Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Rhinos Love Torpedo 18 Typewriters!


Rhinos also love rare shafts of winter morning sunlight.  But, they practically swoon over Torpedo 18 typewriters.  What isn't too love?  The action is light and snappy.  The generic European cursive typeface is very attractive.  And besides, Torpedos often come in colors that help the mighty rhino hide from potential predators.


This is a curious feature of most of my cursive/script typewriters:  they come in really odd and/or boring color combinations.  The Royal Futura has an amazing typeface and is two shades of Borg grey.  Almost all Facits are Viking gray, but it is a most boring color for a script machine.  The Olympia SM-9 comes in off-white with the dark grey keys.



Could it be that script machine users were trying to keep a low profile?  Who knows.

I actually considered repainting the top of this machine.  The color scheme, however, is growing on me.  It reminds me of a mid-fifties car.  Note the missing tab keys that would come with the 18B model.



This is a great correspondence typing machine.  It came by way of ebay last year.  The special paper is from a test series Claire ran on her Christmas Sharpies.  She has a routine for testing new pens and pencils.  The photos were taken with my new Sony NEX-6.  Yes, I am in love with this camera!

Thanks for reading!

10 comments:

  1. This must be a gigantic machine, judging from the already considerable size of the rhino. You probably need a crane to press a key and had to build a hangar to host it.

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    1. Ah, I had hoped no one would notice that it lives in an old warehouse. The rhino does appreciate his breathing space.

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  2. Nice Torpedo. Great colour scheme, too. Yep, it screams "'50s Buick" to me. Speaking of cameras, I just spent a mind-boggling two weeks reading reviews on the web on various cameras. Some folks had suggested a Sony Nex6, but I, being retro-minded, wanted something that looked a little more old-school. The Fujifilm X100 was gorgeous, but no interchangeable lenses, AFAIK. The XE-1 was very nice, but more than what I wanted to spend. In the end, I wound up buying an Olympus E-PL5 Micro 4/3rds camera off eBay. Not old-school, but close enough to their Trip 35 cameras from the '70s. Now I just have to go through the huge digital photography learning curve to get the most out of the camera when it arrives.
    And is it just me, or is that rhino smiling?
    Nice machine.

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    1. Yes, the rhino is a happy sort. He was adopted from the store that caters to the Kansas City Art Institute students - Claire's favorite place to get pens, pencils and sketch books.

      I also like the micro 4/3 products and used a Panasonic LX3 as a primary camera for quite awhile. For me, the low light performance is the primary incentive to go with the larger sensor on the NEX products. Different horses for different courses.

      Good luck with the learning curve. As long as you figure out the exposure adjustment settings the actual use and output will be great! I rarely do any adjustment. At some point, I will install and fire up the copy of Lightroom 4 that B&H gave away with the NEX 6.

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  3. Haven't seen a rhino since November! And yes, that Torpedo DOES look like a car - the old Ford station wagon my folks used to haul us around in once upon a time (early 60s i think).

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    1. All it needs is vinyl wood trim on the sides ;-)

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  4. Sweeeet!
    Rhino looks like he's grinning.

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  5. The Typewriter is really cool...

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