Comments on: Backyard Bangin’

By: Roberta X

Roberta X — Tue, 11 May 2010 17:31:53 +0000

A construction company? The plot thickens!

–I own a Remie Scout, one of the most minimal, with no front frame. Love it, need to clean it. I’ve found a Conora Four or Remington speedliner is nice for “copying” (as it is called) radio code, as they’re smooth-operating.

By: olivander

olivander — Sun, 09 May 2010 13:30:45 +0000

Thanks for the info. It had crossed my mind that it does in fact look like TelePrompter typeface. The typewriter came out of a construction company’s offices, though, so who knows what they used it for or how they got it?

There were a few Depression-era typewriters that typed all-caps pica. The Royal Signet and Remie Scout are two of the more common. Unless you want a bone-fide radio mill with the slashed zero, one of those might be the next best thing.

By: Roberta X

Roberta X — Sun, 09 May 2010 07:52:31 +0000

That machine almost certainly worked for a TV station; second-gen TelePrompters used a camera scanning scripts fed under its field of view by a variable-speed belt drive; video from that fed monitors hung off the front of the studio cameras. (By the end of a long newscast, the “Prompter” operator had a big, messy stack of scripts at the fed end of the belt). This was every bit as big a kludge as it sounds. A nice, fat typeface was a huge help: if the thing was just zoomed in on normal Pica type, every jitter and bobble would be magnifed, too.

The job is still done much the same way, only now the words scroll on a computer. The person at the controls has to pay attention to how fast the talent is reading — or they *should* be paying attention. Ahem.

(If you find a machine that’s all caps but normal type size, that’d be a radiotelegrapher’s “mill.” Often seen in military setups. Sure wish I could find one).

By: duffymoon

duffymoon — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 21:23:00 +0000

Thanks for keeping me in mind, Alan.

My first thought was maybe some kind of screenwriting function, but it’s too big for that.

I agree with clemens on the kids book thing. When I was in middle school, we wrote and illistrated silly little kids books as a project for the elementary kids. My mom (a lifelong secretary and skilled-as-heck typist) volunteered to do the typing. My teacher dropped off at my home a typewriter with a similar typeface for her to use. I’d forgotten that until clemens’s comment.

But so about your machine: when you *shift* you get NOTHING? That seems odd to me.

By: mpclemens

mpclemens — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 18:06:55 +0000

I half-remember some conversation on one of the typewriter Yahoo groups about this face: I believe it was used for academic purposes, like putting together school materials for early readers (think “Fun With Dick and Jane.”) Chances are this hung out in a school office somewhere, right near the mimeo machine.

By: Mike.Speegle

Mike.Speegle — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 03:33:12 +0000

I must admit, given the title, I may have expected something altogether different from this post. But then, I have the internet.

Other’n that, though, know that once again that the featured typer is the one I covet the most.

By: 77writer

77writer — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 20:33:54 +0000

Large caps… intriguing. Clearly used where clarity was needed.

Possible military, telegram, or journalism use?

Any special characters to give a clue?

By: olivander

olivander — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 16:07:30 +0000

The letter keys are all caps-only. The couple of smudgy parts are where I hit the shift key out of habit and the blank part of the slug struck the paper.

By: Justin

Justin — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 15:32:38 +0000

Wow, that’s crazy. Are all the letters capitalized or did you use the shift?