The Phoenix Typewriter
The plan is simple, fairy tale simple. But it will take enormous amounts of time, effort, expertise and, above all, money to realize it.
I read in Wired about a really cool bicycle constructed from bamboo. And you see ads for the best mechanical watches in glossy magazines. Famous guitar players order their custom made guitars.
An object made with mechanical finesse, expert craftsmanship and style is a luxury item nowadays. Especially if it transcends industrial norms and acquires that extra class that an artisan can give. The ultimate combination is that of classical craftsmanship and knowledge of the best that contemporary technology and materials can provide.
So where is the portable typewriter of the 21st century, designed and built in that spirit?
A contemporary design, learning from the best engineering of the twentieth century in this field (Olivetti, Royal, Alpina, Smith-Corona, Hermes, Olympia), but combining it with the newest materials and techniques.
Something looking even better than a MacPro. With polished glass keys. It is a typewriter, using paper sheets, but it can send a completed text file to a computer, wirelessly. There is a carrying case so stylish snobs line up to buy it, no matter what’s inside.
One of the highest feats of precision mechanics from the previous century will rise from its ashes. That’s the reason I chose the name Phoenix for this project. The reference to the mythical fire bird provides inspiration for the designer of the logo and the advertising.
This brings me to a problematic aspect of the plan. The highest levels of quality are usually only reached thanks to the outrageous prices snobs are willing to pay. Think of Patek Philippe watches or Mont Blanc Meisterstück fountain pens. They are icons of status and wealth. I’m afraid something similar is needed to earn back the astronomical costs that have to be made to develop a contemporary Phoenix Typewriter, designed to surpass all previous portable typewriters in style and technology.
Specifications:
A medium sized manual typewriter.
An international keyboard.
Light weight and sturdy.
No correction facility.
A simple tabulator.
Effective touch control to ensure fast and easy action of the keys.
A font especially designed for the Phoenix.
Proportional spacing (like the Olivetti Graphika built in 1957) so the Phoenix can produce a typoscript that competes with the printed page.
I wrote that the Phoenix should be able to send a completed text file to a phone or computer through a wireless connection. Controlled by a remote. Wouldn’t it be better to stick to a hard core analog design and force users to scan the typed page to make it digital?
Well, I think the whole point of the Phoenix is to actually use it and make it a part of everyday life. Without sacrificing the look or the actual practice and feel of using it, it should therefore be possible and easy to move the produced typoscript, as a jpeg, in the original font, errors and all, to a computer or phone. That way the Phoenix can be a truely transdigital typewriter, a piece of writing technology that plays its own, authentic, free role in digital culture.
[...] Link to English translation [...]
Pingback by Dirk van Weelden » THE PHOENIX TYPEWRITER — June 9, 2009 @ 10:13 pm
That concept,though without the high end materials and styling, was already tried – its the ‘electronic typewriter’ and though the output was a digital text file, it was the logical result of the development of the electric typewriter. The Canon S-68 and the Canon Typestar series are good examples, and Brother still sells them. Even if you provide jpeg output instead of just digital text file output, you still have the equivalent of a casio digital watch – and no matter how you doll it up, its still just a digital watch. Note that a patek phillipe is a handmade mechanical watch, with no digital features – its not a digital watch in a fancy case. (Casio already makes digital watches in fancy cases, but they don’t sell for Patek Phillipe prices, nor do they have the Patek Phillipe cachet…) Now, certain modern digital gadgets DO lend themselves to snobbish fashion, – eg Cell phones, but typewriters? Not so sure…
Comment by SteveL — June 17, 2009 @ 3:05 pm
What a beautiful dream …. I would love to see a new manual typewriter with the style of a Voss, the snap and segment shift of an Olympia SM9, and yes, some digital capability. There is a pretty simple way to make any typewriter create digital output: attach rods to the type levers that activate the keys of a keyboard placed under the typewriter, as shown in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYYUXXhrOas
You could also put an AlphaSmart keyboard-sized word processor under such a typewriter and take it on the road. But if there were a built-in AlphaSmart-like capability in the typewriter, I think that would be even better.
You want the Phoenix typewriter to have proportional characters. Of course, that adds a whole new dimension of complexity. But it would be neat. I can’t think of a proportional portable typewriter, unless you count the 1881 Hamilton Automatic.
China probably would be the place to do such a project, but anywhere you did it, the initial investment in tooling for a new design would be huge. The tooling for Brother-based portables is what China has. Probably the most realistic idea would be to design a cool new skin for the existing Brother mechanism — some sleek, metallic shape. Even that is a long shot.
If a whole new typewriter factory were to be built from scratch, I would also suggest making … a Crandall!
Richard
Comment by Richard Polt — June 17, 2009 @ 4:04 pm
I also had this vision of building a new sleek yet still manual typewriter. It seems the art of the old vintage typewriter action holds something very visceral and real that digital doesn’t reproduce. I’d be very interested in seeing any kind of development on your project. Good luck.
Comment by Ramon — October 13, 2009 @ 11:16 pm