We're Still Here! Mayan Apocalypse, Denied!

The robot army is victorious and the Mayan Destructors have been purged!  The victors shall have their spoils!

This little guy worked hard.  He deserves a Thin Mint!

They perhaps don't look quite as menacing in color.  Just saying.

The end of hostilities was recognized with the issuance of a presidential peace medallion patterned after one of the originals found at the Arch museum in St. Louis.  The Mayans have declared a truce until the next time their calendar runs out.  The have a few pyramids to rebuild in the interim.

The fact that the House Full of Nerds visited the Arch on the 21st after seeing Wicked the night before is purely coincidental.  Come to think of it, many of the stories I cobble together come from incidental items combined in interesting ways.  At least I hope it is interesting!

Behind the Scenes of Mayan Apocalypse Week

The elaborate set and the form of the Destructors are revealed!  Only one commenter picked up on this being an Oliver 9 playing the face of evil incarnate.

Mekanda Robo chipped in to help Godzilla get his fireball and atomic ball of doom.  This is the ugliest Christmas decoration, ever.  It needed to be put down and was purchased as a clearance item last year solely for the purpose of harvesting parts.

Gotta love the Jumbo Machinders.  Two of them are tricked out with accessory arms.  I thought about just putting two of them together in the buddy movie fashion, but that's not how the Shogun Warriors roll.

Thanks everyone for taking part in the madness that was my Mayan Apocalypse week!  It was a fun project and a nice way to break a blogging dry spell.  As is the norm, this did not start with a script or storyboard.  My 12-year-old did the original drawing of the Mayan Destructor at my request.  Simply put, I can't draw.  The rest of the story meandered from there.  I put together three entries; including this one, before we left the Kansas City area for St. Louis.  I love the scheduling feature on the Blogger platform.

You might have noticed a cameo appearance by the Christmas Squirrel.  Without his adept leadership, all would have been lost!  Late last year, the origins of the Christmas Squirrel were detailed in loving care here.

Copyright: Yes, all of the photos and words are mine.  Reposting or pinning photos requires placing a direct back to this website and a citation for Dwayne F. of Vintage Technology Obsessions.  Commercial use is not allowed.

Greetings from the Mighty Oliver 9

Our typewriters have personalities.

It may sound strange, but the typewriters inhabiting the main parts of our house carry on conversations with the family. The Adler J5 is somewhat timid and afraid of water after being cooped up in someone's basement for years. It was almost inconsolable during the east coast hurricane. The Royal Quiet Deluxe is pretty much pristine having apparently been stored in its case in a closet. It is happy to have fresh ribbons and is neurosis free.

However, we have one petulant rock star of a typewriter currently residing in the kitchen: the Oliver 9. If a typewriter could command swarms of robotic minions to take over the world, this would be the one. And who can blame the Oliver with its highly patented and brilliantly marketed pedigree?

Early typewriters are several steps beyond awesome due to a wave of innovation and radically varying design philosophies. This was the era of first patents and attempts to work around multiple patents. For a good sample of typewriter history, go here: http://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/tw-history.html

The first commercially successful typewriters, designed by Sholes and Gliddon and later marketed by the Remington Company in 1873, were an upstroke design where the operator could not see the words. This is the machine that brought typewriting to the office and later to the masses.

I won't repeat the entire history of the Oliver Typewriter Company as it is lovingly detailed on Wikipedia. Their production run in the US lasted from 1896-1928. The fundamental design is a novel means to allow the typist to see their work in real time. This lead to a rather extreme and entertaining rendition of a downstrike design.

According to the Typewriter Database http://www.tw-db.com/indexen.htm our Oliver was manufactured between 1915 and 1919. My best guess is 1915-16 given the lower end serial number. Someone has a very special birthday coming up.

I spotted the Oliver in a display case at a local antique mall where it sat unloved for almost a year. The first thing I noticed was the distinctive typebars. Arched on either side of the platen, this downstrike design delivers tremendous force. I had not owned a typewriter since college. Frankly, typing was my nemesis in the pre word processor era. I used to pay someone to type my term papers.

But this was one cool machine. I happened to visit the day the booth owner was cleaning up and he cut me a deal. A half can of brake cleaner, selective oiling and a fresh platen return cable later it types almost as good as new.

The act of typing with this machine is just darned cool for a tech junkie. I get to watch the mechanism at work and it types definitively. The key feel is surprisingly light for such a substantial piece of metal. The base is cast iron with conveniently located wings that the make lifting and moving a possibility; albeit a potentially hernia inducing one.

There are other distinctive features in this almost 100 year old machine. It has a three row keyboard with a full front/back platen shift mechanism – shift back for caps or forward for special keys. Our machine features an Oliver designed font known as “Printype”; an innovation meant to emulate the look and feel of contemporary books. Given inherent adjustment issues with the type bars, our Oliver produces a very organic and imperfect rendition of book text. However, we have never been able to jam keys as with more traditional designs.

One other prominent feature: other than the platen cover, keys and a couple of lever covers, this beast is made of solid metal.

The typewriter mechanisms relegated to the thrift shops of the world in the 1980s with the advent of personal computers settled on similar design principles with four rows of keys, easy tabulation and basket shift. While they may all look similar, they came in a range of build quality and precision. I just gave up trying to fix a cheapish 1960s ROYAL portable. A 1959 Olympia SF, however, is a finely honed piece of precision machinery that is a joy to work on. The Oliver isn't a precise device, but it is bombproof and gets better the more it is used.

I am constantly amazed at how well manual typewriters continue to work after years of neglect. As long as there are fresh ribbons, the best will still be running 100 years from now. I'm confident a remnant Nerd subculture will continue to appreciate the era of all metal machines.