Typewriter Correction Methods: Pt2 Manually Correcting

[@TechTangents]

Since I've made this video I've tried using the eraser on some higher quality paper and found it doesn't wear through anywhere near as much. It was actually quite nice to use on the better paper. So the standard printer paper I'm using here was part of the problem.

[@thevintageman13]

AkBKukU I have the tab set and on off switch for a selectric I can mail you

[@TechTangents]

That would be awesome! You can email me at [e-mail] for the PO Box address.

[@jrmcferren]

This is my experience as well, especially on my manual with the cotton ribbon which really gets the ink dark and deep into the paper. Upgrading to 24lb paper (which is what I use in my printer, I use my found old 20lb stock in my typewriters now), will allow for better erasing.

[@furrymessiah]

I know that I'm exceedingly late to the party, but you can rejuvenate that hard rubber wheel eraser by using silicone spray and letting it soak in a storage bag for a few days. Alternatively, you can do the same thing with Methyl Salicylate, AKA Oil of Wintergreen.

[@kencur9690]

Hah, I was just about to comment on that. Yup, paper quality is something most people ignore, an archaic art in itself. That’s what choosing paper has become: just pick whatever man, it’s all the same. Well, it clearly isn’t.

[@lealcy]

You forgot a meaning of correction generally used on official documents. When you type a legal document and you mistake a word, you have to leave it there and complement it with ", I mean," and then type the correct one, like in the sentence: "the supect, I mean, suspect". I had seen that a lot.

[@erikgstewart]

You forgot the method I remember my father used in the 70's. Step one: Sigh. Step two: Pull the paper out in a rapid manner. Step three: Insert new paper and start all over. Correction (haha): wrote the above comment around the 20:00-mark. Glad you mentioned it at the very end!

[@mushroomsamba82]

Wow, back then being an accurate typist must have been a much more valued skill compared to today, considering how difficult it was to make corrections.

[@howard81]

I have found going back to using a typewriter again has made me a much better typist for this very reason! Plus my IBM Selectric is probably the best thing I have ever typed on.

[@Agamemnon2]

Oh yes, typing was a vital skill, especially for young people in secretarial positions. Businessmen, lawyers, politicians and the like often couldn't type themselves, or at least to do so very well, so they'd dictate documents for someone else to type.

[@eduardoavila646]

I actually think that the old typing courses (i really dont know if that was a thing in the us nor if its the correct name, we call it here "datilografia") should comeback even without the old typewriters. Usually this was tought at school, and everyone i know that made them, type really fast without even thinking into looking to the keryboard. I am a living proof of that, not only i do many typos, but i actually need sometimes to do a fast look into my keyboard, as i dont know preciselly the position of the letters.

[@rileysimmons9886]

​@Eduardo Avila bit of a late response, but yes, we did (and still do, I think) have such courses here. I learned to type on a computer keyboard in middle school (mid-late 2000s). I'd imagine I was one of the earlier classes to be learning so young, then. Definitely a skill that's proven invaluable.

[@jakublulek3261]

There were schools and courses for it.

[@waltherstolzing9719]

Up until April 1994, I had to type my term papers on my grandfather's Smith Corona, make carbon copies, etc. Then I got my first PC. ... I feel old now.

[@mercuryoak2]

I remember my mom having and my grandfather had the carbon copy paper. He had Royal typewriters one was huge it was very upright well oiled

[@lifehackertips]

Oh wow that is old. Even we had a Apple IIe in the 80s

[@Rodville]

The erasable bond paper was never meant to be the finished solution. You would type the letter correcting for any mistakes and when you were happy with the wording you would xerox it, then sign and mail the xerox copy. You would then file the original so you could refer back to it at a later date if need be. The same was true for the White Out as well.

[@BBC600]

Rodville That makes more sense but wouldn’t photocopying back then be super expensive?

[@lifehackertips]

@@BBC600 there was no other way. Mistakes will always happen, but you can’t send out a document with mistakes on it.

[@BBC600]

@@lifehackertips I'm just used to the concept of: "And if you make a mistake you gotta do it again." (Zoom circa 1970's) So this methodology surprised me.

