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"!

Typing on a KOFA 300

Twenty first century typewriting.

Mysterious keys (5) : Fractions

While a typewriter keyboard may lack many keys common on the average computer, there will usually be one thing the typewriter has that the computer keyboard lacks : fractions. Some typewriters had multiple keys dedicated to fractions (with two fractions sharing the typebar). So, why is this?

Brother Deluxe 800, many fractions

It is probably due to the use of imperial measures and amounts. Typewriters were, of course, working machines often used for filling out invoices and order forms not poncing about in hipster living rooms. While any fraction can be expressed using the slash key between two numbers (for example 1/2) it may be considered more space efficient and neater to be able to type ½ instead with one key press. It especially is more time efficient if you have to type a lot of them!

Litton Imperial 201, not quite as many fractions

Having a look at one of the Boots

I finally got around to having a good look at one of the typewriters i got for Christmas, my Boots PT800. It is a nice looking typewriter that is nice and clean and in good condition though a bit stiff. It types well and is very loud. A little more typing seems to be loosening it up a bit and it will probably be used for a future touch typing lesson.

Manuals (2)

Two more covers of typewriter manuals, from public domain sources of course.