Spring Break

Photographic Evidence

A few days ago I lamented not finding more pictures of HHs in the rarer colors. Well, I stumbled across a picture of one while looking for information on the Royal Grand. Will Davis' site (currently mirrored by Machines of Loving Grace). When I first saw it I thought that the picture was just an odd shade, but as you can see, the ribbon is very visible. Very grey. This is a sombre typewriter. I LOVE it!

From what I have read this machine is the personal favorite of the Elder Davis. I can imagine why. Smooth operation. Snappy feel. Easy carriage tension adjustment. The keytop's bowl shape make typing less fatiguing. When it comes to the pinnacle of typewriter design perfection, this is it. I know they are not lookers, but form will follow function and these function perfectly.

From Machines of Loving Grace's mirror of Typewriters by Will Davis

Ton, You Are Awesome!

The Tower in its tawny glory.

Already in use! You go, student!

Wanted!

The affinity I have for the Royal HH borders on lunacy. Thankfully, I only have the one, but given the option I would take another in one of the other 5 colors out there...

Here are some examples I found on the web (with as much attribution as I could gather):

A green HH as presented on the blog Typewriter Hoarding.

Pink on meedily's flickr account.

I have not found the blue, the yellow, or the charcoal/grey. If you know of a picture, let me know. If you have such a colored HH I would be really interested in getting one. Send me a letter, and we'll talk.

N.B. As far as I can tell, it looks like the colors were painted with some sort of sheen finish. The brown HH which is ubiquitous is always in a wrinkle finish. There is so little about these machines out there.

FP In The Library

This is the FP in the school's library. When it was in my possession -- being more willing to beg forgiveness than ask permission -- I went ahead an painted it. The color was not exactly like the historic FP green, but gave an overall impression of the same color. In reality, the gray was chipped and scrapped from years of use in public education. This is one of the few public typewriters I have been able to get set up around our campus.

Krylon Celery Green. It's much lighter than the old FP green.

This FP has a a darker tint and earmuffs. 
The earmuffs are a carbon ribbon kit. 
Photo via Machines of Loving Grace

Blue FP from a Life magazine advertisement.

I have started to see an interesting shift in the mindset of my students. The typewriters are no longer objects of curiosity or antiquated tools, they are starting to become part of the fabric of their educational experience. It's an interesting and nuanced change. I am proud to have some hand in making that happen.

Typewriter Dramatics

Imagine having some guests over to your house. As the conversation evolves someone, perhaps that guy from your office who keeps trying to show you various "apps" on his iPhone, turns a glancing eye to your den.

"What's that?" says Chad (because they are all named Chad) pointing to the desk.

You respond, "That? It's something very special. I keep it covered to protect it."

"Does it have apps?"

"No."

You stand up and your guests follow you to the den. Snapping on the lamp, you take the cover and with a dramatic flourish you remove it to reveal a pristine Royal Quiet De Luxe.

The silence is cut by Chad (because he's just so annoying), "So, no apps?"

***

Paul emailed me a few days ago to let me know that he tried making one of the typewriter covers that I wrote about in a very Typewriter Cover-themed blog post. Here it is. In addition to the wonderful email, Paul sent a picture of his handiwork.

Quite nice quilted cozy.

Needless to say, I am overjoyed that the "pattern" proved to be a success. Good work Paul!

3rd Phoenix Type-In

Showing Off

I think I might have mentioned it a while ago, but Mrs. Magic Margin, Baby Magic Margin, and I moved to a new house. It's much bigger than our old house and the perfect place for a growing...typewriter collection! Mrs. Magic Margin was adamant that I have a place (out of the way) that I can display a respectable number of typewriters. After some thinking, we bought my favorite bookshelf from IKEA; Expedit and assembled it in what we call "The Typewriter Room."Each box in the bookcase is just barely large enough to hold a standard Royal-size portable typewriter. Pretty much every example from my collection fits. The only exception is the Facit. I have it set on top of the bookshelf along with a Royal Model O to give the top a visual balance. See for yourself in the photo-set below and please excuse me for showing off.

The Complete Adney Collection

U.S. Navy Aristocrat

This little three needs some polishing.

A new addition to my collection.
The platen is frightfully hard.

The trusty Model 7 gets a high spot.

My first typewriter.

Another shiny one.

The tawny twins.

An Artist's Brush

An Oldie from the Archive

Please enjoy this graphic from last year's Valentine's Day.

Peter, You Rock!

I also snapped a few pictures from my third hour class. It was a very type-tastic day!

Representative Commendation

I came to school to find this letter from Arizona State Representative Debbie McCune Davis. I must be sure to type a thank you note.

 

Welcome to Magic Margin

Some of you, no doubt, are visiting for the first time. Welcome. Typewiters are wonderful machines and I love to share them. So, please look around. If you click on the links to the side you'll find a smattering of our classroom collection, links to other typewriter sites, and an archive of posts for this blog. You'll find some serious stuff, some fun stuff, some interesting stuff, and some absolutely silly stuff.

The original concept behind The Classroom Typewriter Project was to have students write without distraction. Computers have become distracting devices the divert our attention from quiet inspiration and real reflection. The typewriter is still the perfect machine for getting ideas neatly presented on paper. Moreover, the typewriter requires the author to be aware of GUMS (grammar, usage, mechanics, and spelling) because a typewriter has a way of making your literary missteps very public.

To bring you up to speed on what has happened I have aggregated some of the older posts from this blog. These will be helpful in understanding the goals and what I wanted to do.

1. The original proposal sent to the nascent typosphere: http://magicmargin.blogspot.com/2010/08/classroom-typewriter-project.html

2. The Hypothesis: http://magicmargin.blogspot.com/2010/08/hypothesis.html

3. The Process: http://magicmargin.blogspot.com/2010/08/process.html

4. Some results: http://magicmargin.blogspot.com/2010/09/results-of-weekly-typewriter-inventory.html
and http://magicmargin.blogspot.com/2010/09/weekly-typewriter-inventory-analysis.html andhttp://magicmargin.blogspot.com/2010/10/analysis-and-monks.html andhttp://magicmargin.blogspot.com/2010/12/young-truth.html

The Stradivarius of Typewriters

 

A Blog Post Where My Literary Celebrity Grows, A Call for Typecasts is Made, and A Silver Surfer is Announced

A Real 10 Out of 10

An Exciting Typecast

Tomorrow is a Big Day

I have been polishing my typewriter collection in preparation for a small visit from Bill Geist from CBS News Sunday Morning. He will be visiting my personal collection on Monday afternoon. On Tuesday he will be visiting my classroom to see what we do with the typewriters and how the students are reacting to the CTP.

Am I a little nervous? Absolutely! This is a pretty big deal. Hopefully everything goes well.

A Move, The Horror, Whispers, and Back To Normal