W/NW Typewriters and Printing Presses

Read this story in my local paper this morning. Typewriter repair business to close March 2025. Not too far from me and there may be some for sale rather than junk/recycle.

The store is no longer doing repairs, but Furrier is still hoping to sell as many of the “hundreds and hundreds” of machines as possible. In March, typewriters will be going for $25 or $30 each.

“I’d rather do that than see them get thrown away,” he said about the bargain prices. “There’s a lot of nice, working machines in here.”

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Tom Furrier is closing down his Cambridge Typwriter Co. repair shop after 45 years. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff
 

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On the other hand, there are young men like Lucas Dul of Typewriter Chicago who are starting new shops.

 
Read this story in my local paper this morning. Typewriter repair business to close March 2025. Not too far from me and there may be some for sale rather than junk/recycle.



s3___bgmp-arc_arc-feeds_generic-photos_to-arc_tlumackitypewriters189-6786f96872a2d-768x432.jpg


Tom Furrier is closing down his Cambridge Typwriter Co. repair shop after 45 years. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff
Bummer -- I dropped in there once. Very nice guy. He kept the late historian David McCullough's Royal KMM in top shape over all those years writing about the Brooklyn Bridge, Panama Canal, the Wright Brothers, Harry Truman, and many other subjects.

I've tried to fix my own machines over the years but haven't had time lately. It would be nice to find someone not too far away from me. Many parallels with classic camera repairers!
 
I miss my old Smith-Corona Portable Electric! My aunt gave it to me when i was in 7th grade and i wrote papers and letters with it for nearly 20 years. I gave it to a friend then, and we lost touch.

It had a beautiful cursive typeface. Never saw another like it.

G
 
My mother had a little Remington portable. I was a smart kid. Everyone pored scorn on me teaching myself to type aged 8 (1968). Do you think you’re Hemingway? I don’t think I’d seen any photograph of Hemingway back then. What’s the point of you doing this? You’ll never need to type anything yourself.

Later my mother was given an early giant IBM electric typewriter by the neighbour across the road, which was soon replaced by a correction tape equipped IBM Selectric. On that I typed a few physiology honours theses for friends in 1980, ‘81, including use of a Greek golf ball for α β, μ etc. I wrote notes for giving talks with the Orator golf ball. I had Courier, Cursive. I still have those golf balls, and my wife let me take over my father in law’s IBM Selectric when he returned to Europe. It’s in my office. Needs a service.

The opening credits of Gerry Anderson’s UFO tv series included a close-up of an IBM golf ball (Orator, all caps) updating mission and bases status.

My next keyboard equipped device, not my own, was an original IBM PC, 1986. The next of my own was a Macintosh LC II, 1992.
 
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Nobody can type as fast as Jerry Lewis :) (Leroy Anderson -The Typewriter)
 
My mother had a little Remington portable. I was a smart kid. Everyone pored scorn on me teaching myself to type aged 8 (1968). Do you think you’re Hemingway? I don’t think I’d seen any photograph of Hemingway back then. What’s the point of you doing this? You’ll never need to type anything yourself.

Later my mother was given an early giant IBM electric typewriter by the neighbour across the road, which was soon replaced by a correction tape equipped IBM Selectric. On that I typed a few physiology honours theses for friends in 1980, ‘81, including use of a Greek golf ball for α β, μ etc. I wrote notes for giving talks with the Orator golf ball. I had Courier, Cursive. I still have those golf balls, and my wife let me take over my father in law’s IBM Selectric when he returned to Europe. It’s in my office. Needs a service.

The opening credits of Gerry Anderson’s UFO tv series included a close-up of an IBM golf ball (Orator, all caps) updating mission and bases status.

My next keyboard equipped device, not my own, was an original IBM PC, 1986. The next of my own was a Macintosh LC II, 1992.

The IBM Selectric... that's a typewriter! I used one in my last job because somethings were more quickly done on it than with a PC.

All the best,
Mike
 
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