Are any of you old school enough to have done your first typing on a MECHANICAL typewriter? I'm talking *THUNK THUNK* not just "word processor" old, but real levers and gears.
by 
Capt. Jack Sparrow GALCIY
ANSWERS: 44
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Oh yeah. When I was a kid we had an old mechanical Underwood. I learned to type on it. We used to have speed contests. My dad and my sister were both very good typists. Trying to keep up with them made me get pretty good. I still remember a line my dad had us practice with. He had learned it during typing class when he was in High School in the 50's. It was: "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country." I cannot tell you how many thousands of times I typed that line. I sure wish I still had that old typewriter. I have no idea whatever happened to it.
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i have one, my aunt gave me one when i was a 13. i am now 26. it is still under my bed. It is a silver reed 720.
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Oh, yeah! We only had a manual typewriter when I was in high school. I thought I was in heaven when I got to use an "IBM Selectric" electric typewriter in my last year of college! Thunk, thunk, ding! zzzzzzip Thunk, thunk, ding!
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Yep..Had an one at home I would use for homework and reports.No PC's nor printers then.
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Yes. And the brand name was Royal...I learned to type on that old machine. It had no lettering on the keys. They were blank. You were supposed to know. I learned.
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Yes. Old time offices with groups of workers used to be really noisy. My first typewriter was a Smith-Corona.
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Yes I used a mechanical typewriter about 32 years ago. I don't miss them. I hated it when the arms got stuck to each other when you tried to type too fast.
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... born 1959 ... YES. I remember the old mechanical set of swinging levers, and I remember the transition to the new invention "IBM Selectric" that had a tiny chip and a rotating ball with the font characters. And when I was in the military from '72 to '84, we learned to use the teletype ... and later, the computers with vacuum tubes and cardboard cards with punched holes for input and a daisy wheel printer for output ... I remember the amazing Apple II+ and the 286 with DOS 5.0 and a 9 pin dotmatrix printer ... and the 486 with Windows 3.1 ... and so on ...
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That's how I learned (had a small manual) Dad had a "cursive" electric - I also worked on learning on it... In HS, I took a class on ELECTRIC typewriters - MUCH easier to press the buttons. When I started on computer, there were options for the typewriter sound effect. I liked it because it told me I pressed the key hard enough when I "touch" typed. Now, I press plenty hard enough to "make them click" anyway! LOL
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yeah when i was in 7th grade we had a typing class with the old type writers. this one kid kept messing up and it made the teacher very mad and one day the kid said that he didnt care and just started hitting the keys on the type writer and that really pissed the teacher off and he took this kids type writer and threw it through the window glass out of the 3rd floor and that was the funniest thing i saw. the teacher got suspended from teaching for awile and when he came back he was the nicest teacher you could have
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Sure am, since I'm 53. I remember well the sound and clatter of the letters hitting the paper and the zip of the carriage.
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Sure. My grandma had a great one, but eventually two of the letter rods got bent and it didn't work anymore. But boy, you had to HIT those letters to get them to go! My dad also had one of those old electric ribbon typewriters. Great fun... specially the big ZING! when you hit enter. And the whole thing jumped every time you hit backspace... and I got in trouble for overusing the erase ribbon. Actually, I think he still has that thing somewhere, even if he's moved on to using computers many moons ago.
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No, I learned to type on an electric typewriter. My mom had an old one that she refused to give up for many years until her business was forced to convert to computers. She held out as long as she could. They had revenues in the millions and were shipping all over the world without using computers. It was crazy.
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you bet I remember ...it was an old (and I mean old) 'Olivetti' and the keys always got stuck and if you slide it back to hard it would just stick hard against the stops but I must admit my typing has improved out of sight ..I'm up to 5 words a minute now ...my teachers would be sooo proud
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You MAY be able to find them on eBay for the lesser ammounts. Just be sure to watch the shipping and handling, and where they're shipping it from! (Got a small statuette once for $.99. Problem was it was SHIPPED from Shanghai, and S&H was $25! GEEZE!)
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The school had those, and so did my Dad, at home. Darn that thing was heavy to get out of it's case!
