TypewriterKing wrote:

Javi wrote:

Something I see in typewriters (and maybe I´m nuts) is that they establish a bond between the machine itself and the owner. Maybe office typewriters are mere tools, but home typewriters are not disposable like plastic cutlery. You use them for years, and sometimes they are even inherited. Some of my typewriters are not "mine", I just store them. They belong to the people who have used it for decades and even if they have decided to sell them, the previous owners have left part of themselves on these machines. I even have a typewriter which has been used to write a poetry book, and IMVHO that gives that machine its own entity.

I want to think this is not that nonsensical. Some people stick to a watch for many years, and they´re more than just a trinket to know what time is it. Typewriters are writing junk, yes, but I bet they´re not the same as a gas meter, no matter how useful it is.

My man, you don't know just how deep into my brain you have gone. I have thought the same very thing. In fact, I have several typewriters that were given to me by people who have passed on, and I am holding onto them, keeping them working and in good order. I've been chided for this myself, but I believe that each machine has a "ghost." Each one has a story or set of stories to tell. Each machine has its own entity and identity, and a very interesting timeline and storyline.
 

I've written about this several times now but I had a similar feeling about a machine I never even saw in the metal - a 100 year old Royal 10 being sold by somebody in the state of Wyoming who was quite artless in his gross insensitivity, overused word though that is. "I was about to cut off the keys" he said, then somebody told him the machine might be of interest whole. It looked beautiful, but the low bid of $125 + shipping was too far above market, I thought, and I was already over budget and under space so I didn't pay the ransom - though I hoped he would relist it at slightly less. He didn't. After the listing was over the same seller had for sale a bunch of crudely cut off keys the following week. Keys from a Royal 10.

Even though I never saw this machine I had a feeling about it. It had probably been shipped to Wyoming when it was new and the state was not old and had a long service life there. It looked like it was never abused or stored poorly, and the same way you might feel about a machine that wrote a novel or poetry I felt about the history this machine had seen - when it was new it looked modern and Wyoming was in many ways recently closed frontier, and it worked there through the end of the first world war, through Prohibition, through the second world war and the gradual homogenization of America by the motor car, and much else between. And during most of this time it had probably been faithfully been carrying on the job it was designed to do: but it was gone in a moment because it fell into the hands of a fool who looked at it as a piece of junk which he had heard somebody might be interested in - and nobody coughed up his ransom demand quickly enough. Royal designed it to survive 100 years of service with adequate maintenance, but it could not survive a fool. S***. What a piece of work is man.

TypewriterKing wrote:

Did this person that you know of sell the carcass of this typewriter without its keys over Ebay or anywhere else? Maybe if he did, it might have gone for far cheaper--if he didn't throw the remains in the dumpster. Imagine, the only machine (that I know of) with glass sides unceremoniously thrown in the garbage--SANS KEYS YET!!! The man committed a deed below even what a Visigoth would do. Again, if you know the whereabouts of this machine, I will try to find it and maybe even buy it. I have several carcasses myself with keys and their levers that I can remove (without chopping), replace them into this machine, and make it run again. If I find such a machine, I solemnly promise that's what I WILL DO!!

TypewriterKing - I am sorry, but this happened some months ago and I think the remainder of the machine has met its fate by now. I think he also sold some glass windows. 

But I do like the image of a Visigoth meeting a typewriter. What would a Visigoth do? If one of the priests got a hold of it he would certainly make use of it after he discovered it made strange runes.He would wet the ribbon with strange and arcane inks and write runish messages to his gods on paper made in ways better not thought of, all under the light of a gibbous moon and accompanied by the ululations of his acolytes! And I hope invoke curses on those who would profane rune writers.

Speaking of Goths I cannot resist mentioning that the Ostrogoth king Theoderic ruled Italy for over thirty years in the most peaceful and prosperous period in more than a century and demonstrated that barbarian takeover of a debilitated empire is not necessarily a bad thing. Things pretty much went to heck after that though - he did not have a good succession plan, nor a retirement plan.

My 1916 Royal only came to me last year, but at least I owned or likely will have owned it on whatever day marks the 100th anniversary of completion. It too worked a long and useful life and apparently was not thought of as more than a maintainable typewriter until retired - cheaply maintainable, since it came with a crazy ransom note keyboard, letters from random sources glued on each key top as they were worn to oblivion.