Irony. Had this electronic typewriter been a Brother Oko the burglar might have taken it …
Articles about the electronic typewriter range from the disparaging …
… to the curmudgeonly …
Times change and technology changes with the times. Deal with it.
The lady on Gumtree who advertised this tattered and yellowed instruction guide for a Brother CE-700 electronic typewriter for a few dollars (rather than throw it in the bin) deserves almost as much credit as I do for scanning it.
Kudos to Brother Industries for manufacturing such a good electronic typewriter (I’m sure it must be, even if I don’t own one).
The CE-700 was introduced in 1989 as an update on the Brother CE-650 and, like its predecessor, has a respectable speed of 15 characters-per-second, which is better than most portables. Thanks to an acoustic cover it’s probably quieter too.
Copyright is owned by Brother Industries. This PDF (of the scans of an instruction guide I own) is offered as a FREE resource.
It’s a little known fact that the Brother EM-411 sold in the USA and Canada (and sold as the CE-650 in Europe and Australia) is the same typewriter as the Xerox Memowriter (apart from obvious differences in their body shells and keyboards) .
A two-year agreement struck between the Xerox Corporation of America and Brother Industries in December 1986, allowed Xerox to manufacture several models of an electronic typewriter, designed by Brother, at their plant in Fremont, California. – that is, manufacture “Brother” typewriters and at least one “Xerox” typewriter,
Brother models manufactured by Xerox were the EM-401 and the EM-411 (below).
“Xerox” models were the Memowriter and (from 1989 onwards) the Xerox XT-15, which both appear to be based on the same design.
You can understand Xerox wanting to supplement their new 60-series with a stylish compact model. In Europe, Rank Xerox did the same by selling the TA Triumph-Adler CompacTA-400/400 DS as the Xerox 6001/6002 (1987).
It’s interesting that Xerox and Brother took a collaborative approach towards their competitors, rather than the adversarial (protectionist) approach taken by Smith-Corona.
One reason, perhaps, why Xerox and Brother are still going strong, whereas Smith-Corona isn’t.
Yes, that’s right Millie, those Packard Bell ribbons were interchangeable, and so were the typewriters. Packard Bell never made any of them, they were made by Korean companies Sharp and Samsung.
Actually Lizzie, Minolta “had a mind” to source their electronic typewriters from Brother Industries and TEC. The competitive-cooperative spirit of those “crazy” Japanese knows no bounds!
Ah, the dot-matrix! That reminds me, Melba, I forgot to take my red pill.
The best advice I can give, Dear Reader, is never to take advice from anyone.
Come the dawn of the electronic age, Olympia made some attempt, initially, to retain the look, if not the feel, of the typewriters that came before.
Some continuity of design is evident in the “Whisperdisc” ES and ESW series of the early 1980s …
Another electronic typewriter that retained the “Olympia look” is the Compact S, introduced in November 1984 as an addition to Olympia’s “Office Line” of electronic typewriters …
Made in Germany, the scalloped Compact S (above) is the only machine in the Office Line not to offer Proportional Spacing in addition to 10, 12 and 15 pitch.
The Compact S has the same “venus-beige” key-tops and the same maximum writing width and maximum paper width as its older Mastertype and Startype siblings. A smaller footprint, however, justifies its “compactness”.
If space is an issue, you could opt, instead, for an identically-styled but smaller and slower (12 cps as opposed to 14 cps) Compact i portable (circa 1987) …
The uninitiated could be forgiven for thinking that the Japanese-made Electronic Compact is a copy inspired by the German-made Compact S …
In fact, the converse is true. The Nakajima-made Electronic Compact (advertised as early as the 23rd of August 1982 below) pre-dates the Compact S by at least two years and three months …
In the end, AEG Olympia (Olivetti and an Olivetti-owned TA Triumph Adler and others) capitulated by putting their name to unadulterated Nakajima typewriters with no semblance of an “in-house” look.
The Compact S and the Compact i may have been a short-lived attempt by the German manufacturer to wrest back control of its compact and portable typewriter production from the Japanese.
To my mind, this makes them all the more collectible.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the search for a suitable name for the latest and most innovative electronic typewriter inevitably led manufacturers to opt for a name that well and truly associated their product with high-tech.
