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Last typewriter factory in the world shuts down
"We are not getting many orders now," Milind Dukle, Godrej and Boyce's general manager, told The Daily Mail. "From the early 2000s onwards, computers started dominating. All the manufacturers of office typewriters stopped production, except us. 'Till 2009, we used to produce 10,000 to 12,000 machines a year. But this might be the last chance for typewriter lovers. Now, our primary market is among the defence agencies, courts and government offices."
Godrej and Boyce, which has been around for about 60 years now, today shut down its last plant in Mumbai, India. For decades, the company was producing and selling tens of thousands of units annually. It the early 1990s, it was still able to sell 50,000 machines, but in 2010, less than 20 years later, that annual number dropped to fewer than 800. Now, the company has about 200 machines left, and most of those are in Arabic languages.
The typewriter is a mechanical device with keys that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on a medium, usually paper. The first commercial typewriter was produced in the US in 1867 and by the turn of the century had developed into the standardized QWERTY format keyboard that we still have on keyboards today. The device was used extensively through much of the 20th century by many authors and businessmen.
By the end of the 1980s, however, word processors and personal computers largely displaced typewriters in the settings where they previously had been ubiquitous in the Western world. The devices were still common in India until recently, however, although demand for the machines fell in the last 10 years as consumers finally switched to computers.
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User Comments (21)
Post a comment|
KG363
on April 26, 2011 2:50 PM |
I like how you described what a typewrite is. lol I think most of us can identify them |
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Lokalaskurar
on April 26, 2011 2:54 PM |
kg363 said: I like how you described what a typewrite is. lol I think most of us can identify them You know, most of my classmates at the IT-school don't even know that there are mice with balls inside! (mechanical ones) Never say never... |
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Cueto_99
on April 26, 2011 3:20 PM |
It just happen last week... My mother lost her wallet in a cab, so we inmediately went to a police station to notify the situation... I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw an old lady typing down the incident in an old typewriter... I just had to take that picture... I'll upload it later when I get home |
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dividebyzero
on April 26, 2011 3:28 PM |
Well, that makes it official...mechanical typewriters will now become the "must have" implememt of choice for any "serious" writer. I give it six months before the relative peace and quiet of public parks and cafe's is shattered by the incessant clack-clack-clack of budding Hemmingway's, Faulkner's and Steinbeck's. EDIT: WTH! The correction fluid didn't work on "implement" |
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dotVezz
on April 26, 2011 3:51 PM |
As a mechanical gadgetry nerd, this is really sad to me. My roommate has a small, classy mechanical typewriter and I've been drooling over it for a while now... this just means that it'll be harder to get my hands on one for myself. I think I remember when I was a kid, Goodwill always had good old things like this... maybe it's time to go and see if they still do. |
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Trillionsin
on April 26, 2011 3:59 PM |
Lokalaskurar said: kg363 said: I like how you described what a typewrite is. lol I think most of us can identify them You know, most of my classmates at the IT-school don't even know that there are mice with balls inside! (mechanical ones) Never say never... WHAT? MY MOUSE HAS BALLS!? SWEET! |
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Guest
on April 26, 2011 4:57 PM |
Hate to cite Gawker, but... http://gawker.com/#!5795649/relax-theyre-still-making-typewr |
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AnonymousSurfer
on April 26, 2011 5:50 PM |
As soon as you know it they will stop making pennies, which will make life easier but it will also be sad... |
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captaincranky
on April 26, 2011 5:56 PM |
Good riddance to typewriters, I say! I used to go through an entire correction ribbon, in the space of a 5 page paper....:o: |
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Timonius
on April 26, 2011 5:59 PM |
maybe now we can finally switch away from qwerty keyboards? ughh, it's probably too late |
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Lurker101
on April 26, 2011 7:09 PM |
Lokalaskurar said: You know, most of my classmates at the IT-school don't even know that there are mice with balls inside! (mechanical ones) Never say never... Just means they don't know what a pain it is to "defluff" a mouse or how sodding annoying it is to find out, mid-game, that you missed a bit of fluff on the edge of horizontal roller |
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captaincranky
on April 26, 2011 7:12 PM |
WHAT? MY MOUSE HAS BALLS!? SWEET! Well just one actually. And you know what they say, "there's nothing crazier than a one-balled mouse".........
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Lurker101
on April 26, 2011 7:13 PM |
Except maybe those atrocious, roller-ball mice |
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Guest
on April 26, 2011 8:16 PM |
I just hope the electricity holds out. D'oh, it is dark in here... |
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LinkedKube
on April 27, 2011 6:11 AM |
msnbc reported that there is still one manufacturer left, after making this same report. So don't fret! |
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mailpup
on April 27, 2011 6:15 AM |
Don't overlook the update in Emil's article about the correction. |
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Route44
on April 27, 2011 9:50 AM |
Good riddance to typewriters, I say! I used to go through an entire correction ribbon, in the space of a 5 page paper....:o: No greater truth has ever been spoken at TechSpot. And then there were those professors who didn't like the fact that you used a correction ribbon. Pristine, I tell you! Pristine! |
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Guest
on April 27, 2011 10:54 AM |
Doesn't brother still make them? A few office supply stores sell Brother typewriters. |
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Per Hansson
on April 27, 2011 11:15 AM |
maybe now we can finally switch away from qwerty keyboards? ughh, it's probably too late  Oh it's waaaay too late. I tried myself with the DVORAK layout but I spent so much time hunting for keys I gave it up a few days later. Still have my rearranged DVORAK keyboard in the closet though |
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Guest
on April 27, 2011 6:01 PM |
I don't know why but I love the clicks n clack sounds my typewriter makes... |
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Lokalaskurar
on May 12, 2011 4:22 PM |
Guest said: I don't know why but I love the clicks n clack sounds my typewriter makes... I do know why my typewriter drives me nuts - the 'krikihaki' sounds more like a hammer struck towards a wooden floor, at about 50 words per minute |
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