8 5/8 x 5 3/4 x 4 1/8" exterior dimensions
putty color
A pittance of $5.00 at the local thrift shop also included a full set of Universal Paper Goods Stock No. 58-25 card dividers with both alphabetic and numeral printing.
Anthony Hereld (noctisadversaria.com)I ordered a segment pick from Bremerton Typewriter Company several weeks ago. The segment is the arched piece near the center of a typewriter where every typebar passes through on its way to the platen. Decades of ink and paper dust can pack into the grooves there. That’s why an old machine can fe...
I’m glad you finally managed to get your own segment pick from Paul at Bremerton Typewriter. They’re really quite lovely and clever. I will say that oddly, since I bought it, none of the typewriters I’ve gotten since are terribly gummed up as badly as a stretch of them I had gotten before and which were the reason I bought the pick in the first place! The luck of the repairman I suppose…
I must also admit that you seem to be another new member of the typosphere I’ve noticed who has Webmentions on your site! Kudos on that.
Best regards,
Chris
1971h3k77/CJA
cc: Tom Fasano, Ted Munk
As if he knew I was coming, Helmut had this lovely Royal/Triumph-Adler R 700 sitting right up front on the counter. It’s essentially a Royal-badged version of the Adler Universal 200 which was manufactured under the Litton regime. It’s a solid standard with some nice speed hiding under the hood. Helmut has added some nice touches of what he calls “lipstick” to zhuzh it up.
I peeked at the code and saw a Webmention endpoint hiding in there and nearly fell over. Webmention is a web standard that allows any website to talk directly to any other website as if they were social media peers on the same platform.
I immediately fired up my new-to-me 1959 Olympia SM3 which also has a Professional Elite No. 41 typeface to dash off a note to Tom and his typewriter. I posted it to my website as a typecast reply. But most importantly, my website sent a webmention (think @mention/notification) to Tom that I had replied to his post. Voila! My reply was in his comments section just moments later, as if by magic. I’ve only done this a few times as there aren’t many typewriter collector/typecasting bloggers out there who’ve added the technology to their sites yet, but this certainly opens up a new space for typewriter social networking by way of the web rather than just via post.
The careful observer will also notice that because Tom syndicated his original post to Reddit and included a syndication link, he’s getting replies from Reddit back into his website via Webmention using a service called Brid.gy. So if you want to type up a reply to his post, or even this one, and post it to the Reddit thread you can participate that way (if your website doesn’t have the capability yet.)
Who else in the typosphere has a website that supports webmention? Let’s start a chat.
If you’d like to go deeper into the subject of Webmention, try this article in A List Apart: “Webmentions: Enabling Better Communication on the Internet“.
I often see typewriter enthusiasts “debating” over which is the prettiest or best typeface, and often, they’re making their judgement on one machine they happen to have or really wish they had. Rarely are these judgements made with multiple typefaces on the same page for easier direct apples-to-apples comparison, so I threw together a small sample from a few in my own collection.
Gut reaction time: Which of these is your favorite?
h/t Elisa Cristina Makoon-Singh
Serial Number: 7084044
Hermes Epoca typeface, 10 pitch, slugs: SNO, 6 lines/vertical inch, portable, bichrome, segment shift, tabulator, U.S. keyboard with 44 keys and 88 characters
light green plastic body, grey-ish cream colored plastic keys
Manufactured in France
Jan Macho, Sr.’s grandson Chris Macho eulogized his grandfather on Instagram:
This is a Hermes 3000. My grandfather, Jan Macho, “Deda” to me, made a living and a small fortune as an exec at Hermes Typewriter Co., and he sold a million of these. I admit, I don’t think of him as often as I should, and it takes hints like these in the wild to remind me of him. Fuck me, he was just so legendarily amazing, kind, generous, and plain THE SHIT in how he carried himself (and now I’m tearing up as I write this). I mentioned him and the Hermes thing to the people at this place here and they gave me a beer. So here he is, still hooking me up from the other side. Love you, miss you Deda.
