Typing on a Tippa

Another typing video.

Comparing print calculators

Recently my Mum bought a new calculator with a printer built-in (a Casio HR-8RCE to be exact). I thought it would be interesting to compare it with my Silver-Reed 1250PD which i restored back to full printing order earlier in the year.

Obviously, the first thing to notice is the size difference. While the Casio is a neat little battery powered machine not much bigger than a printer-less calculator, the Silver-Reed is a mains powered behemoth. The keypad of the Casio doesn't have much give compared to the Silver-Reed, i think the latter would be a more comfortable machine to use all day.

The Casio has an LCD display while the Silver-Reed has green glowing VFD (so you can do your accounts in the dark, unless there is a power cut of course). Although the Casio's printer is adequate, the small size does mean the digits are a little thin. The print quality of the Silver-Reed is a little better, and it has red ink for negative figures.

Both are fine machines though which do their jobs well. But i am sure you all know which one i prefer.

Why i like typewriters (4) : The sound

Typewriters are a feast for the senses, including hearing of course. The sound you can make as you are pounding away on your Olympia creating your magnificent octopus will be epic. Modern computer keyboards tend not to have much in the way of good sound, what does typing on a Macbook Air sound like? A butterfly fluttering it's wings.

It wasn't always like that of course, old skool computer keyboards like the keyboard on the Volker-Craig VC404 terminal were louder than God. My Mac mini has a loud-ish Tecknet mechanical keyboard which just about does the job. Though if you want to type as loudly as the Lord intended well you know the answer...

A museum find

Today i visited the West Midlands Police Museum (which is well worth a visit) and you can see my photographs here. One notable exhibit was this Adler typewriter. A fine old machine which no doubt was used to type many a crime report over the years. The tab bar at the top is an interesting feature.

Samsung Secal 800N

This delightful looking calculator is one of the machines which was added to the collection last month. The Samsung Secal 800N is a mid-1970s model, probably built around 1975 or 1976. The calculator has a dedicated calculation chip. it supports the four main arithmetric functions plus percentages and square roots. It also supports negative numbers.

Despite looking in good nick, the calculator did not turn on when batteries were fitted. This is a shame as i'm sure the Vacuum Fluorescent Display would have looked superb. 

More on the SF Deluxe

Now that we have had the Olympia SF Deluxe for a few weeks what is it like as a typewriter. In fact it is a very good typewriter, though as my other Olympias have genuinely all been decent machines this is not really a surprise. It types pretty well though could do with a new ribbon. It isn't that loud (a shame) but typing doesn't cause any head jams so i have to say this machine is a hit.

Typing on a Hermes 305

Time for another video.

Manuals (4) : Atlas Portable special

My Atlas Portable came with it's original manual so i thought it would be nice to take a few pictures of some of the pages.