Monday, April 22, 2013

Free typing course


Well that is nice! The kind Remington company throws in lots of FREE stuff with their Noiseless Portable typewriter. (The actual price you will pay for the Noiseless is worryingly absent from this full-page magazine ad. Hmm...)



That a portable machine comes with a case I would rather expect as standard, but hey, the whole ad is rather 'loud' anyways. (The differing 'tones' of the ads of the different brands can be a whole subject of itself probably...) But that typing course would be neat to have.


Writing to the company would be rather pointless. I didn't buy the machine new of course and apart from that, the whole company is no longer there.

Yet also after ~75 years, the booklet is still available. A few sellers of old/rare books have it on offer for about $30,- (not 'gratis'). Even more amazingly, such a booklet is available in a couple of places online on the internet. Scanned and in a handy PDF format even, at machinesoflovinggrace.com. That is awesome: Thanks!

So.   Got the Noiseless.   I wanted the booklet.

With a very physical machine like a typewriter, it seemed better to also have a physical booklet (with operating instructions too!). So to complete my new Noiseless, I printed myself a copy.

Starting with the online scans, used picture editing tools to edit out most of the stains, spots and creases that paper collects with age. Then made a printing layout for double-sided on A3 paper (thin, smooth, just a little too white probably), at about the right size (I think). So to the color laserjet printer; then stack, staple and cut to size: Booklet!



By the way, when sitting down to read my newly printed booklet, I noticed that the company actually recommends the manner of typing touch, top of page 5; "strike them quickly and do not allow the finger to hang on to the key at the end of the stroke". That sounds a lot like a description of 'staccato' style :-)



Now to practice. Or perhaps just stick with my 'sight method' of typing.

Joy :-)




5 comments:

  1. Beautiful job printing the booklet!

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    Replies
    1. Tnx, having this with the machine as 'new' hardcopy was well worth the editing effort :-)

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  2. post your cleaned-up copy as PDF? (:

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    Replies
    1. Well. Wanted to; hesitating because of the rather explicit permission notice on machinesoflovinggrace about use of materials. Would like to await his response for a bit first. Then again, it's not original content of course.

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    2. MOLG did have a point that made me think a bit.
      Now updated with a link (large file, 25Mb).

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