ETCetera Journal of the Early Typewriter Collectors’ Association No. 117 • Summer 2017 Editor’s Notes 2 The Waverley Typewriter 3 The A Glimpse of the ICO MP1 6 First Photo of a Typist 9 Waverley The Monpti 14 Chestnut Ridge Meeting 15 Ty p ew r iter The Type-Writer 16 New on the Shelf 18 Around the World 20 In IssueThis Letters 20 ETCetera No. 117 • Summer 2017 • 1 ETCetera Journal of the Early Typewriter Collectors’ Association Editor’s No. 117 • Summer 2017 Notes Editor Richard Polt 4745 Winton Rd. while we’re all still savoring paul aters, and eventually it should be avail- Cincinnati, OH 45232 USA Robert and Peter Weil’s Typewriter, able online worldwide. 513.591.1226 there’s more good news from the pub- Speaking of Tom Hanks, he’s also one [email protected] lishing world: renowned collector Tony of the stars of the film “The Circle.” The Casillo’s book Typewriters: Iconic Machines critical consensus is that the movie doesn’t Secretary-Treasurer from the Golden Age of Mechanical Writ- amount to much, but Hanks does get praise Herman Price ing will be released by Chronicle Books for his performance as a likeable leader of a in November, with a foreword by Tom digital technology company that is deter- Board of Directors Hanks. When Tony says golden, he means mined to wipe out all privacy. The charac- Bert Kerschbaumer golden: the cover machine is a dazzling ter has a typewriter on his desk, but he’d Robert Messenger gold-plated Princess 300. never use it, unlike Hanks himself. Richard Polt Peter Weil Reinmar Wochinz Design Nick Tauriainen Translation German: Lars Borrmann Spanish: Fransu Marín Proofreading Whitney Carnahan Although Tom Hanks did not write a The film is based on the novel by Dave etconline.org preface to my own book, I do appear in a Eggers, which is an Orwellian look at the film with him: California Typewriter, di- near digital future. I recently assigned it ETCetera welcomes submissions that rected by Doug Nichol. This documentary in a course I taught on critics of the digital shed new light on typewriter history, centers on a repair shop in Berkeley, Cali- domain, which reinforced my conviction based on original sources and firsthand fornia, and its connections to a variety of that so-called analog activities (writing experience. Material not previously typewriter lovers and collectors. One of with a typewriter, reading printed maga- published elsewhere will have priority. the major figures in the film is our own zines...) are good for your mind and soul. Martin Howard, author of this issue’s Bryan Kravitz, who contributed a ©2017 ETCA. Published quarterly. cover story. The movie follows Martin’s Repair Bench story a year ago, reports that Calendar year subscription: $35, North quest for a Sholes & Glidden, as well as the typewriter culture in Philadelphia is America; $40 elsewhere. Payment: the struggles of sculptor Jeremy Mayer getting so busy that he could use some check or PayPal. (creator of this bust made of typewriter help spreading the joy. If you’re in the area Herman J Price parts) and repairman Ken Alexander (at and are interested, contact Bryan at 267- 195 Greenbag Rd right). There are also interviews with a 992-3230 or [email protected]. Morgantown, WV 26501, USA variety of people, including Hanks and I have to break my promise in our last [email protected] me. I got to see the completed film for issue that an article in this issue would the first time in March at the Cleveland provide insight into Bernard Granville’s ISSN 1062-9645 International Film Festival, where it was struggles. The letter, owned by Gabe Bur- warmly received as the opening-night bano, has already been published in Paul feature. The film has earned excellent and Peter’s Typewriter book, so you can On the Cover reviews for its insights, its humor, and see it there. Gabe would like to do some its ultimately uplifting story; it will be further research into the story, but that Martin Howard's Waverley. released later this year in some U.S. the- will have to wait for now. ■ 2 • ETCetera No. 117 • Summer 2017 by martin howard last summer, i traveled to scotland to acquire a rare Waverley typewriter. John, the owner, had received his grand- father’s typewriter from his dad. The grandfather had bought the Waverley in the 1930s for keeping the accounts on the family farm. Shortly after, his wife got an Olivetti and the Waverley was sent to the barn for decades. It must have been a good barn, as the typewriter stayed in exceptional condition over the years. A Fine Piece of Engineering the waverley is well known for being one of the four typewriters with the dis- tinctive design of having typebars