[@Kannamoris]

My grandmother always used a Dutch version of the erasable bond typing paper, but never for typing. She loved making little clothes for dolls and used a fountain pen to draw designs on the typing paper. Once she was happy with the design she pressed it up against a piece of cloth and it effortlessly transferred over. Any mistakes that were made could easily be fixed with a stiffer, grey pencil eraser.

[@LaskyLabs]

11:40 I totally heard your cat

[@ToTheGAMES]

haha yep!

[@theretrospector4926]

I did as well. Thought it was my one and stopped the video :)

[@colinstu]

Great videos. Half way through I was thinking you should demo a mimeograph! sure enough you mention it later on, but still it'd be cool to see it used hands on. Plus you'd get to experience the joys of the smells of the chemicals used with one...

[@BBC600]

Colin Stuart Mimeographs.... that’s kids stuff! Hectographs are where it’s at! ;-)

[@lifehackertips]

10:00 thank you so much for showing how correction strips worked. You are the only video on KZbin that demonstrates this. My child asked what a typewriter was and when I explain it he asked how do you “delete” mistakes. I found this video so he could see how it was done. He said it’s much easier on computers, you just press backspace 😂

[@boxman139]

You rock that Tommy Wiseau look, dude. Love it! In all seriousness, I love your videos. The production level is always quite high, and you always provide interesting viewpoints of seemingly mundane topics/items. I really hope this channel gets more popular, because you deserve lots more views. Keep up the good work, AkBKukU!

[@LWBII00]

Really enjoyed the video. You’ve definitely earned a new subscriber. In the 90s we had a small roll of white tape that you could use to cover a letter, word, or whole lines. It was very similar to white out correction tape that’s available today, but it was a thin, white, sticky strip that you tore off from the roll. I hope I’m describing that clearly. Worked well, but you could always just peel the strip off the paper if you wanted to see the mistake.

[@miriamcareybrown22]

I still use that stuff. I don't like to waste paper or envelopes. It is fun to erase things with it.

[@MLX1401]

@@miriamcareybrown22 Me too! I have adhd and make a lot of dumb writing errors...used to waste soooo many envelopes until I found out you can still buy this fantastic masking tape :D

[@IRNatman]

Oh my god how we take the backspace key for granted... Great video!

[@oxentielreadman]

In México exist something called Drunken eraser o "Goma Borracha". it's made by Faber-Castell. It's a bright yellow pencil and works basically like the rounded eraser in the video. It's still very popular because in public administration stills using typewriters for EVERYTHING. Please more typewriter videos :-)

[@guarionex1961]

I'm a retired teacher. In my school we had several mimeograph machines and alcohol duplicators. They were very practical. Greetings, I'm a new subscriber!!! 😀

[@boxman139]

The white-out method is what my mom used when she was in college in the 80s. Up until her friend got a computer for the low, low price of ~$2,000. At that point, my mom's friend let her use the computer for word processing.

[@SkyCharger001]

some professional typewriters had ignore-letter and ignore-word glyphs among their typesetting/layout glyphs (that told the typesetter how the final document was intended to be laid out) that could be suffixed to the error. they also had a memo-for-typesetter glyph (or that as the sole typesetting/layout glyph with the semi-professional models) that could be used to tell the typesetter what raw page the corrected text can be found on.

[@harshlands]

Back when I was a senior in highschool we had this useless class called "Drafting", which would soon be relegated obsolete by some thing called CAD, and in a small room next door we had a 6-ft wide loud, hot, "ditto" machine (newer version than the handcranked one you showed) that automatically ran off those purple copies on a big drum type mechanism in a grey plastic housing. Man did the fluid for the machine get people sorta high from sniffing it, especially if you were in the little room while it was running and deliberately breathing it in, LOL. It did have a rather pleasant chemical scent though, which I've since learned was CFC-11 or triclorofluromethane and not the greatest stuff to be breathing but hey, the 80's.

[@junemiller2343]

Wow! What a walk down memory lane for me; while I have a couple of manual typewriters, the clack-clack of your IBM Selectric was true music to my ears. I worked in the Purchasing Department typing pool at UConn / Storrs in the 1970's and would *love* to talk to you about how we corrected 7 pages of multi-colored purchase orders *including using multi-colored White-out!* I'm still hoping to get an IBM Selectric such as yours, which I suppose would be for me the 'holy grail'. Anyway, thanks for having such a wonderful collection of all things typing - what a delight!

