Skip to content
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
Search
Close

L.T. Hanlon

Day: May 14, 2019

Tracking my typewriter’s travels

May 14, 2019May 14, 2019 L.T. Hanlon3 Comments

This is a photo of a typewritten page bearing the following text. Tuesday, May 14, 2019. Chicago, USA. Oh, the places my hermes has been. I love this 1968-vintage Hermes 3000 and its Techno Pica typeface. I bought it on eBay from a seller in Akron, Ohio. My H3K sports two stickers on its body. Both are for Allied Business Machines, which apparently served customers in the area of Newark, New Jersey. The sticker on the back seems to be the older of the two and is paper. At the side of the typewriter is a less-distressed sticker made of shiny plastic. That makes me think that this typewriter was originally bought when Allied Business Machines Inc. operated at 1164 Stuyvesant Avenue in Irvington, which is where the paper label was applied. Later, when this Hermes 3000 needed repair or a simple tune—up, its owner took it back to Allied, which had relocated 301 South Avenue West in Westfield. Today, there are restaurants at both addresses. If you want Creola and American food, visit the original Allied location in Irvington. If you have a hankering for Cuban cuisine, Allied's former Westfield has just your type of food. And the Hermes 3000 in question now sits happily in my 54th Floor Chicago apartment. Note: This typecast has not been edited.

Current photo of a block of storefronts including 1164 Stuyvesant Avenue in Irvington, New Jersey. Allied Business Machines once operated at 1164. Today a restaurant specializing in Creole and American food is there. Below this image is a closeup of a sticker applied to a typewriter. It reads Allied Business Machines, 1164 Stuyvesant Ave., Irvington, NJ. 372-7567.

Current photo of a block of storefronts including 301 South Avenue West in Westfield, New Jersey. Allied Business Machines once operated at the corner space. Today a restaurant specializing in Cuban cuisine is there. Below this image is a closeup of a sticker applied to a typewriter. It reads Allied Business Machines Inc., 301 South Ave. West, Westfield, N.J. Phone 233-0811.

Aerial photo of Chicago's John Hancock Center, a 100-story building with X-shaped braces on the outside. I live on the 54th Floor.

Photos of the  typewritten page and sticker labels are by me; other images in this post are copyright © Google Inc.

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
Like Loading...

Serif or sans serif?

May 14, 2019May 14, 2019 L.T. Hanlon7 Comments

Photo is of a typewritten page with the following text, which varies between serif and sans serif typefaces. Tuesday, May 14, 2019. Chicago, USA. To serif or not to serif. I've always preferred using a serif typeface for body text; the legs and feet just always seemed to make it easier to read. At newspapers where I worked, the house style often dictated serif for body type and sans serif for captions. The exception was so-called advertorial, aka advertising designed to look like real news. This usually employed sans serif for body type as a way to make it appear different from regular news content. In my experience, however, serif or sans serif never made that big a difference when it came to editorial vs. advertorial because most newspaper readers have been — and continue to be — unaware of the difference. But I have warmed to the quasi-sans typeface used in this Hermes 3000 typewriter from 1968. Its typeface, Techno Pica, feels like a serif face sometimes and sometimes like a pure sans serif. Only a few letters sport serifs, others don't — but I 'm unable to figure why. The photo shows an example of Techno Pica typeface, which is mostly san serif except for a handful of exceptions. I can sort of see why the serifs. You don't want a lowrcase ell to be mistaken for a sans serif numeral one. So in Techno Pica, both are unique. Tis a mystery.

 

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
Like Loading...
May 2019
S M T W T F S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031  
« Apr   Jun »
Follow L.T. Hanlon on WordPress.com

It’s a big, wide wonderful world

I fully accept Charles Fort’s observation that one measures a circle beginning anywhere.

Blogroll

  • Antique Typewriter Collecting by Tony Casillo
  • Codes of the West
  • Imperium Romanum
  • J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies
  • Jeff Rense
  • Joe Van Cleave
  • Library of Congress — Photos
  • Macroevolution.net
  • Pen Vibe
  • Pulp International
  • RadioJayAllen
  • Spudart
  • Streamliner Schedules
  • Taos Hum
  • The Classic Typewriter Page
  • The Payphone Project
  • The Rt. Rev. Theodore Munk
  • The Untimely Typewriter
  • Trailways Forever Memories
  • Typewriter Review

My Flickr Photos

000231320010 copy000231320008 copy000231320003 copy000231320005 copy000231320006 copy000231320001 copy000231300009 copy000231300006+5 Anaglyph000231300002+1 Anaglyph
More Photos
Create a website or blog at WordPress.com
Back to top
  • Subscribe Subscribed
    • L.T. Hanlon
    • Join 46 other subscribers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • L.T. Hanlon
    • Subscribe Subscribed
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d