note | Chris Aldrich

“I’m always trying to get back to the 20s a little bit.”
—John Dickerson, in Field Notes interview (2016)

Perhaps lamenting too much technology, Dickerson says he’s got two screens on the computer in his office as well as an iPad and a phone. But he’s also got “a notebook [that] does only one thing”. He’s also got an old black lacquer Underwood standard typewriter (No. 4, 5, or 6?) on his office desk. Typewriters only do one thing too.

Wonder if he still uses it?

Miles (1905) has some interesting things to say with respect to collecting, “business-like brevity” (aka atomic notes), annotations for thinking/arranging/marking cards, summarizing, etc.

Miles, Eustace Hamilton. How to Prepare Essays, Lectures, Articles, Books, Speeches and Letters, with Hints on Writing for the Press. London: Rivingtons, 1905. http://archive.org/details/howtoprepareessa00mileuoft.

Especially interesting: Chapter XXIV The Card-System.

Typewritten page sitting in the carriage of a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe. In black ink with an art deco-looking Vogue typeface we see the on the page the lyrics of the Madonna song Vogue.

Typed index card reading: I'm going to consider it a sign of fate or kismet that on the same day that I purchase a Smith-Corona Electra 210, that Vintage finally releases the e-book version of Robert Moses' 1974 masterpiece The Power Broker.

I started the process of cleaning my green 1958 Olympia SM3 to bring it back up to speed. Things are generally moving apace although the mixture of eraser shavings and old oil has tarnished the carriage rails. Spent some time with some metal polish trying to bring them back to their old glory. Should be able to finish flushing out tomorrow and getting it back together and properly adjusted.

Here’s a bit of a time lapse of the work:

An empty wooden table with some wooden chairs on the far side.

A light colored hand towel now sits in the middle of the table.

The silver wooden case of an Olympia SM3 now sits on the towel on the table.

The typewriter case is now open and we see the green dusty typewriter inside it.

The typewriter has been removed from the case and sat on the right side.

A small Dyson vacuum and brush have appeared on the table next to the cleaned out case.

A black leather tool case has appeared on the table above the typewriter which now sits on the hand towel next to some index cards and a pen. The case and vacuum/brush have been pushed off to the right side of the table.

The leather toolcase has been emptied and now sits in the chair opposite the typewriter. Several tool pouches full of tools have appeared between the typewriter and the case.

The typewriter hood and several pieces have been disassembled and appear on the table around the towel and the body of the typewriter.

The platen and even more pieces have been removed from the typewriter and its carriage. They sit above and to the side of the typewriter and the layout of tools.

The skeleton of the typewriter sits on the table surrounded by it's parts and screws.

Finally, we see a different angle of the typewriter looking across the table. In the front is the naked typewriter on the hand towel which is surrounded by it's now cleaned body panels, platen, feet, and various other parts, screws, and springs. In the background we see the tools including many screwdrivers in their tool bags.