[@vwestlife]

Erasable bond paper was often called "onion skin" paper because it was thin, yellowish, and slightly transparent. And another form of correction that was considered acceptable for drafts and informal correspendence was to simply strike out (type over) the mistake with / or - characters and then put the corrected text above or following it.

[@thomprobus777]

Back in the early 80s when I was in high school the erasable bond paper was my go to for ensuring clean corrections. You are correct in your conjecture that the age is an issue with the paper you used. When that paper it was new, the eraser would’ve literally wiped the ink off of it. Interestingly, if someone had actually typed on erasable bond paper back in 1980, and you attempted to erase it today, your eraser would not work. I believe I remember instances where the ink would smear ever so slightly, particularly when using a typewriter using old style fabric ribbons. The carbon film ribbons did not have that issue so much.

[@gemista]

Coming from a typewriter repairman, do not use liquid white-out on the paper when in your typewriter. Any stray drops will gunk up the mechanism. The only two methods for erasure I have found to work without a hitch are correction tape and the Tombow Mono sand eraser. Beware of using erasers, though. They can leave eraser shavings inside your typewriter and cause a failure.

[@rivards1]

That disk ink eraser looks like it's hard as a rock. More common, although maybe later, was a "pencil" version of the ink eraser, with a rubber core instead of graphite. You sharpened it like a pencil, and could get pretty fine control with the rubbery point. It certainly wasn't as destructive. On the other end, where a normal pencil had an eraser, the ink-eraser pencil had a brush to remove all the crumbles.

[@JeFi2]

These videos remind me of the time when I played around with my moms old typewriters as a kid. Very fascinating stuff.

[@kaitlyn__L]

I'm finding all these typewriter videos really fascinating by the way. Followed for electrical engineering, but really enjoying these (electro-)mechanical videos, in some ways even more since it's scripted and smooth and pleasing. Also it's kind of funny that TippEx was mostly used for typewriters.. I only ever saw it with biro pens in school, whose high-friction tips just shredded it where a fountain pen likely wouldn't have if left to dry properly. Why did our parents keep buying it for our pencil cases?

[@BambiLoo]

Thanks for the video! Started typing on my Mom's Smith Corona manual typewriter in 1957. Just found my old Hermes 3000 and am using it for the first time after 40 years. Forgot how to correct until this video.

[@MatthewBarras]

In the 70s in school everyone would love to sniff test papers fresh off the mimeograph.

[@user-xu1tk6zx7r]

That is so true back in the days👍

[@rexjolles]

For some reason it's hard for me to imagine someone over the age of 12 having a pepe pfp

[@laur-unstagenameactuallyca1587]

@@rexjolles hahaaha it threw me off

[@SMWBraden]

I love your IBM Executive what a great machine! I used erasable paper a lot in college in the mid 1970s and it was not much better than what you showed. I used a pencil eraser and it seemed to come off pretty well but there was always a shadow of the corrected letter underneath. I also loved the correcting tabs. I used them the most and when I started typing again I sought them out on eBay. I don't think they make them anymore but they were the best correcting method I tought.

[@eduardoavila646]

I've used well sharpened scisors (or and sort or sharp blade) to "sand down" paper and correct typos just like that in the past, in fact i got better results than that hard ereaser, of course, with some practice. But it wouldn't work that well in too thin paper or paper that got wet and then dried down. Edit: Remembered another method i used, i would get a dropplet of water in the right proportion and gently rub out with my finger, actually removing the first layer of the paper and ereasing it, but that was really not realiable and i just stopped using it after i started using scisors. I still remember typing in the olivetti typewriter and actually sometimes jamming the hammers in there, it felt great! I wish keyboards could be typed with the same amout of force.

[@jamiewebster2248]

Really enjoyed listening and watching your demos. Takes me back❤

[@carslayer]

Love this series, great to see such a wide variety of methods! And the new space for the 'talking head' segments looks good as well.

[@thedungeondelver]

@8:30 - to everything, kern, kern, kern, there is erasing kern, kern, kern

[@Fuzy2K]

iii mmm Henry the Eighth, iii mmm...

