did people ever bring portable typewriters on planes?
Mar 7, 2018, 5:51 am
#16
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Ontario, Canada
Programs: Aeroplan, IHG, Enterprise, Avios, Nexus
Posts: 8,355
Journalists certainly did. I recall seeing a few using portable typewriters on political campaign charters in the late 1980's. Some of the older scribes couldn't or wouldn't adapt to the new fangled portable computers. (Who else remembers the TRS 80 Model 100? LOL.)
Mar 7, 2018, 11:48 am
#17
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: DAY/CMH
Programs: UA MileagePlus
Posts: 2,474
Mar 7, 2018, 3:39 pm
#18
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: NorCal
Posts: 658
When I took the Bar many moons ago we could type our essay sections with a dumb typewriter. We went to the main exam room, checked in, and then were escorted to a typing room. Obviously people taking the bar were nervous enough as it was. The guy sitting next to me and I were both typist and knew each other enough to play off each other for a joke. When everyone started looking at our typewriters Mike and I started pretending to set up our typewriter in the main area. You could watch a wave of panic rush over a few people. It probably wasn't a nice joke.
When I took the Bar, computers were still unstable enough (thank you Microsoft) that several people had technical difficulties. Floppy drive issues, testing software crashes, general Windows crashes. A typewriter would have been way more reliable.
Mar 7, 2018, 3:49 pm
#19
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: DAY/CMH
Programs: UA MileagePlus
Posts: 2,474
A Google search did find at least one model electric portable typewriter, but it's clearly a hybrid - basically a very simple computer in the case of a small printer. The printer was probably a daisy-wheel type which didn't need too much juice.
More typically, portable typewriters were entirely mechanical and powered by their operators. Manufacturers worked hard to minimize the effort required to make a letter strike the ribbon and create an impression, and they really weren't hard to use. A big carriage-return lever pushed the platen back to its starting position and wound a spring; the typewriter used the stored mechanical energy to advance the carriage one space with each keystroke.
Some typewriters raised the keybed to position the type for upper-case letters; others raised the carriage. The carriage-raising type required a lot of force on the Shift key because the carriage weighed a lot more than the whole assembly of letter faces and levers that linked them to the keys. I suppose this type existed because it was cheaper to manufacture.
More typically, portable typewriters were entirely mechanical and powered by their operators. Manufacturers worked hard to minimize the effort required to make a letter strike the ribbon and create an impression, and they really weren't hard to use. A big carriage-return lever pushed the platen back to its starting position and wound a spring; the typewriter used the stored mechanical energy to advance the carriage one space with each keystroke.
Some typewriters raised the keybed to position the type for upper-case letters; others raised the carriage. The carriage-raising type required a lot of force on the Shift key because the carriage weighed a lot more than the whole assembly of letter faces and levers that linked them to the keys. I suppose this type existed because it was cheaper to manufacture.
Mar 8, 2018, 2:54 pm
#20
In Memoriam, FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Durham, NC (RDU/GSO/CLT)
Programs: AA EXP/MM, DL GM, UA Platinum, HH DIA, Hyatt Explorist, IHG Platinum, Marriott Titanium, Hertz PC
Posts: 33,857
Apparently if you flew SABENA you didn't have to, they provided you with one! This was from their exhibit at Atonium in Brussels in 2016:
Mar 9, 2018, 7:04 pm
#21
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Earth. Residency:HKG formerly:YYZ
Programs: CX, DL, Nexus/GE, APEC
Posts: 10,688
OTOH:
The press section of major politician, election campaign and sports team charters flights were packed with scribes typing away to get the story to press upon landing.
I have not seen anyone actually using a typewriter on an aeroplane in flight and I was flying before that picture was taken.
-30-