I miss typewriters. \u00a0My high school graduation present was a portable manual typewriter, which I used until long after I got my first computer.<\/p>\n
But I miss them only in the most perverse, sentimental sense. I hated shopping for typewriter ribbons; I hated white-out and correction tape. \u00a0But in my day, I could type 70 words per minute on a Selectric, and not much less on my manual. \u00a0I even had a collectible one, once – something I picked up at a rummage sale that dated back to the thirties.<\/p>\n
But the era of the typewriter is officially over; the world’s last typewriter factory just closed<\/a>:<\/p>\n It’s an invention that revolutionised the way we work, becoming an essential piece of office equipment for the best part of a century.<\/p>\n But after years of sterling service, that bane for secretaries has reached the end of the line.<\/p>\n Godrej and Boyce – the last company left in the world that was still manufacturing typewriters – has shut down its production plant in Mumbai, India with just a few hundred machines left in stock.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Most of them were built for – I think this is hilarious – government.<\/p>\n