter. We all took turns using it for a day at a time, how fast it was! Oh the good old days. No fax machines, only an old Gestetner that was the only copier we had. The typing had to be perfect otherwise you needed to start again, then it had to be hooked up to the machine and ink somehow flowed through it and then onto the paper… gee it makes me feel old to reminisce about such antiquated equipment but it was in my lifetime. Now we have computers and the internet so much so we don’t actually have to print on paper any more.. how times change.
For more monochrome madness black and white photos please go to Leanne Cole’s website. It is worth the look!
daysandmonths 
Kaz this is totally fabulous!!!! You won’t believe the coincidence but I went to a brocante here this morning – haven’t done that in such a long time – and bought an antique Remington typewriter with just this sort of thing in mind! When mine is cleaned up (it’s very old, dirty and rusty!) I’ll do a post.
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Thanks Jane.. how funny is that. I often think of doing something and lo and behold someone else has had the same thought at the same time. I cant wait to see your photograph. It will be something else and it will tell a story I just know it 🙂
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I think it’ll take some while to clean my machine up but I have some ideas already 🙂
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I remember manual typewriters and gestetners! All the work/time of it, and if there was an error – bah humbug.
Lovely shots, makes a typewriter look interesting 🙂
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Thanks Claudette 🙂 Glad someone else remembers as well, I felt so old writing this lol!
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Just fabulous! Never thought a typewriter could be that interesting.
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Thanks Reinhold I took inspiration from your scales macro the other week and decided to look closer at things 🙂
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I am honored, Kaz. For me it’s always the other way round. Thanks. Reinhold
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What wonderful pictures of the details!
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Thanks very much WC 🙂
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ABSOLUTELY love these shots of the typewriter..you really have the eye of a photographer with some of the angles you have taken..as always..Impressed..
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Oh I love these shots!
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Thanks Jodi
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I learned to type on one of those old typewriters at college many years ago (I think it was an Imperial). I hated it when the letters would all bunch up together sometimes when typing. l also remember using carbon paper to make copies….oh dear, I’m showing my age, better stop!
You got some great shots of the workings Kaz, they look quite interesting.
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Thanks Barb. Oh yes I forgot the carbon paper creasing up between the pages….do they even still make that nowadays in this modern era hehe 😉
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I hope not…it was awful stuff!
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I might seem strange Barb but i didn’t mind the smell of it lol. It was probably toxic by today’s standards!
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We had desks in one of my school classrooms that doubled as the typing classroom where the desks would split down the middle and open up, and when you turned them over the typewriters popped out… can you imagine that in schools today? I must have been the last generation where you could still take a GSCE in typing!
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Wow you had a pretty flash school. Was it a bit like the old Singer sewing machines where you turn them over and there’s the machine! I still think everyone should have lessons in typing, at least that hasn’t changed too much. Im so glad I did it, who knew back then how important it is nowadays 🙂 Thanks for your comments
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I love all your posts! Thanks for doing a stellar job!
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Gee thanks so much Fabio that’s so nice of you to say, you’ve made my day! 🙂
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Comment well deserved! Thank you!
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wow, kaz! a wonderful series!
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Thanks Pike very much 🙂
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These are glorious shots Karen, you’ve given this old typewriter beautiful treatment.
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Beautiful photos and gorgeous old typewriter. Dont know that it was so old fashioned as much as I think everything now moving too fast.
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Thanks V. Yes I’d like to think technology is going faster then I’m aging! ! That sounds so much better lol. 😊
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I love this post. Cool typewriter.
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Thanks so much CG i really appreciate your comment 😊
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Beauty, beauty, beauty. I remember how the little fingers hurt, and there are so many a’s to be typed 🙂 I used to fall asleep to the sound of one of these from the other room, father was a journalist.
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Yes it was hard wasn’t it on the little fingers, they didn’t do much until we started typing…. I miss that sound.. all that clacking away, I bet it was a comforting sound for you at night 🙂 Thanks for your comment.
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Fabulous photos! I especially love the one of the keys up – the actual ones that hit the paper .. But they are all wonderful – deeper, deeper, deeper.
I smiled remembering the damp, sometimes purple smeared paper of the old mimeograph machine I used to copy assignment sheets for my students – or the sides of the computer paper with holes in them that you used to have to tear off, after you tore apart the individual sheets of paper!
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Beautiful pictures, they really bring the old Underwood back to life. Makes you wonder what has been created with those old keys. 🙂
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Beautiful close-ups.
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