that stand up behind the carriage and swing forwards to strike the top of the platen. The other three are the Brooks, North’s, and Fitch, all 19th-century typewriters and rare finds today. The impressive design of these typewriters gave visible typing; however, the disadvantage of obstructing the backwards escape route of the paper was considerable, as the carriage became larger and more compli- cated to keep the paper fully contained within the carriage. However, unlike other typewriters (including the Wil- liams) with restricted paper paths, where one cylindrical cavity is used to load the paper before typing and one for the typed page to roll into, the Waverley design al- lows for the paper to simply rest on three forwardly projecting prongs as it feeds into the typewriter. The Waverley is an imposing and beautiful machine with its elegant type- bar shield and handsome gold-painted name plate leading to a forwardly placed keyboard. It is also impressively engi- neered with some special features. Here is an informative review of the Waverley from The Phonetic Journal (May 4, 1895): As the Waverley Typewriter is now on the market, the following particulars will be of interest. Like the Maske- lyne, it is a “differential spacing” ETCetera No. 117 • Summer 2017 • 3 machine. Its writing is in full sight for the uppercase typebars are brought of the operator, the type-bars play- into play. You will see in the photos that ing forwards and downwards. The there are two rows of typebars; the lower space-key is ingeniously devised so row is for lowercase and the higher row that it can be struck simultaneously is for uppercase. Each typebar has only with a character-key, a great deal of one character on it, not the two char- time, it is claimed, being thus saved acters normally seen on a typebar for a in operation. A ribbon is used as the typewriter with a shift key. The advan- First known Waverley advertisement, Board of inking device. The paper is carried tage is stated in The Phonetic Journal (1 Trade Journal, 1894 in a cage as in the North and the Aug. 1896): “This ingenious arrangement Williams. The shift-key is, however, is novel, and thus is entirely effective, the most characteristic feature of and gives the machine the undoubted the machine. The Waverley has two merit that it cannot possibly print the complete sets of type, like the Yost, the capitals out of line. As all the characters Caligraph, and the Bar-Lock, yet has tend to exactly the same printing point only a single keyboard as in the Rem- when the type-bars descend, not to two ington. The action of the shift-key is, printing points as in the case of most therefore, so far as we know, unique. shift-key machines.” [The single-keyboard International of The Waverley, like some other early 1891 is the only other typewriter with typewriters, has proportional spacing. this feature.] It does not oscillate the Its proportional spacing, though, despite cylinder backwards and forwards, but the advertising claim “Perfect Spacing gives a lateral play to the mechanism as in Letterpress,” is only for M and W connecting the keys with the type- (as mentioned in an 1897 ad), with the bars, thus bringing the upper-case carriage moving 1½ spaces to accommo- type-bars into action, and throwing date their widths. It seems remarkable the lower-case out. that such an effort was made for just these two letters, especially as the intent To clarify, when one pushes the upper- for full proportional spacing with three case key, the sub-levers for the lowercase character widths is stated clearly in the typebars disengage and the sub-levers patent papers. Pittman’s Year Book, 1897 4 • ETCetera No. 117 • Summer 2017 Another interesting feature is the teresting contradiction: "At the proceed- Museum. With some detective work, presence of a “SPACE” key that moves ings in connection with the winding up, I was able to learn that the SNM had a the carriage the width of a standard it was stated that so far as the machine Waverley from 1934 to 2010, when it was character, with the spacebar moving the itself was concerned, it had proved a com- deaccessioned and given to a charity carriage 1½ spaces. Once again, the typist mercial success, but the further exploita- program called “Old Tools, New Tools” could push the spacebar simultaneously tion thereof was rendered impossible for which repairs old tools for reuse in Af- with the last letter of a word to imme- want of sufficient capital." rica. I spoke with a curator who assured diately be ready for the next word. This The following abridged auction notice me that it must have been in very poor was called terminal spacing.