[@miriamcareybrown22]

That was fascinating! I wanted a quick video to show my kids how I learned to type on a typewriter. I ended up watching the whole thing. I never watch videos that are longer than five minutes. This video is an archealogical treasure! I was specifically looking to show my kids how annoying it was when you had to take the paper out to fix mistakes and then realign it perfectly. "Back in my day kids...." Maybe I always did it wrong. Did anyone else have that problem? I got a C in my eighth grade typing class so I admit that I was not a professional typist. I would not have gotten a job as a secretary (although I am rather well endowed...). You may have noticed that I can still not kick the habit of putting two spaces after a period.

[@mikeyX101]

Love these videos, keep it up! Btw, KITTY 11:36

[@staticfanatic]

it's been said, but it's such a joy seeing you on camera. you're a natural.

[@CoachOta]

As a kid, my family had a manual Brother typewriter in a very 60s / 70s ochre color. Even though it had a two-color, cloth ribbon, we left the black & red one in the typewriter and used the white correcting tabs to fix mistakes. I remember it being more of a sticky powder on the plastic tabs than an ink. It worked well, though sometimes you'd need to strike the character a couple of times for complete coverage. We kept using the typewriter even after getting a dot matrix printer since it was easy to do envelopes with it and sometimes we wanted "letter quality" printing, to use special paper or to type on forms. Later we got an electric Brother unit which had the plastic ribbons that correct by lifting off the transfer, as shown in the part 1 video. While we moved on to a laser printer for most of our paper copy needs, the electric Brother was still used for envelopes and some forms. I think that typewriter is still at my parents' house but probably hasn't been turned on in 30 years or more. Maybe I should see if it still works... so many childhood memories from these two videos!

[@jrmcferren]

I'm also a typewriter enthusiast and I want to note a few things. First, you always move the carriage to the extreme to erase. This keeps the dust out of the typewriter as much as possible. Secondly, I think correction fluid was originally intended for typewriters as it was developed in the 1950s. Information on that is here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correction_fluid I also have a few notes on carbon copies. First, while that eraser shield is nice, a common method used in WWII was to place paper between carbon and copy to take the smudges from erasing and to correct from bottom copy up. Correcting carbons is also easier than correcting the original as a pencil eraser is to be used. As far as other methods for correcting carbons, there were special carbon copy versions of Ko-Rec-Type strips that would be inserted between the carbon paper and the error along with a regular strip between the ribbon and the original (or use automatic correction on a machine that had it). The downside is you had to roll up to insert the carbon copy ones between the copies, roll back down to type the error, roll back up remove the strips, roll back down and type the correction. Lastly, of all the correction methods shown, they still make typewriter erasers in a different style, correction fluid business is growing (the foam brush makes typewriter corrections easier), and while you didn't cover it, correction tape is a contemporary (but more difficult IMHO) substitute for correction fluid.

[@Otakunopodcast]

Aaah, thanks for the trip down memory lane (both this video and your previous video on typewriters.) I actually used to own both of the Smith-Corona typewriters you show (both the electric and the manual one) only in my case my electric SC machine was a large-type unit. And yeah I remember correction fluid, aka Liquid Paper™. I remember it well. My typewriters back in the day also had a ton of white blotches on them because I never allowed enough time for it to dry either. Never heard of ink eradicator or erasable bond typing paper tho. Once I found out about correction tabs, they were my preferred method of correcting, right up until the time I finally ditched the typewriter and switched to computers and word processing. (I think I even used the exact same Ko-Rec-Type™ tape as you did - that little plastic case looks VERY familiar.) I'm also really surprised that the old rubber eraser worked AT ALL -- I thought rubber that old would have turned to a gummy nasty mess by now. And OMG that mimeograph machine. My grade school had one of those. I remember that unique sort of faded blue ink well. I hated it with a fiery passion. It made reading class handouts extremely difficult, and in fact some of them were almost completely illegible.

[@Madness832]

It was 1989, & I wrote what would be my first fanfiction (although I had idea what to call it at the time), after watching the Ed Grimley cartoons. Didn't have a computer, so I used my dad's manual typewriter. Can't remember if it was a Royal or a Smith-Corona, but I do remember that the case (& cover) were baby-blue! Oh, and I had to use a bottle of Wite-out!

