Typing in the movies (1) : Cipher Bureau

In this new series we look at some interesting appearances by typewriters in old movies.

A few months ago we discussed the specialist Musicwriter which was a typewriter to create musical notation. In the rather good 1939 spy drama Cipher Bureau we see one (or similar anyway) in action! The film deals with a U.S. government department tasked with cracking enemy agent codes (which the film covers in quite interesting detail).

The key part of the film however is when the enemy agents switch to an ingenious new code which uses musical notes, the spy master planning to send his message over the radio in a live concert! The code breakers are onto this though, they listen to the concert and transcribe the music into notation using the Musicwriter (how realistic this is i don't know, i can't play a note!) 

Thanks to the Musicwriter the enemy spy ring is foiled, the U.S. is safe and everyone goes home happily for tea. Typewriters save the world, again.

Image from movie

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!