RESTORED TYPEWRITER: ' 58 SMITH - CORONA PRESIDENT, Er. TOWER SILENT -, Er.
Item History & Price
.
1958 Smith-Corona / Tower Silent-Super / President --
in Gloss Seaside & Stock Sand with Caramel Turboplaten --
-- with clean, serviceable case --
<...br> //
The late '50s Silent-Super, by whatever name, marked about the apex of the portable typewriter -- usage and proliferation. Every household had at least one. It was as ubiquitous then as the computer is today. (Cell phones and burgers are classes unto themselves.)
With this machine configuration, I tried for something bright -- at least in appearance, if not intellectually. Smith-Corona built machines for Sears. Underwood was actually Sears' first contractor, but they were already in decline and could not accommodate the tight machine costs Sears imposed upon them. Smith could. They would soon merge with Marchant to form SCM. By 1958 Smith had the capacity and techniques, customer base and forward agenda to roll out machines in increasing volume for another hundred years...
...which got compressed to about twenty with the advent of the personal computer. But had that long-run come, you can bet Smith would've been there. How seeming pedestrian to invest one's days-in-hand into the plans and hopes of other days hence. Some major companies got knocked out or "diversified" in pursuit of such aims. Smith (SCM) never stopped working to make their product better *today.* When the last of such days arrived -- the vision of the four original Smith brothers fulfilled -- the company gracefully and without fanfare retired.
I imagine the Smith boys would've gotten a kick knowing guys would still be tinkering and playing around with their machines well into the 21st Century... befuddling the A.I.
//
re. TurboPlaten...
...represents what I believe platens might have evolved to had the manufacture of typewriters continued in strength. It's fairly simple to understand (if not so easy to make): 1) The original black rubber is removed; 2) the inner steel core is cleaned and polished or painted (this one in Caramel); then 3) sheathed in flexible, tight-fitting PVC tubing (not to be confused with PVC pipe); and finally 4) lathe sanded -- a) to obtain a smooth, uniform surface; and b) to apply low-level heat by which the tubing bonds to the core for overall cylindricality.
The most important contributor to the speed of a typewriter, beyond the operator's faculty, is *typebar retraction* -- that is, the rapidity with which the typebar recoils after it strikes the ribbon and page. The quicker the typebar clears the typeguide, the quicker the next typebar can launch.Turboplaten is more pliant and resilient than rubber. That increases its life and the speed of typebar retraction. It also generates cleaner finished copy now and over the long term. It doesn't decompose like rubber. The result is a more responsive typewriter. Turboplaten subtly but effectively supercharges the functionality of the entire machine. //
Specs--Year: 1958Make: Smith-CoronaModel: Tower President
Serial#: 5TT 464 667
Type: 10-pitch Pica
Segment (type basket) Shift
Ribbon: 1/2" standard (NEW, All-black, Medium Heavy, installed)
Factory (Usage) Documentation: Clean scan, included
Shipping: Packed, with Case (~23.8 lbs.)
Domestic Carrier: FedEx
International Carrier: USPS Priority International
Insurance: Included
Handling Charges: Get outta here. //
SATISFACTION GUARANTEED:Forget this "as is" bull stuff.Whatever makes you happy -- repair, replace, refund, re-whatever -- it's on my account.Despite the prepay eBay structure, it shouldn't (ultimately) cost you even a nickel to check it out.This is a typewriter, a personal tool you'll have for years to come.If, for whatever reason, you don't like it, you're not stuck with it.It's how machines were sold in their first hundred years. It's how I sell 'em today.You're the buyer. You're the boss. Really. //
On Writing & TypewritersMY APPROACH in all this typewriter stuff is as a writer, a teacher and a publisher. I work with young writers (young in experience if not always in age) throughout the Greater Louisville, Kentucky region. I've learned, both in my own development and through observation, that writing in type fosters the disciplined thinking valued by, and admired in, the best writers.I use the manual typewriter strictly for draft. Because I'm casting each letter immediately to posterity, i.e. the printed page, I'm less cavalier with my grammar and word choice, more inclined to take a moment to think through not just what I want to say, but how -- at least to the next point of punctuation.For finish copy there's nothing better than your word processing application. Writers once used real scissors and tape to rework their manuscripts, the legacy of which remains in your Cut and Paste commands. Drafting on computer seems easy. You stroke a bunch of words, dress 'em out in a nice font and layout, and think you've got a finished piece. A lovely looking sheet of words is not the same as good writing.The villain, posing as your pal, is Mr. Delete Key. How often on a computer first draft have you overwritten yourself? You know you've done it when you reread the piece and wonder where its power went. The