In Mechanica Antiqua

This photograph was taken in April of 1912, the photograph itself was one of numerous copies printed in early May of the same year.  I’m a lucky individual to have such a nice copy of it.  It shows wear, but it is over 100 years old.

The Titanic disaster was perhaps the most infamous marintime disaster in human history.  The Unsinkable ship strikes an Iceberg off Newfoundland and sinks, killing over a thousand people.

A lot of people have speculated over the years, about whether or not this really was an accident.  From sub-quality rivets, to a plot by J. P. Morgan.  The second, being the most interesting.  Morgan owned white star line, and the Titanic.  When the Titanic’s sister ship struck another vessel in September 1912, the company lost a lot of money.  Repairs, lost tickets on the liner, and the Titanic’s sail date was moved up to April costing them further tickets.  Not to mention the fact that Morgan’s investments in Nikola Tesla’s electricity were being ignored in favor for …

I thoght it would be fitting to compare and contrast the two most commonly used types of keyboards. The 84 character standard keyboard, and the 88 character keyboard.  The 84 character keyboard is composed of 42 keys and a shift key. The shift key allows the user to use a secondary character per each key, whether it be a circumflex or a capital letter.  The 88 character keyboard is composed of 88 keys laid out in a simple and easy to follow pattern.  Groups of capital keys, and groups of lowercase keys.
The 42, and (a section) of the 88

I would like to begin by talking about the 42 character keyboard, as it’s the most familiar.  The action on these keyboards is generally very smooth, however it is difficult to type multiple characters at once to achieve things like “æ” or “œ”.  The rounded tops with the raised chrome ring offer a comfortable fit for the tip of the finger, and the compact layout allows you to reach any key with minimal movement.
As for the 88 character keyboard, this o…

Pictured above is what I perceive to be the optimal placement of Bail rollers.  The inside rollers from left to right should be at 3 and 5.25 respectively, with the margin set at 1, and the page set at 0.  In Pica, this would be a margin at space 10, and the inner sides of the rollers at space 30 and space 52.
When the rollers are too far apart, the page bows up in the middle and slaps around a bit.
 When they are to close, the page bows the opposite way.  The Royal user manual recommends that they be no further than three inches apart.  If they’re too far apart, the edge of the page can crinkle up.
If your machine has one roller, center it.  If it has more than two, have one in the center, and evenly space the rest.  Paper fingers should be right at the edge of the margins, so the writing guide doesn’t push them, but merely nestles up against them.



But then again, it’s your machine.  You’re free to do whatever you want with it, and I really don’t care what that is.

If you don’t wan…

As we all know, over time, rubber feet become less rubbery and less foot-ish.  There are a variety of services offered by a ton of amazing people out there to restore your rubber parts, or to make new ones.  I, however, am not one of their patrons due to my foolhearty and somewhat unrealistic urge to do everything on a zero dollar budget.
So here is my $0 way to make new feet.  Poorly documented, yes, but this was more of a test run to see how it would work out.  I’ll document it better once I can do it better.  I don’t like documenting my failures.

I got this machine three years ago, and have used it every day since.  It needed a fair bit of work to get it going, and I’ve written about that in past pages.  Up until now, it has had these foam pads glued to the base to keep the frame from scratching up the desk.  A mistake I made with my first machine many years ago.  Recently, I decided it was time to make new feet.  I accomplished this with a few things I had around the house, tap …

Science fiction was one genre that I never spent a whole lot of time in.  Jules Verne’s work always held a special place in my opinions, as did some of the works of H.G. Wells.  Bradbury, however, only made his way into my life through one book.  Such was the case for many people.  His dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 was his crowning achievement.  I picked up the book for the first time in 6th grade, and it enraptured me.  I read it a couple other times and came away with more and more.  It’s what those big city newspapers would call a “parable of our times.”  The book was written in 1951, but takes place a decade or two in our future.  At least after 2020.  His wishes, as he once said,I weren’t to predict the future, rather to prevent it.  A cryptic statement to say the least, but altogether too valid.  He saw the road our world was headed to even before it had even happened.   The premise of the book follows the main character, Guy Montag, who is a fireman in the future.  His job is t…