Selling typewriters in 1988

Typewriters continued to be on sale to the general public well into the microcomputer age though by the time Littlewoods published their 1988 spring summer catalogue maybe sales were beginning to thin out. Only two typewriters are on sale in the catalogue. One mechanical and one electric.

The mechanical or manual typewriter is this rather pleasing Olivetti Roma. Two colour ribbon, variable line spacing, automatic ribbon reverse... even includes a carrying case. What more could you want?

Well maybe you prefer an electric? The catalogue's offering is this rather bland looking Erika. Personally i'd go for the Olivetti although this machine is a solid offering giving "smooth, clean, crisp professional typing"!

Showcase (5) : Erika 105

From the 1970s is the Erika 105, a smooth typing machine yet relatively chunky for a portable typewriter, though the exterior is a little plasticky. The Erika was made by the wonderfully named Robotron of the German Democratic Republic. The Erika has a number of interesting features including a four position ribbon selector. Usually, typewriters just have two or three (if they support two colour ribbons and stencil typing). The fourth position was apparently for if you had a single colour ribbon so you could get more use out of it?

The Erika works pretty well with a distinctive if not over loud typing sound. I'd prefer a little more volume of course.

A pair of Boots

Two of the typewriters i received for Christmas carry the Boots name, if you are UK based then you may be thinking "Boots the chemist?!" and you would be correct! The pharmacy and healthcare chain also sold goods in a number of tangental and unexpected areas until bean counters with MBAs no doubt told them they could squeeze more money out of the business without such fripperies like music (the first LP i ever bought was from Boots indeed) and typewriters. 

Boots sourced their typewriters from a number of places. The Boots Model 42 is an Erika 42 with an extra name label. Built in the German Democratic Republic. It types pretty well.

Later in the 1970s, Boots switched supplier to Silver-Reed for the PT800 which is a very similar typewriter to the Silverette and WH Smith branded Red Fox. Like those others, it is a wonderful little typewriter. These are numbers 16 and 17 in the collection.

Typing on an Erika 105

Another typing video, this time on my Erika 105 which was made in the German Democratic Republic.