Recently I scored a practically mint condition Olivetti Lettera 22 from Post 27 here in Chicago. I can’t stop myself from inspecting it in awe daily.
Created to be the quintessential portable typewriter, it’s made of sturdy but lightweight steel, designed minimally and simply. There’s nothing under the keys besides air, no added weight or metal. Even the case it comes in wastes absolutely no space – the bottom piece is flat and flush with the bottom of the typewriter, the top part zipping over in perfect proportion to the machine.
It makes me think of the electronic typewriter my grandmother had in the 80’s, this huge bulky machine that took up half her desk and felt like it weighed a ton. Sure, it probably did a lot more – it even had a WhiteOut laced backspace key! – but how much of that was necessary? Bells and whistles and electronic WhiteOut do a lot to blow the mind, but nothing will ever compare to the most simple, elegant solution.
Yannic Walter
on 11 Dec 08I like how the keyboard lacks the “1” character. Do you do it by hitting the lowercase “i” ?
Jordan
on 11 Dec 08I’ve got one of these machines, too. Cormac McCarthy writes on one.
Evan
on 11 Dec 08I’m gonna guess it’s the key in the upper left, where the “1” should be – maybe wore off or was replaced. I don’t know anything about vintage typewriters, though!
Evan is a moron
on 11 Dec 08Nevermind, should have read the Wikipedia article before commenting. It’s i234567890 after all!
Rafael
on 11 Dec 08I’m not sure if it’s the same model, but we had one pretty much like this at home, quite a vintage nowadays. It didn’t have the “1” key, it was designed like that, we would use the lowercase “L” to type it not the “i”.
The blank key was used to make accents, if I’m not wrong, after hitting the accent, say ”^”, the machine moves the print head for the next character and the the blank key made it go back. But that was a long time ago :)
Cheers
Lorenzo Bolognini
on 11 Dec 08This model was used by the most important italian journalist of all times: Indro Montanelli ho kept hitting it until the age of 90!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indro_Montanelli
Big up to Lettera 22!
Merle
on 11 Dec 08Lowercase L is the 1. Beautiful machine but how’d you like to do all your college papers on it!
Bob Novak
on 12 Dec 08I did do all my college term papers on one and I was a philosophy major! Thanks for sharing this – I wish I still had mine but it went away a long time ago – I think my grandmother was the last person to have it -
I also remember using multiple symbols to make some extra characters – like ampersand and X made a soldier looking thing – you needed the backspace for that as well as handling the accents.
Geoff DiMasi
on 12 Dec 08I have this typewriter, as well.
It was my mom’s in college, and I grew up using. I recently took it out and was playing with it.
It is in the MOMA’s design collection.
Rafael Vargas
on 12 Dec 08My father taught me to typing with this one. I suppose it is still at my parent’s. It is nice to see a photo of it after all these years :)
Anonymous Coward
on 12 Dec 08“Sure, it probably did a lot more – it even had a WhiteOut laced backspace key! – but how much of that was necessary? Bells and whistles and electronic WhiteOut do a lot to blow the mind, but nothing will ever compare to the most simple, elegant solution.”
Methinks 37s has a simplicity fetish.
Why don’t you confer with someone who typed all day long for a living and ask them if those ‘bells and whistles’ were useful?
Marco
on 12 Dec 08In the town of Partschins, in South Tyrol, there is a beautiful typewriter museum. There are exhibits incredible designed machines (ancient Olivetti too). Highly recommended.
http://www.schreibmaschinenmuseum.com/
Jochen
on 12 Dec 08That made me laugh :)
Jeff Gardner
on 12 Dec 08God bless Italian design and craftsmanship.
James
on 12 Dec 08I’d have thought that was pretty obvious ;)
Maestro
on 12 Dec 08That is a beautiful machine!
GeeIWonder
on 12 Dec 08I still use a typewriter, and I have a strong affinity for them… they remind me of my Dad. I like the old cast iron ones best hough actually… a typewriter’s a station—it doesn’t need to be light and portable. I don’t need ANY electronics.
But….
how much of that was necessary?
You’ve got to remember that in the 80s people were still writing papers and books and theses and doing real business on these things. For such tasks, the electronics/white out etc really were a necessity.
Cowboy Chrome Man
on 12 Dec 08I can’t imagine typing up a long document on one of those old typewriters. I am hopelessly addicted to my word processor and all the conveniences entailed.
Andy
on 12 Dec 08Ooh, I want one. I was just watching Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas last night and Johnny, I mean, Hunter clutched a portable typewriter to his chest while trying to sneak out of their first suite. I wonder if it was this model.
Carl
on 12 Dec 08Not an Olivetti, but check out the Remington Rand Model 5 streamlined. I found one about a year ago and have it in our house loaded with paper for anyone to walk by and do some impulse typing.
Remington Rand 5
http://staff.xu.edu/polt/typewriters/index.html
The Classic Typewriter Page
http://staff.xu.edu/polt/typewriters/index.html
Carl
on 12 Dec 08Tuck a tilde in that Remington Rand URL before “polt” and it’ll work. Must have been a forbidden character for posting.
Carlo Pecchia
on 12 Dec 08I already have one, from my father… it’s a really nice object Maybe no one remember about Olivetti PC (8086…), nice machines of other old times…
blue star web design ireland
on 12 Dec 08i can’t see why so many writers keep such a tight hold on their old clunky out of date typewriters instead of just getting a laptop! unless of course for the retro appeal :-)
Eddie
on 12 Dec 08Take this typewriter to a conference- SXSW is the first one that comes to mind, and then just post up amongst all the attendees there with their MacBooks and iPhones and just peck away at that thing with a latte in hand.
Oh- also, have a big black rotary dial phone there by your side for added effect.
Tim
on 13 Dec 08Also missing on the keyboard is the exclamation point. To type one, you first type a period, then you hit backspace and type an apostrophe ( . + ’ = ! ). Clever, if not downright elegant…
GeeIWonder
on 13 Dec 08Clever, if not downright elegant…
Maybe all keyboards should do this!
It’s a few extra key strokes! But maybe that’s a good thing! Exclamation points are well overused anyways!
Delfi
on 14 Dec 08It was so baeutiful that mine was stoled by a ‘friend’ upon a visit of my flat when I was student. It was not in use because computer based wordprocessors were more useful, but was a fine piece of machinery and I was not glad.
David Andersen
on 15 Dec 08I’ll go you one better GeelWonder; the keys should represent the constituent parts of the letters, so that with a few combinations of keys and backspaces you can create any letter! An ‘e’ might take 6 strokes – very elegant! You could create your own alphabet!
GeeIWonder
on 15 Dec 08Well, there are certainly books written without e’s.
But most editors spend so much time removing adjectives and exclamation points you could certainly make a solid case for their omission on productive typewriters.
David Andersen
on 15 Dec 08It was a joke man.
GeeIWonder
on 15 Dec 08I’ll say. Funny too. ;)
Gary R Boodhoo
on 16 Dec 08the back part of the case is some kind of monitor? confused.
This discussion is closed.