Pi Day! The Ultimate Pi Day of the Century.

Ooo... such a beautiful sequence of numbers this is! Today is the day that Pi and time collide and for an infinitesimally long bit Pi is repeated forever...
At least in the artificial construct we call time. All I know is that we don't have enough of it. Even Elder Spawn got to experience little of the small death known as sleep this week with homework and rehearsals. She is a number fanatic and obsesses about sequences, but is opting to sleep in. We have another chance in the PM, but we will be watching Joshua Bell from the third row center at the Kauffman Center.We could be on a cruise ship full of Spring Break extroverts instead. Nah.

 I know a lawyer who memorized Pi out to 2,000 places, backwards and forwards. I'm consistently remember 3.14. But for today, we can contemplate the great beyond:
3.141592665335989793238462 etc.

Thanks for geeking out with me!

Remington #8,000,000: The Inception

Remington #8,000,000 with Sholes and Glidden prototype circa March 23, 1933 via Peter Weil

Typewriter nerds, rejoice! The Typosphere is just an awesome place and this practically knocked me over when I read my email this afternoon.

A typewriter collector, Peter Weil, contacted me the long way around through uber collector and advocate Richard Polt. He came across the above image of the eight-millionth Remington, a Noiseless 8, being used alongside a Sholes and Glidden prototype that would lead to the first Remington. The plate on front is a dead giveaway. It is indeed the machine in my possession by way of a New York City ebay seller several years ago.

http://vintagetechobsessions.blogspot.com/2012/02/last-stand-at-remington-starring.html

We know from the plate on this machine that it was just a few weeks old at the time. This fills in some historical gaps. Here is more than you would probably want to read about this machine:

http://vintagetechobsessions.blogspot.com/2013/03/remington-8-number-8000000-80th-birthday.html
http://vintagetechobsessions.blogspot.com/2012/02/itam-special-report-eight-millionth.html
http://vintagetechobsessions.blogspot.com/2012/02/last-stand-at-remington-starring.html

Here is the history of this photo as told by Peter Weil. Substitute 'Remington 8' for 'Portable 1'.

"On March 23, 1933, the YWCA held an event to commemorate the 60th anniversary of there invention of the typewriter. More specifically, The focus of the celebration was “…the entrance of women into the modern business world.” I find it dumbfounding that Smithsonian would have loaned the Sholes to them, but my guess is that the YWCA had a lot of clout in Congress to succeed in bowing so important an artifact. I suspect that this specific version is a bit earlier than the one made famous by the image of Sholes’ daughter typing on iyt. Note that these keys are ceramic ones, as on the earlier prototypes, whereas the keys on the example used by the daughter are similar to the latter metrakl-ringed flat ones covered with glass that were used on the first fully marketed Sholes and Gliddens in 1874. I think it also interesting that the YWCA selected a Remington Portable, admittedly, the largest they made at the time, a Model 1, to contrast with and to indicate progress since, the Sholes machine. The # Model 1  was a borderline office machine, but it was a not a full one. Perhaps because it had just been introduced into a tighter office market created by the Depression, Remington, who probably loaned it for the event, wanted it used.

The Acme Co., a news service, printed and distributed multiple copies of the photograph, headlining it as “”How Types Have Speeded Up.” In their caption, they also draw primary attention to the contrasts in the clothing of the two women typists. Clearly, faster types, faster typists (literally and figuratively), and real progress for typewriters and women! (yes, I am being facetious)"

For context, check out Richard Polt's typewriter history highlights: http://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/tw-history.html

Thanks Peter and Richard for helping tell the history of this machine!

Sequential Insanity

I'm nowhere near as obsessive about numerical sequences as Spawn the Elder. But I can't resist that one shot in the century at lining up 12/13/14. You'll note that this entry was posted at 9:11 CST. Blogger doesn't let me schedule by the second.

Small detail: I missed the AM round by a few seconds. We don't operate on military time in this house, so PM is fair game!

Hey kids! Let's turn an Oliver #7 into a lamp!

I really, really like the reproduction Edison light bulbs. I really, really hate it when people do stupid, stupid things with them. Like impaling an Oliver #7 to make an ungainly and unattractive lamp. I saw this beast, and others, tonight at a warehouse vintage shop.

This is just wrong on so many levels. At least the other slaughtered typewriters were relatively common.

In the 'life's little ironies' department, these were illuminated with the light on my iPhone as a breaker had tripped and the second floor of the warehouse was nearly dark. I was almost afraid the Zombie Typewriters would rise from the dead.

But wait, there's more! Typewriters aren't the only logical place to put light bulbs. Obviously, old movie projectors need light. And brass microscopes. Yeah, I only obsess about those a bit. Looks so much better with a light bulb.

Let the unbridled rage of the Typosphere commence!

An Olivetti Lettera 22 with Scriptin' Style!

