Future 8

1951 Erika 8 1189778

It is, of course, an impeccable writing machine.

Sent from my new Erika 8

A bit of fun (Imperial + Erika)

Imperial Good Companion 5
I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote "starting at".
Maybe the carrying case costs extra? How rude. Either way, £1699 is a bargain.

Erika 11
Line drawings always look spiffy on a dark blue background.
I've probably spent too much time in Adobe Illustrator this week.

1969 Erika spare parts catalog

This catalog (153+ pages in German, English, French, and Russian) goes into great detail about the mechanics of Erika models 30/40, 32/42, 33/43, and 41. It includes exploded diagrams and a full listing of parts down to the carrying cases. Published by VEB Kombinat Zentronik, Schreibmaschinenwerk Dresden.

Download the 1969 Erika spare parts catalog (49.5 MB)

Blue Bird

1959 Blue Bird 18b 1201100

Sent from my new Blue Bird 18b

Los Angeles / Joshua Tree

Wolf and I spent a week in California earlier this month, visiting family, friends, and generally travelling around. The last time I visited the state, it was the middle of summer; hot and dry. Coming from the north, especially from Tacoma, it was an unpleasant change. This time in the middle of winter, I got a clearer look of the state. It's not so bad.

Steve Soboroff… I've heard that name before. We saw this walking in Los Angeles (well, Beverly Hills I suppose—but the cities there are all just smashed together without clear boundaries)

Los Angeles wasn't nearly as bad as I'd been led to think it would be. But the smog was exactly as I expected it would be! You can't really tell when you're in local neighborhoods, but out on the freeways you can see into the distance and it's obvious.

We had the good fortune of a free day which we spent in Joshua Tree national park.

The trees are the main attraction and they really impart an otherworldly quality to the place. The different colors of the soil, mountains, and other plants contribute to this.

Yes, Los Angeles's smog even reaches 150 miles to the valley immediately west of the park. It's funnelled in through a pass in a low mountain range.

Smog has a weird blueish skim-milk look to it. Easy to tell the difference between it and fog.

There were a lot of neat rock formations in the park that looked like piles of giant pebbles. A neat line ran through this one.

This was the first oasis I'd ever seen! I was expecting surface water, but once again, man has left an ugly mark on the land. No water has reached the surface for 100 years.

Groundwater rises rather near ground level though, allowing for this stand of water-hungry palms.

It's also host to plenty of wildlife, like this rabbit!

Further into the park you leave the Mojave Desert (home to Joshua trees) and enter the Colorado. Cholla cactus can be seen here.

These shifted rock formations remind me of Michigan's UP where there are a lot of tilted rock formations. These were an eerie light grey/tan that was almost white.

That covers the first half of our trip. After Los Angeles, we drove up CA-1 to San Jose. I'll report on that next week!

Made in Czechoslovakia: 1988

1988 Consul 2223 8 222 407777

Notice that because this Consul was intended for the German market, it does not have the peculiar numerals found on Consuls in English-speaking countries.

I neglected to mention the appearance in my typecast. I like the Uncial logotype; cute and unexpected, coming from Czechoslovakia. The body style is simple, modern, and elegant. The tan/beige color is rather similar to the color used on so many computers in the 1980s; the texture too. I like it.

My own research seems to suggest that Consuls might indeed have been produced between 1988 and 1992; 1988 might just have marked the end of model 2223/2224. More on that when I finish my Consul posts.

Sent from my new Consul 2223