When the Soviets hacked the West's typewriters

Electronic communication can easily be hacked and eavesdropped on, it happens all of the time either on the target computer itself or via communication links. Typewriters of course can't be hacked... well actually they can and were during the Cold War! 

The Soviet Union developed a sophisticated listening device which were fitted inside IBM Selectric typewriters at the US embassy in Moscow and consulate in Leningrad. The listening device was almost undetectable when fitted and measured the movements of the print ball in the typewriter using magnetometers before sending it's findings via radio. The Soviets were therefore able to know, with a decent amount of accuracy and a little bit of statistical analysis, what had been typed on the machine.

The Americans discovered the device after being tipped off by the French who has discovered a similar device in a teleprinter. They began an audit of all of the office equipment in the embassy, they had also discovered a mysterious antennae hidden inside the embassy but didn't know what was it was for until they discovered the typewriter devices (and therefore were able to put 2 and 2 together). 

The devices were found in seventeen Selectrics. This was a sophisticated bugging device though did rely on physical access to the typewriters to fit the device and depended on a specific design feature of the Selectric, this bug would not work on a standard mechanical typewriter.

Why i like typewriters (3) : The smell

As well as the physical presence and appeals to the touch, a typewriter can win over another of your senses too, the sense of smell. Typewriters can smell amazing, well thats if you think the smell of ink and lubricant oil mixed with decades of dust smells amazing. I do of course, but then again i also like the smell of garlic and Deep Heat. My Macbook doesn't really smell of anything at all but to be honest that is a good thing. 

Not all typewriters smell good though, i've never found the smell of the Erika type that appealing, they must use a different kind of lubricant in East Germany.

Typing on the SR100

Time for another typing video, this time on one of this year's additions to the collection.

Atlas

The latest typewriter to join the collection is the Atlas (Nippo) Portable. This is one of the oldest typewriters in the collection which dates from the 1960s. It is also our second German language typeset machine. It works pretty well and is in decent condition apart from the carriage return handle which has been broken in the past and glued back together, though it does work fine!

Touch typing (2) : Electric boogaloo

Way back in April i began lesson 2 of my touch typing course, and somehow i am still on it! For various reasons including holidays, other things to do and typewriter issues (the Royal 200 proved to be unsuitable so i had to switch to the Smith-Corona GT) i got behind but i think i am ready to complete this lesson and finally move onto the next!

Magnetic ink character recognition (MICR)

Along the bottom of a cheque is printed a number of funky space age looking numbers representing the account number, sort code and cheque number. In fact this is an early method of computer character recognition (dating back to the 1950s) which banks used to automatically sort cheques. The numbers are printed using ink loaded with iron oxide. When the cheque is passed through the reading machine, these numbers are magnetised. The numbers are then passed under a small electric coil, a voltage signal is induced by the magnetised characters [1]. The computer is programmed to recognise these signals and therefore can read the numbers and perform any relevant operations such as sorting cheques by sort code or account number. This process is known as Magnetic ink character recognition or MICR.

Obviously you need a special font for this, so that each magnetised character returns a different and unique signal. These fonts are known as MICR fonts and two are in general use worldwide. In the UK and US the font used (those space age numbers) is E13B. This font only includes the ten numerals and a few special characters, it does not have any alphanumeric characters. The other common MICR font CMC7 does include a full alphabet though is not read in quite the same way as E13B. 

The full character set for E13B is shown below.

[1] Barry Wilkinson & David Horrocks, Computer Peripherals (2nd Edition) (Edward Arnold, 1987) p. 216

Typewriter number 26

The twenty sixth typewriter has joined the collection! From the 1960s we have an Atlas (Nippo) Portable which seems to be working though we haven't had chance to properly look at the machine yet. It is one of the older machines in the collection.

Showcase (10) : Boots PT800

Boots is a major British retailer who sell toiletries, cosmetics and the like. They also once sold items such as records (i got my first LPs from them!) More importantly they sold Boots branded typewriters throughout the 1960s to 1980s as well. The typewriters were built by established typewriter manufacturers and given a Boots badge. There are two Boots typewriters in the collection, one is an Erika made Model 42 from the late 1960s and the later Seiko built PT800.

This is a standard Seiko typewriter of the late 1970s. Externally the typewriter is in very good condition, it is nice and clean and has had a new ribbon fitted recently though there are some problems with operation. At times it can be very stiff and the carriage hardly moves, at other times it moves all too quickly and fast! These problems may be can be ironed out with a bit of typing hopefully. 

Having visited a Boots store recently i can sadly report that they no longer sell typewriters which is a shame.

New (old) calculator

A new arrival, but its not a typewriter! I actually collected calculators for a few years in the early 2000s before stopping when it became trendy and thus the prices on eBay went a bit silly. I thought i'd buy my first vintage calculation machine for a while then, and it is this mains powered Litton Imperial 1260. A sticker underneath it says July 1976 so perhaps this is when it was procured originally.

Despite the age, and the fact the power switch seems broken, it does power up! It can display numbers though does not seem to be able to perform any calculations anymore which is a shame.