[@Starry_Night_Sky7455]

🤯 I can't imagine doing this. Life without backspace, undo, delete, cut and paste. Ha! I looked this up after finding a tiny box of Type-Fix Correction Tabs inside the back of an old cherry stained wood desk. I was not sure what they were so I searched it online.

[@MLX1401]

What a great idea for a video! Well presented, too :) And look at that beautiful IBM Executive!!! I have an red Selectric type one - but she is kinda retired now after years of heavy, heavy use at the Shell Oil HQ (Helsinki, FIN). Wish I had found your channel earlier...office machinery is so fascinating

[@KeritechElectronics]

Interesting pair of videos, I discovered them only now when doing some research on the IBM Wheelwriter; got a run-down 6746 on my bench, in for some recombobulation. I also own a Selectric III and that one's gonna take a lot of work. IBM Executive's proportional width unit system is kinda like the one underpinning in the Monotype typesetting system, only a bit simpler. That one was fine-grained, with 5...18 units, sometimes slightly more, depending on the typeface. One unit would be defined as 1/18 of set width, which depended on the typeface and size. Whe typesetting, the Monotype composing machine (a.k.a. keyboard) would automatically subtract the character's unit width from the pre-set line length in units, and nearing the end of the line, the compositor would break it and use the justifying scale to determine the width of spaces, then enter the values, and the casting machine would start a new line with pre-set space width. Monotype had the unit system from the get go whereas Linotype adopted it only when launching teletypesetting machines, which happened due to the demand for splitting the typesetting and casting processes.

[@DanOConnorTech]

I remember hearing somewhere that the inventor of Wite-Out was The Monkeys guitarist Michael Nesmith's mother.

[@rjhelms]

It's true! Wite-Out was actually a later competitor, the product she invented was what eventually became the "Liquid Paper" brand. The story goes that she was working as a secretary and also had some painting experience, so decided to try painting over mistakes rather than trying to erase them. Not only did she invent it, but founded a company to make it, & owned it for some 20+ years before selling it for a small fortune to Gillette.

[@Christopher-N]

@@rjhelms: Thank you, I had forgotten about the _Liquid Paper_ brand. A brief Google Image search showed the bottle I remember, black and white like a tuxedo. We also had _Wite-Out,_ but I can't remember when we had each, if at some point we had both, or why we stopped buying _Liquid Paper_ (brand availability, brand recognition, quality retention when aged, etc).

[@daviddavidsonn3578]

should have typed "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" at the end.

[@eduardoavila646]

Lol i was looking for that comment!

[@Ybalrid]

Not sure this was pointed out since then, but "ink eradicator" is meant to work with specific ink with fountain pens (generally called "washable" blue? surely "erasable" blue. I'm from France, I am unsure how you called that in the US) There is some sort of redox reaction with the blue dye that make it transparent, You then need to let that dry and write over with *another kind* of ink. When I was in school, we had eradicator pens that had 2 ends, one with the corrective fluid that was under a white cap, and one that was a fine pointed felt marker of some kind, under a blue cap.

[@mortarmopp3919]

Like many of your videos, this was a trip down memory lane. Except for the Ink Irradiator, I've used every form of correction and copying you covered at one time or another. And yeah, gotta love those correction strips.

[@BokBarber]

Since the correction tabs aren't too wisely available, my favorite go-to for these types of machines is a white out pen. It's easier to just get the letter you want, and it puts less paint on the page so it dries faster.

[@jamesdecross1035]

The abrasion technique used to be common on tracing-paper used to make blue-print drawings. It maintained the transparency.

[@askhowiknow5527]

That stuff worked more like document annihilator than ink eradicator

[@rexjolles]

Ah I see another Archie McPhee mask person

[@BenVaserlan]

14:34 My Daro Erika has a stencil mode where the ribbon doesn't lift and the hammer just hits the paper. It was designed to work with thin paper where the letter on the hammer would make a hole in the paper in the shape of that letter thus a stencil would be created and then that stencil was used to create copies.

[@rolaroli]

I remember one other type of whiteout. Instead of a fluid it was more like a tape that you just stuck on top of the mistake. That was way faster because it didn’t have to dry. And it looked better than the fluid as well.

