Topic: The end of the line: Last typewriter factory left in the world closes its doors

[rickl]

It's an invention that revolutionised the way we work, becoming an essential piece of office equipment for the best part of a century.

But after years of sterling service, that bane for secretaries has reached the end of the line.

Godrej and Boyce - the last company left in the world that was still manufacturing typewriters - has shut down its production plant in Mumbai, India with just a few hundred machines left in stock.

Although typewriters became obsolete years ago in the west, they were still common in India  - until recently.  Demand for the machines has sunk in the last ten years as consumers switch to computers.

The company's general manager, Milind Dukle, told India's Business Standard newspaper: 'We are not getting many orders now.
 
'From the early 2000s onwards, computers started dominating. All the manufacturers of office typewriters stopped production, except us.

'Till 2009, we used to produce 10,000 to 12,000 machines a year. But this might be the last chance for typewriter lovers. Now, our primary market is among the defence agencies, courts and government offices.'

The company is now down to its last  200 machines - the majority of which are Arabic language models.

The firm began production in the 1950s - when Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru described the typewriter as a symbol of India's emerging independence and industrialisation. It was still selling 50,000 models annually in the early 1990s, but last year it sold less than 800 machines.

The first commercial typewriter was produced in the U.S. in 1867 and by the turn of the century had developed into the  standardised format - including a qwerty' keyboard - that we know today.

Link

The comments are worth reading, too.  Some say that there are other companies still making typewriters.

There was no internet when the last buggywhip manufacturer went out of business, so we didn't get to read about it in real time.  On the other hand, someone must still be making them for the Amish.

[RickZ]

In the Age of Obama (with his soon-to-be totalitarian control of the innertubes), without typewriters, how will we be able to produce szamizdat?  Back to Roman times with wax tablets?  Or even further back to papyrus paper?  Woodcuts are out - the greenies will be on to us too easily.

Oh, and this means the end of the typewriter white out strip manufacturers as well.

If a monarch butterfly dies in Mexico, . . .

[rickl]

I forgot to mention that one commenter said that if you're planning to keep your typewriter, be sure to stock up on typewriter ribbons.

Oh, and this means the end of the typewriter white out strip manufacturers as well.

Nah, that works fine for handwriting too.  I have it both at home and at work.

[LadyVirginia]

This makes me a little sad though I don't know why.  I don't miss typewriters one bit.  Nothing like typing up a 25 page paper only to have to retype pages because I made  mistakes and the teacher didn't allow whiteout.

[RickZ]

I forgot to mention that one commenter said that if you're planning to keep your typewriter, be sure to stock up on typewriter ribbons.

Oh, and this means the end of the typewriter white out strip manufacturers as well.

Nah, that works fine for handwriting too.  I have it both at home and at work.

Not white out liquid, the white out strips you used to have to insert into a typewriter to 'erase' a mistake.  You know, backspace, insert strip, retype, remove strip, backspace and retype correctly.  I had to buy that stuff by the bushel in college thanks to all those history papers I had to type.

[rickl]

Oh, OK.  Actually, I meant the white-out tape in the little hand-held dispensers with the wheels on the bottom.  That stuff is a thousand times better than liquid white-out.

[LadyVirginia]

Oh, OK.  Actually, I meant the white-out tape in the little hand-held dispensers with the wheels on the bottom.  That stuff is a thousand times better than liquid white-out.

There was many a time I didn't have liquid whiteout and had to position that little tape over some handwritten item to correct a mistake!

[RickZ]

Oh, OK.  Actually, I meant the white-out tape in the little hand-held dispensers with the wheels on the bottom.  That stuff is a thousand times better than liquid white-out.

The problem with the tape is that it is removable.  Not good on tax forms and other legal documentation.  Of course, with liquid paper, felt/soft tipped pens did not work so well on it; it had to be a hard point ink pen.

[Pandora]

Memories ...........

[Libertas]

Heh.  I remember buying a Brother typewriter for banging out my college papers, I thought that was the height of technology, even had a red back-up button that would apply white-out tape so you could correct on the fly, so to speak.

Then the early PC's came...

I actually saw someone in our AP department using an old IBM typewriter last week to address an envelope.  It looked so...ancient!