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Personal mechanized writing devices

Monday, 27 March 2000

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I just bought this beauty (from a guy in St. Louis who has a warehouse full of them), though I am not much of a collector. I have a pretty large library, but I don't buy books to have but to read. However, I have recently become very interested in classic manual typewriters. Why? Because two of my chief interests are computers and books, and typewriters are personal mechanized writing devices.

The typewriter is an important personal computer precursor device in the history of technology, and for that reason alone I think more hackers and geeks should celebrate the typewriter. For those of us who love reading, writing and the culture of the book, they also represent a further step in the radical democritization of Gutenberg's press. Gutenberg made it possible for everyone to learn to read, and the typewriter made it possible for everyone to be able to communicate efficiently and in a standard way.

Whatever the political implications of the PC are, they must, in my view, be understood by taking the long view, and that view includes the typewriter as a direct ancestor.

Plus, they are beautiful, especially when they are restored and in good working order. They have the experiential patina of real objects, which have, through the passing of time, lost the impersonality of mass-production. They are now as unique as the tools of any artist.

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