[@villipend]

Back in the 1980's, how I used erasable bond paper was to type out my document on it then photocopy it. This method would give results almost equivalent to a modern laser printed document!

[@Christopher-N]

The _Ink Eradicator_ reminds me of acetone, but with other ingredients. At home we had _Wite-Out_ / _Liquid Paper,_ but with its problems, we used it very sparingly. Used even more sparingly because of how little of it we had, was something similar to _Wite-Out_ tape, except it came in sheets, very similar to your correction tabs (6:30), but with a wax paper-like backing. (16:26) "Hello world," but old school to the PC. :P It's quite possible that our _Wite-Out_ -like sheets were actually much larger, but cut at home down to the size of a _Post-it_ note to fit in the typewriter. It's been so long since I've used mother's typewriter, that I have no idea whether they came in _Post-it_ note size, or a larger size that we had cut down.

[@sjn7220]

I'm only(?) 47 and remember all of this. In grade school my mom typed out all my reports on an old manual typewriter (had a black and red ribbon, came in a brown hard case and was portable, wish I remembered the brand). Learned to type on a manual then electric IBM typewriter. Finally got a word processing typewriter in 10th grade (Panasonic) and then an Apple IIe (knockoff Laser128) in 11th grade. Couldn't tell you how many times I or someone else I witnessed put the carbon paper in backwards and made a backwards duplicate on the reverse side.

[@Doellimann]

You missed one method: There is a kind of correction ribbon with white ink in a dispenser wich applies is directly to the paver by pulling the ribbon over a sharp plastic edge... I sonnt know how they’re called in English but in Germany it’s “Korrekturmaus” (correction mouse) or „Korekturroller“ (correction rollers). They’re pretty similar to the correction sheets but on a long ribbon stored inside the dispenser. I’ve actually never used them on typewriters but can imagine they’re could be problematic due to the curved surface of the drum.

[@VintageTech1]

There is yet another type of correcting method. The name is in capitals NATIONAL'S "ALL SERVICE" ERAS-cil No. 81 This correction eraser pencil works exactly the same as your old round eraser with a brush where a eraser nub would go on a pencil. There are still similar era-cil models with and minus the brush. I read the core is made out of vinyl but i am not sure. The eras-cil does wares off the top layer of the paper and turns it white yellow as well. I greatly enjoy your Video's AkBukU and wish you a wonderful day.

[@chrfit1]

I now feel prepared to enter the typing pool, thank you AkBKukU :)

[@urdnal]

Man I remember most of these from my school's office back in the late 80s. Hell even you look like you're straight out of the late 80s.

[@dant5464]

At school in the 90s we had pens (still available now) which had two ends, one was blue ink and the other had a thin marker pen style tip. This end would chemically react with the blue ink and make it almost vanish (it became very pale yellow). This also worked with most dark blue fountain pen inks. I suspect the eraser end may have been chemically similar to the Ink Eradicator, except this only worked on blue.

[@vylbird8014]

The eraser end in those is sodium sulfite. If you buy a bottle of the stuff from eBay you can use it to get fountain pen ink stains out of anything. Biros use a different ink though, it only makes those fade a bit.

[@HelloKittyFanMan.]

This was really pretty thorough, as far as I know! Nice job (other than the errors I mentioned vvv)!

[@thomprobus777]

Regarding your carbon paper test on the IBM executive typewriter: I don’t recall ever using the copy control lever. In fact, using that device invariably made characters “disappear” from the page. Also, I suspect that the ribbon in your machine is not threaded correctly through the ribbon carrier. That would explain why the ribbon jumps up but won’t just send at times

[@NicoDsSBCs]

I truly loved this video. And I almost didn't click on it. Thank you. Verry well done.

[@howard81]

You know the dual colour erasers - white one end and either red or blue on the other? Those would have the same effect as the hardened round one you used. That’s what I used to use back in the day, but you couldn’t use it on cheap paper! Printer paper is pretty thin - grab some nice thick linen paper and try it on that. Excellent video as usual :)

[@dattallaudiophile236]

I love that IBM typewriter tank.

[@fulkthered]

what about correction tape?like white out fluid but in tape form.It's not good at correcting nor good for tape.

[@JakonDeluxe]

This is some quality contend. Keep it up.