Hence a plethora of -tronic, -onic, and -tron name endings, Early examples were the Smith Corona “Typetronic” (October 1980), the “Facitronic” (AKA Facit 8000, March 1982), and a series of “Remtronic” electronic typewriters (also 1982) manufactured by a South American spin-off of Remington Rand USA (Remington Industria e Comercio de Sistemas Para Escritorio s.a.).
From the early-to-mid 1980s, Hermes Precisa released various models of “Top-tronic”, initially manufactured in-house, and then manufactured on an OEM basis by the likes of Nakajima, Robotron, Triumph-Adler and Olivetti.
Brother preferred to name their typewriters using a two-letter prefix and number, EM-1000, AX-450, etc., but did release several models of “Compactronic”, “Correctronic” and “Executron” in the USA – early examples being a pair of moveable-carriage daisy wheel typewriters: the “Compactronic” 8300 and the “Executron” 9300.
Like Brother, Silver Reed preferred a two letter prefix and number naming convention (EX-44, EZ-20, etc,), but did release an “Editronic” thermal mini-wedge (circa 1984).
AEG Olympia went the literal route, selling its Japanese-made “Electronic Compact” as early as November 1982. This was followed by the release of a “Report Electronic” in 1985.
Odd to think IBM didn’t register “Selectronic” as a trademark. Silver Reed America used the name at least once. In the absence of other ads like this one from the Uklah Daily News (California) in April 1980, it’s likely Silver Reed were asked to desist from using the name …
The only other instance I could find was this “Selectronic” typo …
… plus a 1988 ad for a “Selectronics” WORDFINDER …
If IBM had released a range of “Selectronic” typewriters, at least their customers would have known what they were buying when they were buying an early IBM “electronic” typewriter – namely a Selectric typewriter with built-in and/or add-on electronic components.
Competitors at the time, took every opportunity to point out the difference between IBM’s mechatronics and their “totally electronic” or “all-electronic” typewriters.
The distinction was not lost on IBM themselves …
… who were keen to retain their customer base JUST LONG ENOUGH to switch them over to their Personal Computers.
Not all typists who made the switch were happy about it …
The specification for the 1983 Olivetti Praxis 20, makes for unimpressive reading: it has a print speed on the low side (8 cps), and a noise emission reading on the high side (69 dBA). The 1986 Olivetti Personal 50 is identical in design, construction, size, weight (6.3 kg) and technical specification.
A stick-on serial number label, inside the machine, and the absence of a manufacturer plate, supports my contention that these are re-imagined (surplus) Praxis 20s …
Olivetti may have turned electronic “wedge” design on its head, but these typewriters are SLOW and NOISY.
The typing experience is not helped by a pedestrian and rasping carrier return which reminds me a lot of the Juki 2200 …
In a January 2017 post, I suggested there was collaboration and cooperation between Olivetti and the Juki Industrial Co:
(It was not unusual for American and European typewriter manufacturers to ally themselves with the Japanese. Olivetti and IBM, for example, entered into various complementary technology sharing agreements with Japanese companies (Canon, Hitachi, Toshiba, etc.) throughout the 1980s and 1990s.)
Oddly, the ribbon used in the Praxis 20/ETP 50, before its use was discontinued, is the same ribbon used in various late model Robotron personal ETs, which makes me wonder if Olivetti sold or leased some of their plant and equipment after switching production of their personal ETs to Singapore?
Olivetti knew they had to improve on the performance of their early personal and compact ETs and they did. Released in October 1987, the ultra-stylish triple pitch Olivetti Personal 55 is faster (12 cps), sleeker and lighter (4.5 kg) …
That said, as I remember it, the ETP 55 was not much quieter than the ETP 50, and its keyboard had a cheaper and less tactile “membrane” feel. Mario Bellini’s space-age design was not enough, on its own, to make me want to keep it around.
Investigation of the key switches on a non-functioning Praxis 20 (the same key-tops and switches as those on the Personal 50) reveal a rubber dome and a vertical metal reed …
Dome switches are a hybrid of a mechanical-switch over a flat-panel membrane.
