The recent gift of a vintage portable manual typewriter from kind friends set me reminiscing about old technology and, as the world wearies of constant connection to the internet, its place in our future.
I use a computer keyboard every day, but it’s been decades since I used a manual typewriter keyboard. Typing my first letter on my little machine jogged my memory about forgotten differences between keyboards ancient and modern.
Depressing the typewriter’s keys requires a much more forceful action than a computer keyboard, because you must physically force the little metal letters to rise from the type basket (the arc of letters in front of the paper) and hit the page, their shape imprinted via the inked ribbon.
The choice of font is restricted to one style and size, specified by the manufacturer. Not until electric typewriters were invented, where the letters sat on a rotating “golf ball”, could the user vary the font, and only then by removing and replacing one golf ball with another.
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The choice of characters is much smaller too.
No emojis here.
In fact, there’s not even an exclamation mark on the compact keyboard of my portable typewriter. Instead, you have to type a full stop, then backspace, then add an apostrophe above it. When I showed my Gen Z daughter, she was perplexed. How could it be possible to place two characters in the same space on the line? On the computer keyboards that she’s grown up with, backspaces are destructive, used to erase a typo.
The sound of a manual typewriter’s keyboard is entirely different to a computer’s. The sound of the little metal keys hitting the page is followed by the distinctive “ping” as you near the end of a line, warning you to return the carriage (the roller holding the paper) to start a new line. To me, these sounds are pleasantly nostalgic. Not so for my daughter.
Taking a phone call while I typed a letter, she told her caller, “I’ll have to take this in the other room – Mum’s making a noise with her typewriter.”
There are lots of reasons I think manual typewriters deserve to make the comeback currently enjoyed by vinyl LPs and audio cassette tapes.
- While typing on a typewriter, you can’t be distracted by people sending you messages.
- Nor can you distract yourself by surfing the internet.
- Neither can you be hacked.
Rumour has it that the KGB bought typewriters a few years ago to make sure messages stayed secret. Enigma machine it ain’t, but I can see the appeal of the manual typewriter to anyone sensitive about safeguarding privacy.
So, what will be the next piece of old technology to be revived for entirely twenty-first century reasons? My money’s on implements for writing by hand. Irked by the wastefulness of disposable, short-lived plastic ballpoint pens and by tree-slaying pencils always blunt or broken when you need them, I wonder whether I can start a movement for the return of the quill pen, surely the most environmentally-friendly and compostable writing device ever invented. Now I just need to find a cooperative goose…
This post was written for the October 2024 issue of the Hawkesbury Parish News.
IN OTHER NEWS
My latest cosy mystery novel, Death at the Old Curiosity Shop, has now finished its blog tour, and I’m delighted by the many lovely things that bookbloggers have been saying about it.
In the meantime, Boldwood Books has announced the publication date for the second in this new Cotswold Curiosity Shop series: 3rd March 2025. It’s already available for pre-order on Amazon here as an ebook, and on the launch date will be available as an ebook on other platforms too, and as a paperback, hardcover and audiobook. You’ll have to wait a little bit longer for the title and cover!
And there’s never an idle moment for me, because as soon as I’ve processed my editor’s comments on this second book, I’ll be starting to write the third. It’s all happening for Alice Carroll!
Meanwhile I’m looking forward to hosting the third Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival Christmas Special on Saturday 7th December, here in my home village. It’s a celebration of festive books of all kinds, and will include:
- performances of seasonal short stories written especially for the occasion
- readings of classic Christmas poetry and prose
- talks by local authors about their festive books
Our special festive guests will include:
- thriller writer AA Abbott
- children’s author Linda Alvis
- travel writer Steve Berry
- historical novelist Jean Burnett
- historical novelist and historian Lucienne Boyce
- voice artist Gerard Boyce
- Linda Cohen, CEO of local children’s charity Read With Me
- mystery writer Frances Evesham
- children’s author Tiggy Greenwood
- romantic novelist Stefania Hartley
- travel writer/biographer Carole Mitchell
- documentary maker John Ruthven
- short story writer Mark Rutterford
- children’s author Betty Salthouse
- and me!
Advance booking is essential as space is limited and the price of £5 (plus small booking fee), including tea and cake and a £2 book voucher, is such a bargain that we’re sure to sell out!
I would love to own a manual typewriter just for that tactile experience of accomplishment. When I’m in the mood, I will write with a fountain pen. Similar idea – ‘slow’ writing is sometimes best!