Monday, March 09, 2009

A Type of Beauty

Life can sometimes be terribly cruel, as we see from the biography of Cervantes, as an example: Muslims cut off one of his hands. He went on to write Don Quixote, true, but had he been left with both hands, he might have written two books. Yes, life is sometimes cruel. I hope, though, that your life will improve noticeably soon. To achieve that I recently got two things to improve my writing and your life: I got from a graduand at a local college a cap I can wear so I can write far smarter copy; and I got a beautiful typewriter so I will write more beautiful prose, finer poetry, and even more famouser headlines. I look very smart in my new cap, but the typewriter is a thing of real beauty. Below is a bit about it and its parents.

E.B. Hess co-founded The Royal Typewriter Company, in Brooklyn, New York, and moved it to Hartford, Connecticut in 1908, according to the Federal Writer's Project (Connecticut. By Federal Writers' Project. Published by US History Publishers, 1938.)
Company: Royal Typewriter Company , New York , USA. First year of production: 1906

The Royal typewriter entered the market in 1906. It would grow to be one of the leading brands that would dominate the market together with the Underwood and the Remington. That alone should be enough to earn a place in a museum.

[I]n 1914 the upright Royal 10 appeared... the classic model with beveled glass sides that would grow to be one of the market leaders.
http://www.typewritermuseum.org/collection/index.php3?machine=royal1&cat=kf


The Royal 10 is another giant in the typewriter market. Like the Underwood 5 it is one of the machines that essentially marked the end of the history of typewriter development. Machines like the Royal 10 continued to be built for many decades, with most changes limited to cosmetic alterations.
The Royal 10 was introduced in 1914. It had two bevelled glass panels on either side of the machine. A later version only had one glass panel on either side. It is not clear at what point exactly that change was made....
http://www.typewritermuseum.org/collection/index.php3?machine=royal10&cat=kf

Yes, dear reader, it's a poor workman who blames his tools. I gave that up and simply bought a new machine. I think you must be deeply impressed already. I know I am. Funny how life can be. I used to type with two fingers, but I quickly ran out of two letter words, which forced me to learn to type with four fingers. That got me into lots of trouble, I know not why. But now, with five fingers, I can type all sorts of cool words. This new typewriter also ensures that I'll write beautifully. On the other hand, there are five more fingers! Life is good.

2 comments:

truepeers said...

Federal Writers Project? Was that some sort of New Deal organization? Will you be applying to Obama for a grant to hire a secretary to type your type into the internet?

But seriously, I look forward to the work, that you will edit as you retype, inspired by that truly beautiful machine.

Dag said...

Houston, we have a problem.

I cannot for the life of me find a way to plug the typewriter into the monitor. I type like crazy, creating a torrent of beautiful intelligence, and each and every word seems to disappear into the aether as I do so.

Unless NASA sends a rocket scientist to fix this soon I think I'll be forced to continue using a laptop; meaning, I'm sorry to say, more of the same old less than always beautiful prose, poetry, and famous headlines. Not even my new hat is making me smart enough to fix this problem. I suspect the guy I got it from is a Sociology grad. That, if it's true, would likely make me bone-head stupid. Till I sort out this I think I'll get down on my knees and bless the P.O.W., (Pre-Obama World,) for allowing such a beautiful invention to come into the world and hence into my life.

Federal Writers Project? Others will get the grants, but let's not get our own hopes up for anything but state abuse (at best and at least)for not toeing the party line.