Generally his typewriter is in solid condition aside from some cosmetic issues in the rear body plastic possibly due to heat exposure. It’ll need a full C/O/A and some new rubber, but will be resurrected to be a spectacular little portable typewriter for a few more generations.
I was so enamored of the provenance of the typewriter that I barely managed to get through a preliminary check of the functionality before buying. I completely didn’t even notice the Epoca typeface until I got it home. Somehow I’ve always been the bridesmaid when it comes to Hermes machines, but it seems I’ve jumped right over the bride title straight to princess.
His courses are thorough and rigorous, but geared toward lifelong learners and beginners in abstract mathematics to allow people better entry points into higher level mathematics. His classes are interesting and relatively informal, and most students who take one usually stay on for future courses. The vast majority of students in the class (from 16-90+ years old) take his classes for fun and regular exposure to mathematical thought, though there is an option to take it for a grade if you like. There are generally no prerequisites for his classes, and he makes an effort to meet the students at their current level of sophistication. For this particular class, if you’ve got some experience in high school algebra and know some preliminaries about mathematical proofs you’ll be ready to dive in.
There are regular commuters joining from as far out as Irvine, Ventura County and even Riverside. Most in the class are dedicated hobbyist and professional mathematicians, engineers, physicists, and others from all walks of life (I’ve seen actors, directors, doctors, artists, poets, retirees, and even house-husbands in his classes.)
If you’re unsure of what you’re getting into, I recommend visiting on the first class to consider joining us for the Fall quarter. Sadly, this is an in-person course. There isn’t an option to take this remotely or via streaming, and he doesn’t typically record his lectures. I hope to see all the Southern California math fans next month!
Group theory is recognized as one of the great unifying mathematical disciplines, with far-reaching applications in virtually all scientific (and many non-scientific) fields. This course, the first of a two-quarter sequence that concludes in Winter 2027 with a course on fields and Galois Theory, is geared toward developing the tools of group theory needed to establish the Abel-Ruffini theorem on the insolvability by radicals of the general polynomial of degree five or greater. Results established along this journey will also be applied toward addressing the three classical ruler and compass construction problems of antiquity: trisecting the angle, duplication of the cube, and squaring the circle, as well as Gauss’ surprising characterization of constructible regular polygons.
September 22 – December 1
Tuesday 7:00PM – 10:00PM PT
REG# 410697
Fee: $450.00
Recommended textbook: TBD
Dr. Miller provides enough background and thorough notes that if you’re taking notes on his lectures, you typically won’t need a textbook.
If you’ve never joined the class before (Dr. Miller has been teaching these for 53 years and some of us have been with him for nearly that long; I’m starting into my 20th year personally), I’ve written up some tips and hints.
Serial number: 1477358
Professional Elite No. 41 typeface, 11 pitch, 2.3m/m, 6 lines/inch, bichrome, carriage shift, tabulator
American keyboard, 44 keys, 88 characters
green crinkle paint, black plastic keys
Manufactured in Wilhelmshaven, Germany
It’ll need several new parts including rubber, but this portends to be a fantastic typewriter.
Stock No. 721
Overall dimensions: 3.5 x 4.5 x 8"
There are a few places that still make card dividers for this size format, but I opted to make my own from 11 x 17″ card stock.
25/Set (PN 925)
I’ve been wanting some for use with 8.5 x 11″ index cards, but thought that most major stationers had quit manufacturing them decades ago. It turns out you can still get them from Tops via a variety of different office supply outlets, though closer to the range of $15-40 per pack. I’m sure these will work wonders in my Shaw-Walker filing cabinet.
Interestingly, one outlet I saw was pitching them for dividing files within a single a folder, but I’m guessing they weren’t aware of how these were used historically. (The entire group of 25 would fill up a standard manilla folder all by itself!) It’s sort of a shame that they only count up to 25 instead of 31 so that one could also easily use them as a days-of-the-month tickler file.
I tried some half-sheet stationery at the International Printing Museum not long ago and that seemed like a lovely way to write and keep copies of typewritten correspondence.
Of course recommendations for designers and printers for personal stationery is welcome here too.
