New Typewriter

I'm a lucky boy.

My good friend Zandria, in addition to having a marvelous name, has a generous spirit. Helping a friend clear out their deceased aunt's estate, Zandria came into possession of an old typewriter. Knowing of my love for typewriters, Zandria re-directed this machine's path from landfill to my collection. She brought it over last night (after weeping at the new "Wicked" movie) and gifted the time-traveling device to me. Enhancing the encounter we caught up with each other and Robin.

The machine is a Smith Corona Coronet Electric 12, made in America. It comes in a carrying case which obscures the fact that you need to be a body-builder to actually carry it. The object is a heavy 20 lbs.

Smith Corona is an American company founded in 1886. For a century it made typewriters and, in the 1960s, it pivoted to manufacture other office machinery as well (calculators; label-makers). Its typewriter business collapsed in the 1980s due to new word-processors and, later, personal computers.

Smith Corona started making portable electric typewriters the year I was born: 1957. Intended for traveling writers and business-people the machines were adopted by ordinary consumers and students because they were well-built and inexpensive.

Thus, this machine was made and sold during my childhood (1960s). I know this because Smith Corona later introduced ribbon cartridges, a feature this machine lacks.

Objects tell us about time. The first typewriters had manual keys and manual returns. (A "return" is how the typing-implement moves backward and down at the end of a line to start a new line.) On manual typewriters the return is a bar extending toward you which you grab and, with satisfying movement, swing to the right. On later electric machines the return is usually either automatic or button-activated. Interestingly, on this machine, while called an "electric" typewriter the return is manual -- which places the model in an interstitial period between manual and electric typewriters. It has both manual (the return) and electric (the keys) features. This frequently happens in technology when some improvement is developed but paired with other parts from the past.

This particular machine has two historical references on it. A commercial label indicating the machine was initially sold by an Elmont, NY company (City Line Business Machines Inc.) and a personal label identifying its previous owner as Jeanne Elaine Roberts. Thanks, Jeanne!

We don't "own" objects; we merely possess them for a while and then hand them off to a new lucky owner. All my artwork will exist and continue to please people long after I'm gone and forgotten. Well, hopefully not completely forgotten. :)