[@mkeysmith4027]

hello I have a black and white ribbon and for some reason I can't get kit to work properly-- it won't erase so can you please demonstrate or comment back to tell me what i'm doing wrong ifr anything can be done differently I have no idea but I really need help

[@LaskyLabs]

My mum remembered the ditto machine and the mimograph. It printed everything in purple. She had some papers that were printed with one.

[@waltherstolzing9719]

Our school had a mimeograph -- which I only ever caught a glimpse of through the crack of the door, because it was located in a top secret room where they kept all the exam sheets.

[@jankowalski451]

You forgot about the method that uses a razor. When you make a mistake you have to type normal letter over the wrong one and with a razor you can delete the rests of wrong letter. You can do it after you finished typing and the paper is removed from the typewriter. This was one of the most common used method in Eastern Europe. And if you know how to do it it is quite hard to see that there was a mistake.

[@Jimbaloidatron]

Strike through and just take the flack!

[@reggiebenes2916]

Those wheel erasers didn't work any better when they were new, in fact you did about as well as I've seen it usually just wore a hole through the paper. I guess really thick paper would help. We always used the the correction tabs and I remember the typewriters we had in school having an erase key that was just a block so you didn't have to be so precise to blot the letter out. Great Video brought back some cool but frustrating memories.

[@garthhowe297]

Well, aren't you prepared for the zombie apocalypse... everyone will be sorry they laughed at the guy with typewriters. Man, I remember having to type (and correct) papers for high school and university...

[@TakeMeOffYourMailingList]

Most of these are electric typewriters anyway...

[@HelloKittyFanMan.]

Well, that correction fluid really isn't Wite Out. And then there are other brands as well, one being Liquid Paper. So just the term "correction fluid" covers all the liquid ones.

[@MezzoForteAural]

Two types of correction that I did not see in the video. One way is to leave the mistake then use whiteout, once dry use a pen to write the correct letter/word. This was more common than you would think. Another type of correction is to type the correct letter over the wrong letter. Depends on the letters involved if it would work very well. If you typed i but meant to type t it would look okish but an x and o would be a bit of a mess. Something I also saw plenty of was just leaving the mistake. Depending on what the mistake is and the level of "professional" needed, a typo might just been seen as a non issue.

[@BilisNegra]

I'm wondering how many people using computers in general, or even in this comment section, actually know how to type properly. Not me, to be sure. The price of a typo back in those days was measured almost in blood, sweat and tears. After watching this it feels like we're actually cheating. And that's true even if we consider spelling only. If you wanted to rephrase a sentence, well, you just couldn't, for obvious reasons. I just used a mechanical typewriter for serious stuff a couple of times when really young, and I guess I wrote the damn thing by hand as a sketch first before typing it. As a matter of fact, I kept doing that for a while in my early days of writing papers on a PC because, well, it's true I could now edit whatever I wanted, but I didn't own a laptop to carry with me, so, for some time, I kept hand writing sketches at the library and then typing them on the desktop PC (the only one we had in the family) when I got home.

[@lucasbarletta2986]

Do you still have the IBM Model B? I’ve been looking one with a Spanish keyboard for a while ( I speak Spanish ).

[@phantom3rdchannel]

somewhere i have a whole box of typewriter pencils which are a special eraser in a pencil with a brush on the end so you wouldn't have to move the paper up and you could do a more pin point erasing.

[@HelloKittyFanMan.]

Haha, you showed us eraser 2 as if you had never shown us eraser 1: "an _eraser_ "!

[@zaprodk]

You didn't cover the typewriters that carry the small black yellow spools with correction tape?

[@TechTangents]

I covered typewriters that have the spools of cover up and lift off tape in pt1 of this series: kzbin.info/www/bejne/h3a1l5dteZWZn5I

[@frogz]

@@TechTangents i thought the same, kept waiting for correcting lift off tape

[@theirisheditor]

I remember the lift off ribbons from the electric typewriters at second level school. One thing I recall is that that the lift off tape only worked with the single-use film ribbon. With text typed from an ink ribbon, it didn't lift the letter. My mother who used to type triplicate with carbon paper said she used correction slips, one in-between each sheet. Her type writer was a fully manual type writer (no electric parts) and had she had to strike the key with plenty of force for the correction slips to work on the three layers. The main issue she ran into is that if she made several mistakes on a page, the three pages would often slip out of alignment when feeding the pages up/down to insert/remove the correction slips.

