It was a scene straight out of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” You know, the one where they’re collecting the bodies of plague victims with the cry of “Bring out your dead,” and as one slightly moving soul is brought out, the “victim” whimpers, “I’m not dead yet.” It’s rather funny, albeit in a somewhat juvenile way.
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Not as juvenile, but perhaps as funny or ironic, depending upon your perspective, was a report in Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper that “the world’s last typewriter factory” was shutting down.
According to the article, “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.”
While the firm may or may not end its manufacturing, the Atlantic Wire was among those outlets reporting typewriters still were being manufactured in many parts of the world, citing a detailed entry at the Minyanville website. Swintec, a firm with an office in New Jersey, has plenty of different kinds of typewriters, including clear plastic models that can be used in prisons. Why clear? No contraband can be smuggled in.
Bottom line: The typewriter isn’t dead yet. If you want an old manual, Hammacher Schlemmer, the famous New York firm, offers a nice one here, for less than one-third the price of the most humble iPad 2.
