UK: How easy is it to get hold of an old manual typewriter and plenty of ink?

Question

I'd love to use an old typewriter to keep all my work records in order rather than a PC. There aren't that many so the fact a typewriter is slower wouldn't be a problem and it's only my boss and I who see the reports.

Where can I gewt one in good working order, and is ink for them still produced? Thanks!

PS- What does an electric typewriter actually do differently?

Thanks!

Answer 1

The difference between a standard typewriter and an electric is very much like the difference between a push lawnmower and a power lawn mower. Working on a PC is more like hiring a gardener to do the work for you. It's that much more efficient. Even as this is a "romantic" idea, it could be a real Pandora's box and I wouldn't do it without your boss' permission.



However, you can find lots of them on Ebay:



http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&dfsp=32&satitle=+typewriter&sacat=-1%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=ZIP%2FPostal&sabfmts=1&saobfmts=insif&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=32%26fsoo%3D2



This site could be helpful also and they DO sell ribbons:



http://www.typewritercollector.com/



Kabum

Answer 2

The old manual typewriters used ink ribbons...you can still get them, but very difficult.....an electric typewriter is generally quicker to use and has a lighter touch on the keyboard, some of the more modern ones used to have a word processor type screen where you could see your mistakes before they were printed on the page....that was the whole problem with Manual typewriters, you have to be so accurate, or buy gallons of tipex to cover up the mistakes.

Answer 3

i'm curious approximately employing this. i ask your self the place your information comes from. I truthfully have consistently believed that Royals have been the appropriate typewriters ever made, yet i did no longer understand there have been others who agreed with me. I nonetheless have a Royal transportable from the Nineteen Thirties that i've got owned for some years. and that i nonetheless use it for all my correspondence. (There are some reward to sending somebody a letter written on an previous typewriter. If this is a private letter, the hand-crafted high quality of this is a homey touch. And if that's business enterprise, it scares the recipient, simply by fact they understand top away which you're a crackpot, and hence probable risky.) yet so some distance as i understand, they don't seem to be all that valuable. I assemble previous typewriters, maximum of that are actually not nicely worth plenty. The final time I checked on ebay, a Royal transportable like the only i exploit, in good subject, expenditures approximately thirty or 40 money.

Answer 4

http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=typewriter



Electric typewriters make the keystrokes faster by the keys being a switch to electricaly control the strikes while a full manual uses a mechanical mechanism powered by the force of your fingers.



xx

Answer 5

you can often get manual typewriters at car boot sales. I don't know how you'd get the ink.