The key-tops on the Praxis 20 are made of double-shot plastic. Unlike the pad-printed key-tops on later, more cheaply constructed personal ETs (Smith Corona and Samsung I’m thinking especially of you), the lettering won’t wear off over time.
So if the ET Personal 50 has anything going for it, its a decent keyboard.
It’s just a shame Olivetti couldn’t make their early personals and compacts a little faster and quieter. For a better personal electronic typewriter, see:
Taiwanese-made portable electronic typewriters of the Canon QS- series of the mid 1990s were sold around the world, in the USA, Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia, and ranged from the QS-50 to the QS-700, with a wide choice of (100, 110, 200, 210, 300, 310, 400 and 550) models in-between.
The QS-50 is bottom of the range …
This QS-300 in my collection is middle of the range …
The QS-700 is the top of the range …
This Taiwanese-made MX-100 appears to be a lower-spec variant of the same series …
Unique to the QS-series (and possibly a feature lacking in MX- variants?) is a “Beam Marker” which allows you to accurately position a character on a pre-printed form.
Typewriters of the QS series also boast a “Quiet Sensation while printing” which explains the prefix. With a top speed of 14 cps they’re also Quite Speedy.
Into the 1990s, ETs improved in terms of their print speed and noise emission, but could not hope to compete with the near-silent stealth of the desktop publisher and the laser printer and were Quickly Supplanted.
In Japan, Matsushita earned themselves the nickname Maneshita (Copy Cat) due to their tendency to maneru (copy) the technologies marketed by their rivals.
NEC Spinwriter “thimble” printers, for example, may have been the inspiration for Panasonic RK-T series “cup wheel” personal electronic typewriters introduced in 1984.
Likewise, Brother AX-series personal electronic typewriters of the mid 1980s may have been the inspiration for Panasonic KX-R series daisy wheel personal electronic typewriters released in 1987. The two series are comparable in quality, have similar keyboards, take the same ribbon, and have similar (albeit incompatible) tabbed print wheels.
Plagiaristic conspiracy theories aside, I was intrigued to discover that Matsushita manufactured cheaper copies of their own KX-R series daisy wheel electronic typewriters.
Somewhere along the line (November 1988 to be exact) a series of low-end KX-Rs made from lighter, brighter, cheaper grade plastics were released. These 5 kg, 11 cps KX-R copies are 1 kg lighter and 1 cps slower than the “first generation” KX-R portable electronic typewriters introduced in June 1987.
A wide range of KX-R models, often with the same model number but of differing build quality, were manufactured concurrently through to the early 1990s.
Australian (and American?) KX-R models have a “Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd – Made in Japan” badge on the rear of the machine. European KX-R models have a “Kyushu Matsushita Electric (U.K.) Ltd” badge on the rear of the machine. It’s likely they were assembled in Great Britain.
The typing feel of the KX-305 (above) does not suffer too much from what is a noticeably cheaper grade of plastic key-top (although you do have to wonder about the durability of these cheaper machines).
The typing action is quieter than it is on original KX-Rs and the 11 cps print speed is still fast enough to pass muster (its faster than my painfully slow late generation Brother AX-450, slower than my nippy late generation Canon QS-300).
For cheap copies, they’re still pretty good.
In the early days of the ET, “portability” meant you could stow your trusty machine inside a small suitcase and “lug it” between offices.
Seen online, the Adler Gabriele 8008 looks bulky:
As bulky, say, as its big brother, the SE-1005 standard daisy wheel electronic typewriter introduced in 1981:
Or as bulky, say, as a 1984 Olivetti M21 “transportable” computer (which is what is being carried by the man at the top of this post).
After taking delivery of an 8008, this impression I had of bulkiness was reinforced, first, by the size of the case the typewriter arrived in:
And secondly, by the sticker on the postal bag that enclosed the case:
I was surprised, however, by how small and light (relatively speaking) the Gabriele 8008 is.
Not for nothing (double negative alert) is this typewriter listed in my 1984-85 edition of Info-Markt, the German office equipment catalog, as a “Reiseschreibmaschine” (which translates to “travel typewriter”).
