Survey: did you ever use a manual typewriter?

Yes! I did even went to college with one. I used a Royal at home (with the old two colour ribbon black on top and red on the bottom) and got an Olivetti for college. However I might be speedy at keyboarding but typing on a manual always made me skittish with the noise. So in college I worked extra to send all my papers to a typing service. By the end of my undergrad wordprocessing was becoming more available so I saw the end of two eras typewriters and punchcards (had a class in programming with them in undergrad). Oh I still have an electric Royal with corrector ribbon and changeable daisy wheels for italics my parents gave me for Christmas my Freshman year.

Sure did! I learned to touchtype in a room full of old manuals. It gave me ridiculously strong pinky fingers…

I had a manual Imperial at home, that I used to write all my stories on.

I got myself a Saturday job when I was 16/17 and bought myself an Amstrad PCW (the single floppy version) which I used exclusively from then on.

I was one of few guys who took typing class in high school. Not only manual, but ones with no letters on the keys–all blank. About half-way through the class we got to move to the other room with IBM selectrics. Other than speed and accuracy, the class also taught business typing and styles, so I know what the cc: means. I was given a new portable while still in high school by my parents, this one included a clap-on metal tray so you could be typing at the proper height. In college I wanted a real, big manual typewritter, and I went big–I got the one with an 18 inch carriage, so I could type on greenbar computer paper, a full 132 characters wide. A couple of years later, I worked at a radio station and used a manual that was big in a different way, large font, to make it easier to read the news stories typed up on it. But in 1977 I was working for The Phone Company and was using one of those Model 33 Teletypes as a terminal to a mainframe in another state. It got me into a program where I tracked all the modems in Michigan–amount and breakdown rates determined the number of spares a service garage could have on hand.
Now about 20 years ago, I gave up the manual for an electric that had a new interface on it; you could hook it up to your computer as a printer. By the time I got a home computer, I got a printer dedicated to the computer. The typewriter was still usefull to type labels to attach to cassette tapes.

-Tim

I learned to type on a manual typewriter (can’t remember what kind) in 1984. At 16, inspired by all those 80’s movies with guys with slicked-back hair and pin-stripe suits, I thought business school was a good idea. Did I get rich on the stock market? No, I got hired as a secretary.

My Dad had a manual Olivetti (I think) when we were growing up, which we were occasionally allowed to use. When I started work, there was an electric typewriter, and though there wasn’t a lot of typing needed in the job, I thought it would be a good idea to teach myself to touch type. So I got a book out of the library, and then funded myself on an evening class in ‘Improve Your Speeds’. The college taught on manual typewriters (to a metronome!), and despite having weak fingers (no ‘, p, a or q, or only very faint ones!) I finished the course at about 35 wpm and went straight back to the electric one at work and up to over 60 wpm.
I acquired a typewriter in about my second year at university, and I still have it; it’s an old cast-iron Royal upright, probably older than I am. It uses the red/black ribbons, has a stencil facility and even a (somewhat theoretical) tabulation key - you get two tab stops by attaching slot-on ‘keys’ to a notched bar at the back! Alas, it’s in dire need of servicing. I also have an electric Silver Reed which I bought myself, and an electric (electronic?) daisy-wheel Olympia, which I bought from the job I was made redundant from in 1991, and used until I got my first computer.
I remember correction paper too, and the horrible red stuff we used to have to correct mistakes on stencils!

Olivetti. University students these days don’t understand that they’ve got it WAY easy.

One of my brothers still insists on typing everything on his old Underwood. (Yes, he’s a luddite.)

I was precocious as a child; one of my earliest birthday presents (that I remember, anyway) was a Sears child’s manual typewriter, with only capital letters. I graduated from that to a Monkey Ward manual years later, then to my dad’s humongous old Underwood with the black/red combo ribbon and the keys you practically had to whack with a sledgehammer. For high school graduation, Mama gave me a Smith-Corona electric, which served me faithfully for many years, then finally died on me in the early 1990s. The last typewriter I bought—which I still own and now hardly ever use—was a Smith-Corona electric that uses a wheel imprinter (this can be swapped out to change typefaces).

And I actually remember carbon paper. And the distinctive smell and purple hue of dittoed sheets. And correction fluid (”white-out” for the less precise).

Gads, I’m old.

Yes, yes! When I was fourteen my father brought me a typewriter his workplace was getting rid of, an Olivetti of 1950s vintage. I taught myself to type (enabling me to moonlight as a typist during my studies) and wrote my early stories on it, as well as half a Star Trek novel (which, after I abandoned it, someone else turned out to have written: it’s Dwellers in the Crucible by Margaret Wander Bonanno). Later, I got jobs involving Real Word Processing, like IBM dedicated word-processing machines, and the IBM MK 80 with magnetic cards. Also, the ticker-tape machine that I typed someone’s thesis on for peanuts^Wmusic books and a place at his graduation dinner.