power still exists, but it's buried back there in that first crude draft. Unfortunately that's gone now, commingled with some overly doctored version of your mighty original idea, courtesy of your right-pinky man Mr. Deleter. He's so inviting, so ready to help you clear up any "mistake, " that you subject your voice to some tentative sense of what's right when you don't even know what that is. That's why you're writing. Writing is discovery. Mr.Delete-When-In-Doubt lets you believe you can write -- discover -- a perfect first draft.Mr. Delete Key is wrong. Nobody writes a perfect first draft. The day you accept that is the day you enter the zen of the manual typewriter. It is the most sophisticated *thought* processor created by man. Unlike anything electronic, you completely animate it. It is thought -- released physically, gathered to the sheet, speaking to you, stimulating thought.... It is the extension of the only true self-propelled machine, your mind. What you produce breaks off instantly from you, is independent of you. Nobody gets all that meta-whatever stuff down exactly right on the first go-'round, despite what Mr. Delete's presence might imply.A writer is two entities -- writer and editor. The writer works uncritically in the glory of brain-to-paper discovery. The editor is always looking for what's wrong. It's important to keep these guys separate to do their jobs (the delete key is the editor's main tool). The computer gives the illusion of efficiency, where writer and editor work together. With the mastery of process that may be true, but they're always separate. In the development stage it's best to keep them separate *and* apart.Writing in type is risky. First you have to make sure you're getting it right technically -- you know, think "a, " hit "a." Then consider what to say. Then how to say it. What scares people new to typing is that every little part of each process is *on record* -- a record we subconsciously believe may be used against us in some court of whatever.The only thing prosecuting you is the sheet of paper, and you can enter into dialogue with that and come out okay, mitigate (if not litigate) your case. Sure there are risks, but the stakes are low -- the cost of a sheet of paper; the amortized cost of spent ink over the life of the ribbon. You want to add Time to that list, you think. But that's exactly the one thing that is not wasted. Writing is a record of thought. Whether or not the record is preserved has no bearing upon the advances made in thought.As you've scrolled through eBay, you've probably seen a copy of that old book, "The PC [or Mac] is NOT a Typewriter." How true that is. Different tools for different jobs.To process words use a computer; to process *thoughts* use a typewriter.If you're a writer without a typewriter, get one today -- from me or whomever. Make sure it works. If it does -- and if you do -- you will revolutionize your stuff. That's a guarantee.-- Dean Jones, Louisville, Kentucky
//
1958 Smith-Corona / Tower Silent-Super / President --
in Gloss Seaside & Stock Sand with Caramel Turboplaten --
-- with clean, serviceable case --
<...br> //
The late '50s Silent-Super, by whatever name, marked about the apex of the portable typewriter -- usage and proliferation. Every household had at least one. It was as ubiquitous then as the computer is today. (Cell phones and burgers are classes unto themselves.)
With this machine configuration, I tried for something bright -- at least in appearance, if not intellectually. Smith-Corona built machines for Sears. Underwood was actually Sears' first contractor, but they were already in decline and could not accommodate the tight machine costs Sears imposed upon them. Smith could. They would soon merge with Marchant to form SCM. By 1958 Smith had the capacity and techniques, customer base and forward agenda to roll out machines in increasing volume for another hundred years...
...which got compressed to about twenty with the advent of the personal computer. But had that long-run come, you can bet Smith would've been there. How seeming pedestrian to invest one's days-in-hand into the plans and hopes of other days hence. Some major companies got knocked out or "diversified" in pursuit of such aims. Smith (SCM) never stopped working to make their product better *today.* When the last of such days arrived -- the vision of the four original Smith brothers fulfilled -- the company gracefully and without fanfare retired.
I imagine the Smith boys would've gotten a kick knowing guys would still be tinkering and playing around with their machines well into the 21st Century... befuddling the A.I.
//
re. TurboPlaten...
...represents what I believe platens might have evolved to had the manufacture of typewriters continued in strength. It's fairly simple to understand (if not so easy to make): 1) The original black rubber is removed; 2) the inner steel core is cleaned and polished or painted (this one in Caramel); then 3) sheathed in flexible, tight-fitting PVC tubing (not to be confused with PVC pipe); and finally 4) lathe sanded -- a) to obtain a smooth, uniform surface; and b) to apply low-level heat by which the tubing bonds to the core for overall cylindricality.