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My mom had one when I was little.
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I remember seeing people using them but I used an old electric typewriter when I went to school
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i'm certainly not that old but i've typed on a thunk thunk and its annoying as shit hahaha
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I learned to touch-type on one of those. Still have one in the closet...
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Yes, my parents used to have a mechanical typewriter in their place of business that I used to play on. When I learned how to type in high school we had electric typewriters.
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I didn't learn on one, but I did use one that was at my dad's office when I would help him out after school.
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I still have my old typewriter. I still use it from time to time.
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Count me among the many. I used one for many years. I don't miss them! But I did love the look of the old Underwoods. Beautiful machines.
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We didn't have such modern devices like that, we used hammer and chisel on stone to record for posterity our thoughts! And before that gramps only had cave paintings to remember things!
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Yes I am. I took my first typing course in Grade 11, at the age of 15 in 1978. The next year I graduated to and electric typewriter which was just heaven. I must say the typing was the one course that I took that has made the most impact on my life. I can't imagine living today and doing the job that I have without being able to touch type. I find it painful to watch people using the biblical method (seek and ye shall find).
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Of course. I learned to type on a Royal typewriter, Pica style. We only had 4 IBM Selectrics in the class - everyone wanted to play with them, but when it came time to type a 5-page paper, no one used them cause they were Elite style...
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We had a manuel at home, and electric ones in school. The schools switched to word processors my junior year.
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Yep. An Underwood. GOOD for building individual finger strength, especially the pinkies.
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Yes, I learned to type on what we called a "manual" typewriter. It was a 1970s model. Imagine my delight when I first typed on an "electric" typewriter. It was a dream!
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That would be me. You had to really hit the keys hard and my favorite part was the white out.....Lord I screwed up badly. And if you had to have a copy you inserted a black copy paper between 2 sheets of paper and really hit those keys hard. You kids got it easy:)
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Oh yes...You can count me in on this too. In my last year at school we got our first electric typewriter. It had a Daisywheel and we just thought it was great. We only got one for the whole class so had to take turns on it:)
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Er, yes. It is quite a shock when taking my grandchildren to museums and I see typewriters (and many other things) which I used as a child and youth!
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Yes. I learned on an old Royal manual in typing class in 9th grade (1963). A few years later, IBM came out the Selectric and we thought that was the greatest thing EVER!! Particularly since it had an interchangable ball that could look like cursive writing!
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Yes, and like most of us old timers, we have a "heavy" touch on electric typewriters and now on computer keyboards.
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Yes, I learned to type on the old fashioned manual typewriter. I also took lessons on how to use an old fashioned calculator called the comptometer. I was very fast and proficient on it, but only used one year on the job, before the new electronic one came along. http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/comptometer.html http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/sharp_compet_22.html
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thunk thunk
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Nope. I love how this is in the Dark Ages category, though. :D
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I'm 47, and my parents (a little older than average) were born in the 1920s. Even though electric typwriters were around in the 60s, I learned to type on an old royale, and when I went to boarding school I got a manual plastic portable typewriter, which I used all the way through college. My dad also had a giant electro-mechanical adding machine that he used to do his taxes, and it made enough noise to wake the dead. But, even though an engineer turned senior executive, at work he used a slide-rule until the day he retired in 1995 at the age of 75. Oh, and I also was the last computer class at Cornell to use a keypunch and card reader. That was 1981.
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I'm only 30, but we had one of those when I was a kid. I played with it when I was real young, but I did type a few papers on it. When I was in 8th grade we got an electric one. My parents were always a bit behind the times.
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i had a cheap plastic portable typewriter as a kid in the mid 70's.
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My dad had one when I was little, I used to enjoy messing with it and typing stuff on paper. But I never actually used one for anything legit. :/
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Sure. Until I was in my 30s. +5
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Well - we "old schoolers" called them manuals -- and yes, indeedy -- I had one!! My mother had a REALLY old Underwood -- complete with the little bell that went "ding" when you got to the end of the line. I myself had a much more modern manual. I think it was a Smith Corona. It was portable, and it went away to college with me. I typed all my papers on it, and papers for other people as well!
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