[@BenVaserlan]

Better to use Tipp-Ex correction tape for manual correction. One doesn't have to wait for it to dry and it looks better that white-out which is what Tipp-Ex was famous for in England at least.

[@jonathancortizo9098]

Really helpful and well made, thank you!

[@nativetexan1863]

I can't help but notice the Simpson 260 multimeter on the shelf. It's yet another ultra-rugged piece of test equipment intended to keep on delivering the goods under extreme work conditions. I wish I had one for nostaligia reasons, as I'd rather have that than the fancy Fluke's provided by my employer. Analog meters can reveal fluctuations on a circuit no digital meter can correctly identify. The Simpsons had become so expensive the last time I looked I'll just keep my money in the bank and keep wishing. I've never used a meter I like better than the Simpson 260, (and Techtronix tube-type oscilloscopes/space heater.)

[@mercuryoak2]

When you said they had the black and red and then black and correction side. Not sure if they made one with all 3 because mine has a setting for all 3 colors. Not sure if you seen my comment on part 1. I have a video of it if anyone cares to look . It's a Royal. Apollo 10. From 1960s

[@raz-sensei]

Well, the way I remember erasing being done when using copying paper (as we called it back in the 80's) wasn't really erasing per se 😄 What people would do is just go back to the mistake and slap a bunch of x's over the entire mistyped word, then continue typing after that, pretending it didn't happen 😅 Edit: Oh you've actually shown that as well. Haha, my bad 😂

[@confusedkemono]

In Bulgaria we called the carbon copy sheets "indigo". My mother brought me tons of them from her work place.

[@TheInternetLord]

11:38, aww poor kitty wants some attention.

[@lucasbarletta2986]

Where did you get your model B? It seems to have a Spanish letter on the keyboard.

[@MandrakeFernflower]

The ink eradicator I think is a reducing agent maybe sodium thiosulfate

[@MakarovFox]

11:40 cat approves this

[@Fuzy2K]

0:37 -- Hey, that's the typewriter from A Clockwork Orange! (although the one from the movie was red, but still...)

[@brandeeedwards6867]

Is ink Eraticator used for invisible pens

[@MeriaDuck]

Back in the day I only had eraser paper, those tiny pieces of paper you could hold between the hammer and paper, which cover up the typo, as seen around 7 minutes.

[@BBC600]

24:44 That was an interesting read can more pages of this document be found on the Internet?

[@talos86]

I heard about carbon copie, but never seen it. We used indio sheets.

[@rexjolles]

My sister has a 60's electric typewriter and using it makes me sleepy because the humming of the motor inside makes you sleepy. Me, I have a rusty crapped out 50's royal I got for $10

[@andjenysno5771]

How do you correct, when you're typewriter is typing wrong characters?

[@SzDavidHUN]

Talking about thin papers, my mothers divorce paper is so thin, that the scanner scanned both sides at once :D (1 original + 2 copies with cc was made originally)

[@Agamemnon2]

I had no idea there were variable-spacing typewriters that used hammers. I guess I'm too young :)

[@eduardoavila646]

And i think that this is stupid and only makes things more complex when typing. I mean its even ugly..

[@StevenSmyth]

Pelikan still makes Ink Eradicator. Your eraser is too old. Faber-Castell, Lion and Tombow make ink erasers. The active ingredient in those is sand. You can also use an ink scraper, which is nothing more than a fancy knife. I like a fiberglass eraser. I learned on my grandma’s Underwood Model 10. As far as Ditto goes, I’m in the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society and at the weekly meetings, we did an APAzine (Amateur Press Association maga-zine) where we typed (or hand wrote, or drew) our thoughts onto Ditto paper, gave them to the “editors” who would really just collate, run them off and staple them. Then hand them out to the contributors or sell them to the non- contributors. In fact, I’ve been around Dittos and mimeos most of my life because I’ve been in about five SF clubs and every one of them had a Ditto Master or mimeograph machine. It’s how fandom got the news out.

[@genericmale3907]

Typewriter daddy