Yeah, sure. My mom had an old olivetti portable thing, probably from the 60ies, and then I learned how to type on an Olypmia something… gawd. Doing legal stuff with 3 carbon copys, one typo and you could start all over. We did our highschool newspaper by manual typewriter, scissors and glue….

Remembering some typing business rules of TPC in the late 70’s. If I was typing something for my boss to go to someone else at his level or below, it could have up to 3 corrections on it. If it was to go up to his boss’s level, maybe 1 correction per page was okay, as long as it was corrected without the correction being off-kilter. Up above the boss’s level, no errors on a letter.
If a report as attached, then corrections could be made, as originals would be kept and only copies would be sent out (in case someone asked for another copy).

Yes, I had one of those portable Olivettis that weighed a ton. I used correction paper as well, those little leaflets by Kores. Then I bought an electrical one. I only got a computer about 7 years ago.

I learned to type on a big old Olivetti that the keys stuck all the time. Once I got the basics my dad thought it would be a great idea if I typed all his invoices (with 4 carbons) and reports on an old Smith-Corona - one of those ones that was considered portable, it has a green lid that snapped over the top of the typewriter and looked like luggage when covered up. I was able to progress to a real fancy Brother with a tape correction system in university.

I learned on a manual, I believe it was a Remington. (My folks later bought an IBM Selectric.) When I graduated from High School my graduation present was my own manual portable typewriter, a Hermes 3000.

Doing a Google search, it usually shows up as an “Antique typewriter”.

I learned to type on a manual typewriter in grade school. (Yes, grade school — special situation, not a general class.) I don’t know what brand the typewriter was; its distinguishing characteristic was that it did large type. So it was a lot bigger than normal (those hammers have to go somewhere), but the key spacing was still such that a ten-year-old could learn to touch-type on it. In retrospect I don’t know how they did that.

Would the cartoon sound better if joystick were replaced with mouse?

I used an IBM Selectric when I was in high school. I also learned to type on a typewriter. Computers were still for the very rich back in those days.

No! Even though I’m quite old, I never learned. At my girls’ school, the only students who learned to type were those who were leaving at 16 to get a job as a secretary.

At the time I was happy to be studying English Lit instead of taking a typing class, but now it’s a real disadvantage. After 10 or more years of using a pc at work, I still can’t touch type.

I. too, started out on a manual typewriter. I wrote my first published stories on an old, gray Underwood Star in the 1970’s. Used a Smith-Corona portable in college. All my typewriters were manual until I purchased my first home computer: a Kaypro CP/M machine.

The more things change, the more they stay the same, though. Recently I dug out my old Underwood (yes, I still have it) and had it cleaned and tuned. I find myself using it now and again, especially for creative writing and articles. A typewriter requires an entirely different way of thinking about writing. One I find helpful to overcome the occasional writer’s block.

I learned on Olivettis with blank keys in the early ’70s. It turned out to be useful when I became a Coast Guard Radioman in 1981–if you typed 35wpm on a manual, you could move up to a Selectric, though most work was still done on the manual. Some of our stations also used the Model 28 Teletypes until circa 1991, with a truly odd 3-row keyboard arrangement. You had to shift up and down for every letter or punctuation, and had to hit the stiff, tubular keys by arching your fingers to hit them straight down, hard. I guess I missed it, since I bought a WWII vintage manual Royal last year (Army green) that is identical to the one that got me through college in the Seventies. I was just using it, and found your site while searching for a ribbon to fit it.

I’m 19 years old.. and I use typewriters exclusively for doing my papers now. When I’m sitting in front of a computer, there’s way too much to do.

When I switched, I figured that it would be a pain to correct typos, but I quickly learned that correction fluid is a pain compared to the new correction tape that you roll on. I find that the time taken away from typing helps me think of what comes next, instead of just rambling on and on with no point..
My first typewriter was my mom’s Underwood portable, 1950s or so with the drab grey paint and green keys, and I have an Underwood Noiseless from the 30s, an IBM Selectric III that can even correct (!), and my newest is a Hermes 3000 portable. A joy to type on…

Gee I really feel old after reading all these submissions. On my first job, I used an Olympia manual office model. I typed everything with 7 carbons. When the original went for signature, the executive wouldn’t even read it first — he turned it over and held it up to the light ; if he could see any sign of a correction, it was immediately ripped in half and thrown in the trash and I had to start all over again.

I quickly learned all the tricks of the trade which included a combo of eraser and chalk. Correction fluid was a definite NO-NO.

I also used to sit for hours and take dictation in shorthand.

I am elderly with a tremor, and use a manual typewriter to fill out forms. I have been unable to find those correction papers I used so much 60 years ago. Does anyone know if they are still available?

Hi! I’m 11 and I just got one from a garage sale. I go to summer camp, but I miss it all day. We have a top of the line computer but I still prefer to pound on the keys of my olympia. It still works and you can still buy universial ribbions at office depote!!!!