Greetings from the new arrival in the House Full of Nerds! Pistachio isn't just a an Olivetti 22; it has a variation of the curly script typeface that sometimes (rarely) appears on Olivetti and Smith-Corona typewriters. For Typospherians with typeface fetishes, this is one of those objects of desire. Pistachio is even one scarcer colors found on Olivetti machines in the wild.

Pistachio with a friend who has just been serviced. That Groma is one light and snappy machine! It isn't quite as hyper as an Olympia or Topedo, but it is really nice to type on. Boring typeface, though ;-)

After several years of searching and bidding in vain, I happened upon a Smith-Corona Silent Super and then this lovely machine within months of each other as Buy it Now items on ebay. Before I go any further, let's jump straight to the typeface samples. In order of appearance: Lettera 22, Silent Super, Olympia SM-9, and a Torpedo 18.

I was fortunate that Pistachio was in generally good condition and fully operable. The seller double boxed it as requested and Fed-Ex did its thing without maiming or destruction. I opened it up, lubed everything I could, washed and bleached the shell, put on a new generic ribbon on the original spools, and cleaned the type slugs with mineral spirits and a toothbrush. PB Blaster is a miracle lube, but curiously I find this Italian machine to be more responsive than the first year of production British Lettera 22. It still requires a light, fast stroke, but the strikes seem to be easier and more consistent. This is a good thing as I need to type more. So busy I have been.

Olivettis of feather, flock together!

Olivetti industrial design is so clean and seemingly uncomplicated. The details make a huge difference, however. Not having flattened rollers is kinda awesome. The rail and tab stop mechanisms are elegant works of art.

I love the view under the hood. The original ribbon spools are super cool. The outer shell took a bit of abuse sometime in the last 50+ years with the front, right screw tab broken off. Crazy glue seems to be holding it together.

Any chance of figuring out the year of manufacture in Italy?

And here it is with the kissing cousin from Glasgow.

For any of you typewriter nerds who enjoy a mystery (I'm thinking of Ted Munk, Ton, and Richard Polt), here is the Glasgow machine's serial number in all of its confounding glory. I have yet to find an image of another Lettera with an embossed paper table.

I'm sure there are more examples that I just can't remember at the moment. Tom Furrier at Cambridge Typewriter Works recently serviced a machine identical to my Smith-Corona. Natalie at natslaptaps has a beautiful coral color L22 with the exact same script.  If are having a hankering for a cursive typeface overdose, Notagain at Manual Entry has what you are looking for.

For anyone curious, all of these images were captured with my Fuji X-T1 and the native 35mm f1.4 lens. Lacking ambient light, these out of camera JPEG images pretty well nail white balance with a mix of halogen and fluorescent lighting on the work bench. My G+ stream is here.

As always, thanks for stopping by! I'm glad to be giving this blog a pulse again, but that is partly because I have been procrastinating on a Google+ photography challenge due at the end of the week. And silly me; I saw some really great toy images from people I follow and signed up for yet another challenge series. At least the hours and hours of darkness in winter are keeping me inside. There is that.

A note about Copyright: Yes, I am greedy. These are my copyrighted images and are not to be used without attribution and never in a commercial context without my express permission. Yes, this is the Interweb and anything can be copied. No, that does not make these the property of the world. Share the love and share the full post. The Interweb will be a better place for it. Be warned: I do have enforcers who will take matters into their own claws as necessary.

A member of the Brute Squad. You were warned ;-)

 

Funky Script of the Day

A new typewriter arrived yesterday and is currently on the bench for cleaning and adjustment. Would anyone care to guess the make and model? Anyone? Anyone?

Captured with a Fuji X-T1 + Pentax Macro Takumar 50mm f4 + Baveyes focal booster. Out of camera JPG

Greetings from the Zombie Blog (and a Parker 51 Fountain Pen)

Oooo... a Parker 51 set found for $18 at an antique mall. And it works!

Just remember, it isn't pen prn if it is out of focus.

Yeah, it is a little frou-frou, but who cares? It screams 1950 and would look at home in a Cadillac glove box.

 

Sorry I have been MIA, but Vintage Tech Obsessions at least has a sketchy pulse :-) And if you are at all curious as to where I have been since the beginning of the year, here is a small sampling from my Google+ stream.

New Orleans: October, 2014   Fuji X-T1

NYC: September, 2014  Fuji X100

Kansas City (exurbs): September, 2014  Fuji X-T1

Chicago: May, 2014  Fuji X-T1

Kansas City: Fuji X-T1

Portland: May, 2014  Fuji X-T1

Chicago: May, 2014  Fuji X-T1

San Francisco: March, 2014  Fuji X100

Washington, DC: February, 2014  iPhone 5s

In Fight: October, 2014  Fuji X-T1 (out of camera)