The most important contributor to the speed of a typewriter, beyond the operator's faculty, is *typebar retraction* -- that is, the rapidity with which the typebar recoils after it strikes the ribbon and page. The quicker the typebar clears the typeguide, the quicker the next typebar can launch.Turboplaten is more pliant and resilient than rubber. That increases its life and the speed of typebar retraction. It also generates cleaner finished copy now and over the long term. It doesn't decompose like rubber. The result is a more responsive typewriter. Turboplaten subtly but effectively supercharges the functionality of the entire machine. //
Specs--Year: 1958Make: Smith-CoronaModel: Tower President
Serial#: 5TT 464 667
Type: 10-pitch Pica
Segment (type basket) Shift
Ribbon: 1/2" standard (NEW, All-black, Medium Heavy, installed)
Factory (Usage) Documentation: Clean scan, included
Shipping: Packed, with Case (~23.8 lbs.)
Domestic Carrier: FedEx
International Carrier: USPS Priority International
Insurance: Included
Handling Charges: Get outta here. //
SATISFACTION GUARANTEED:Forget this "as is" bull stuff.Whatever makes you happy -- repair, replace, refund, re-whatever -- it's on my account.Despite the prepay eBay structure, it shouldn't (ultimately) cost you even a nickel to check it out.This is a typewriter, a personal tool you'll have for years to come.If, for whatever reason, you don't like it, you're not stuck with it.It's how machines were sold in their first hundred years. It's how I sell 'em today.You're the buyer. You're the boss. Really. //
On Writing & TypewritersMY APPROACH in all this typewriter stuff is as a writer, a teacher and a publisher. I work with young writers (young in experience if not always in age) throughout the Greater Louisville, Kentucky region. I've learned, both in my own development and through observation, that writing in type fosters the disciplined thinking valued by, and admired in, the best writers.I use the manual typewriter strictly for draft. Because I'm casting each letter immediately to posterity, i.e. the printed page, I'm less cavalier with my grammar and word choice, more inclined to take a moment to think through not just what I want to say, but how -- at least to the next point of punctuation.For finish copy there's nothing better than your word processing application. Writers once used real scissors and tape to rework their manuscripts, the legacy of which remains in your Cut and Paste commands. Drafting on computer seems easy. You stroke a bunch of words, dress 'em out in a nice font and layout, and think you've got a finished piece. A lovely looking sheet of words is not the same as good writing.The villain, posing as your pal, is Mr. Delete Key. How often on a computer first draft have you overwritten yourself? You know you've done it when you reread the piece and wonder where its power went. The power still exists, but it's buried back there in that first crude draft. Unfortunately that's gone now, commingled with some overly doctored version of your mighty original idea, courtesy of your right-pinky man Mr. Deleter. He's so inviting, so ready to help you clear up any "mistake, " that you subject your voice to some tentative sense of what's right when you don't even know what that is. That's why you're writing. Writing is discovery. Mr.Delete-When-In-Doubt lets you believe you can write -- discover -- a perfect first draft.Mr. Delete Key is wrong. Nobody writes a perfect first draft. The day you accept that is the day you enter the zen of the manual typewriter. It is the most sophisticated *thought* processor created by man. Unlike anything electronic, you completely animate it. It is thought -- released physically, gathered to the sheet, speaking to you, stimulating thought.... It is the extension of the only true self-propelled machine, your mind. What you produce breaks off instantly from you, is independent of you. Nobody gets all that meta-whatever stuff down exactly right on the first go-'round, despite what Mr. Delete's presence might imply.A writer is two entities -- writer and editor. The writer works uncritically in the glory of brain-to-paper discovery. The editor is always looking for what's wrong. It's important to keep these guys separate to do their jobs (the delete key is the editor's main tool). The computer gives the illusion of efficiency, where writer and editor work together. With the mastery of process that may be true, but they're always separate. In the development stage it's best to keep them separate *and* apart.Writing in type is risky. First you have to make sure you're getting it right technically -- you know, think "a, " hit "a." Then consider what to say. Then how to say it. What scares people new to typing is that every little part of each process is *on record* -- a record we subconsciously believe may be used against us in some court of whatever.The only thing prosecuting you is the sheet of paper, and you can enter into dialogue with that and come out okay, mitigate (if not litigate) your case. Sure there are risks, but the stakes are low -- the cost of a sheet of paper; the amortized cost of spent ink over the life of the ribbon. You want to add Time to that list, you think. But that's exactly the one thing that is not wasted. Writing is a record of thought. Whether or not the record is preserved has no bearing upon the advances made in thought.As you've scrolled through eBay, you've probably seen a copy of that old book, "The PC [or Mac] is NOT a Typewriter." How true that is. Different tools for different jobs.To process words use a computer; to process *thoughts* use a typewriter.If you're a writer without a typewriter, get one today -- from me or whomever. Make sure it works. If it does -- and if you do -- you will revolutionize your stuff. That's a guarantee.-- Dean Jones, Louisville, Kentucky
//
