x over it: factories

11 Sept 2015

Factories and showrooms

Factories

Facit: Åtvidaberg, 1957

Olivetti:

British Olivetti: Glasgow, 1957

A bit mesmerizing...

Robotron: Dresden, 1987

Smiles all 'round.

Robotron: Dresden, 1988-89

Here at the Robotron factory you can see an Olympia Regina De Luxe alongside more standard Erikas (and possibly other brands).

Showrooms (and similar)

Remington: Munich

In this case I don't think the typewriter is the main focus...

Olivetti: Switzerland, 1960s

Olivetti showrooms—not to be outdone by the typewriters' style!

Optima: DDR, 1950s

So many different Optimas on display!

Royal, Smith-Corona, Underwood: USA, 1960s

A shop that displays many kinds of used items, with typewriters as a centerpiece.

Royal: USA, 1960s

Adler: England, 1960s

The suspended-in-air display is quite delightful.

Rheinmetall: Rio de Janeiro, 1930s

Probably taken through a shop window?

In case if you haven't seen before, I created this map of known typewriter factories around the world.

23 Jun 2015

Roads to the Factories: International Typewriter Day 2015

This year for International Typewriter Day I thought it would be fitting to make an internationally-themed blog post in celebration. Happy 147th birthday, first patent of Sholes!

I've chosen 43 of the most important and well-known typewriter factories around the world corresponding to typewriters I've owned (with the exception of 5) and found in my road map collection a map of the area around each of the factories from the same era as the typewriter.

Now, you won't be able to pick out the exact locations of the factories (I don't even think we know the street addresses of several of these) but you'll be able to get an idea of the landscape the factory is set in. As you may have noticed before, a surprising number of typewriter factories were located in small towns a fair distance away from main roads. (of course, rail access would have been most important).

I've placed the map and city name first, then followed by a photo of the typewriter built there around the time of the map's printing so you can play a guessing game if you like.*

Note that I am not 100% sure on a couple of these, but I have made my best guess.