I like collecting antiques, books, and oddities. I bought one at an auction and resold immediately to another buyer at the same auction, about 15 years ago.
"I'm not sure I've ever used one" ... but my Aunt used to take me to Kelsey-Jenny College and while she studied, I watched thirty women typing between 80-120 wpm on manual typewriters. It was amazing!!
I still have the one that my father bought for my mother when I was a child. I used to type letters for my grandfather (torture---since I could only "hunt and peck" and frequently had to start over). My father asked me if i wanted to learn how to type. I said, "yes;" and he sent me to business school in the summer before 8th grade. I graduated at the required 30 words per minute. Later, in enior year in high school, I studied English grammar and literature. It was a private school, and the teacher decided to do literature first (his passion) and do the grammar in the second session. He found out later that the Southern Provice would have a test after the first semester that would include both literature and grammar. So we had to compress grammar exercises considerably.
The grammar was about having one paragraph with mixed sentences and re-writing it with the topic sentence first and then rearranging the other sentences to produce a proper paragraph.
I went from 30 words per minute to 90 words per minute by the graduation. I was finishing my homework in 1 hour when the other guys using cursive were taking 5 hours.
Anyway, I haven't used one since college. (I would type termpapers for other students.) I started typing on a computer when "Word" came out---nevere used "Works."
And I've only answered questions on the internet for about 6 years.
I last used an electric typewriter a couple of years ago, but when we moved into our new offices, they sold them off. They were very useful for filling out forms, but now you can turn that form into a document on your computer and type in what you need to.
I've got an IBM Selectric III in the office (and about a dozen type balls) to go with it, but I haven't turned it on in years. Probably needs a really good cleaning before it will work properly at this point.
Also have a Hammond Multiplex, complete with wooden case in the garage. Staples doesn't seem to stock supplies for that one for some reason?
