Grand Avenue by Mike Thompson for November 08, 2012

I used to write handwritten damage estimates. When my company first computerized, they gave us a machine called a “quint” which looked like a typewriter. We would prepare our estimates by circling some codes on a laminated sheet. Then we made a phone call (remember those) to a phone bank and read them the codes. The data people entered those. An estimate was sent back over the phone line directly to the quint which acted like a printer and spit out a printed copy of the estimate. From time to time, the quint would stop working. The customary response for computer support was to tell us to pick up the quint, hold it about 12 inches above the desk surface and drop it. Believe it or not, this often fixed the problem. One day as I was walking across the parking lot, one of the latches on my quint case broke and the machine crashed to the asphalt.. It landed on one corner. The quint split wide open, mangled electronic parts hanging out . I called our help desk. After describing what happened, I was instructed to hold the unit 12 inches above my desk and drop it. “You don’t understand,” I said. “I already tried that.”

LOL ellisaana but sometimes stuff like that did work – I had a few printers at work that needed an occasional slam or punch to fix the problem. :) This comic makes me feel like an antique though – I learned to type on a manual typewriter…

Who knew low-tech could be so high-tech?

Believe it or not, I still have a typewritter up in the closet. I doubt that the ribbon’s ink is still viable, but I heard once that if you sprayed a little WD-40 on the spool, that would give the ribbon ink a little more life. Ahhh….low tech. Those were the days….

I see that.

I love typewriters. I have a typewriter sound on my laptop but my husband says it’s too noisy. I have an Underwood in my closet that needs to be looked at. Never thought I see one of those again as that is what the junior high and high schools had. Got the one I have at a flea market. It works all right if you don’t mind the occasional sticking key. It could use some refurbishing and a ribbon. I think there are very few places that will still work on them.

There’s actually an interest among the nostalgia-nerd crowd for modifying old typewriters to use them as computer keyboards. Too much time on their hands?

I surprise my students when I say I first typed on a typewriter and a computer was actually 40 pounds and portable. Ahh Tandy!