Keyboards can be heard in offices around the world, but that’s only half of what was once a ubiquitous tool at home and the workplace. Typewriters were quickly tossed aside in the age of personal computers and the digital age. Yet as Americans recollect and repurchase vinyl, cassettes and other classic devices, typewriters are seeing an increase in sales too; in some cases for very different reasons.

Dr. Richard Polt, philosophy professor at Xavier University, avid typewriter collector and enthusiast shines light on the latest resurgence in nostalgia and with typewriters.

Highlights: 

Richard Polt takes us through the history and role typewriters have played from the technology to the work environment, and why they’re making an ever so small comeback.

Highlights of the interview are included for convenient listening.

• Typewriter security (0:00)
• Engineering feats (1:49)
• History of typewriters (2:46)
• Mark Twain’s experience (5:11)
• Worth of typewriters (6:25)
• A Typewriter Revolution book (8:20)
• Global appeal and impact of typewriters (10:38)
• Women and the workplace (11:21)
• Collecting and maintaining typewriters  (12:12)
• Control and technology (13:14)
• Link between typewriters and modern technology (15:05)
• Future of typewriter trend (16:12)

Resources: 

• How the KGB Bugged American Typewriters During the Cold War, January 1, 2020, Popular Mechanics https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a30370413/typewriter-bugging-cold-war/
• Typewriters are making a comeback, July 6, 2019, San Francisco Gate https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Typewriters-making-a-comeback-14076751.php
• There’s a new demand for old typewriters, February 8, 2015, Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star  https://fredericksburg.com/business/typewriters-are-making-a-comeback-with-millennials/article_f4f0c84f-5960-545c-befe-79af76fbdaf0.html