Statuses
Digging into some typewriter pricing history, I found a copy of the 1949 Sears Spring/Summer Catalog, which lists a version of my 1949 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter (Sears SKU: 3 NM 4584T with Pica Type) for $95.08 on page 285.
Converting 1949 dollars to 2024 using an inflation calculator indicates this is now worth $1,247.75. Considering that I got it for less than the original sale price in 2024 (including shipping) and that it works as well now as it did then, I feel like I got a pretty solid deal.
For comparison the competing portable models in the catalog included:
- Royal Arrow $84.48
- Smith-Corona Clipper $84.27
- Smith-Corona Sterling $89.57
- Remington Portable $84.27
- Remington Portable with Tabulator $89.57
- Underwood Leader $63.40
They also listed the Tower, a standard size desk typewriter, for $99.00 saying it was just a few dollars more than the portables.
For further comparison, the prior year, the 1948 Smith-Corona Clipper, a model of which I also own, was listed for $76.85. Adjusted for inflation this would be $995.96.
Phoenix Typewriter from YouTubeI was seeing this issue on my 1949 Royal QDL. I figured it’d be an easy fix.
Turns out, it was exactly my issue and the pieces had “frozen up”. A quick clean out and we’re back in business in under 20 minutes.
Some how it felt sacrilegious to post it to Goodreads.com and not to type my status update for Richard Polt’s poetic paean to typewriters.
Tortured poets Dylan Thomas and Patti Smith both used typewriters. I still use several too.
I saw hundreds of images of the eclipse today, but none remotely similar to mine. While thinking back on how I imaged the eclipse with my “pinhole colander camera”, I realize that so much of my life is informed not only by science, but the science of cooking. If you’re an analog zettelkasten fan, I just bought a few bricks of 500 index cards for $6.08 each at my local Amazon Fresh. Most brands list for $12-$16 for this many; even Amazon.com is currently listing them for $10.50. Sadly it doesn’t match my all-time-best of $2.06. What’s your best? 🗃️📝
I’d mentioned that my Steelcase card index came without the traditional card stops/follower blocks at the back of the drawers. Needing a solution for this, I’ve discovered that my local Daiso sells small, simple bookends for $1.75 for a pair and they’re the perfect size (7 x 8.9 x 9.2 cm) for the drawers. These seem to do the trick nicely, though they do tend to slide within the metal drawers without any friction. Giving them small rubber feet or museum putty from the hardware store for a few cents more fixes this quickly.
This book from 1908 by J. Kaiser seems like a fantastic instruction manual for how to use Obsidian, Logseq, Notion, Evernote, OneNote, and most other note taking tools for just about any application.
I think I’ve bought yet another typewriter: a late 60s/early 70s Remington Streamliner. I bought it in part because it looks beautiful, but also (I’m not going to lie here) because it’s very similar in color to my mint blue TWSBI Eco-T fountain pen and my General Fireproofing Co. desk.
I swear this is my last one for a while… at least until I find a reasonably priced and superb condition late 50s Olympia SM3 preferably in either green or maroon.
Having the best tools does you absolutely no good unless you’re going to use them.
Collecting notebooks, fountain pens, or even typewriters is useless (other than their inherent beauty) without their use.
The Europe PKM Summit 2024 coming up on March 22 – 23 looks like a who’s-who of the tools for thought crowd. I’m putting together a few ideas myself… https://pkmsummit.com/
How the typewriter collection is coming along.