I’m not sure I’d want to travel with it, but it is lighter than many electric typewriters that came before:
As well as “Adler”, the Gabriele 8008/800L was also sold under the “Triumph” brand, and sold as the Alpha 2001/2002 under the “Royal” brand in the USA:
Released in 1982, the 8008 was the first in a long series of “Gabriele” portable and compact electronic typewriters. It was described in Australian advertising of August 1983, as “setting the new standard for the office at home”.
Former owner of the company Max Grundig leant his granddaughter’s name to a series of mechanical and electric typewriters, so why not a series of electronic typewriters?
Incidentally, since the last of those “electric typewriters” were sourced from Nakajima, it’s not surprising to find an AE-series compatible ribbon cassette under the hood of the 8008 …
Which is not to say the 8008 was manufactured by Nakajima. More likely, taking the “Made in Western Germany” manufacturer plate at face value, we can conclude it was possibly manufactured with the collaboration of Nakajima.
CIearly, the outer shell, the chunky platen knob, and the studded Lego-brick-style key-tops, are all a throwback to the single element (golf ball) predecessor of the SE electronic (daisy wheel) series, the SE-1000 CD:
Given the use of a Nakajima ribbon, I was surprised to find a Triumph-Adler brand printwheel in situ: Very surprised given that the Rarotype typestyle compatibility guide states:
The following ADLER/ROYAL models require NAKAJIMA AE – Series printwheels: Gabriele 8008/L, ALPHA 600, 600P, 720, 820, 920, 2015, 2300, 3300, 4300, 5300, BETA 8000, 8000T, SIGNET 100, 200S, Satellite 40, Satellite 80, Royal 7700
Odd that.
All things considered, the 10 cps, dual pitch Adler 8008 is an odd prototype that was quickly superseded by faster, sleeker models – models that took a proprietary TA ribbon cassette:
Gabriele 9009 (1984) – listed in my 1984-85 copy of Info-Markt as a “Reiseschreibmaschine”, then listed in my 1986-87 copy of Info-Markt as a “Kompakt-schreibmaschine” (a change in classification which makes more sense) – the same platen knob transposed to the left-hand side where it belongs, flatter key-tops, a more wedge-like shape, triple rather than dual pitch, and an increased speed of 13 cps:
Gabriele 7007/L (1986) – listed in my 1986-87 copy of Info-Markt as a “Portable Schreibmaschine” (smaller indeed than the 9009), modified platen knob, more conventional key-tops, classic wedge-like shape, dual pitch, 13 cps:
These models were quickly superseded, in turn, by SE-300 series Kompakt electronic typewriters. The “Gabriele” name continued to be used for a plethora of cheaper late-model portables.
I now have a working $10 (AUD) Lexikon 83DL typewriter and a second Pica 15 golf ball (in addition to the Eletto 12 ball I obtained by buying a non-working Lexikon 82).
I say “working” even though the ribbon is bone dry, and the chug-a-chug-chug of the drive belt sounds like it was transplanted from an old washing machine.
A bigger problem is the lack of a new (old stock) ribbon. The prospect of finding one is not good.
According to advertising of the time (1977) these Lexikon 82/83-compatible and SCM Vantage/Intrepid-compatible ribbons were once available in 5 colours.
It’s worth repeating, the Olivetti Lexikon 82/83DL (and, for that matter, the Smith Corona Vantage and Intrepid) is NOT more portable than my Brother Super 7300 golf ball typewriter, despite its more streamlined shape.
In terms of bulk and weight, they’re “on a par” (golfing pun intended).
While I’m on the subject, I should mention I updated my A Whole New Ball Game post to make mention of a few golf ball typewriters I missed the first time around.
Unless my eyes deceive me, the “new office product” on the desk in this press photo, taken on the premises of Professional Office Products, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, circa the 9th of July 1983, is a TEC TW-1000 electronic typewriter:
Until now I’d been unable to put a year of release to the one in my collection. 1983.
The same TEC typewriter is, I think, advertised here as a “Pacific 1000” in The Age, Melbourne, in May 1987:
“Pacific” probably on account of a sticker on the front of the typewriter, as is the case with this “Pacific 2000” (TEC TW-1100):
Less aesthetically pleasing than my TEC TW-1000 is this function-rich TEC TW-1450:
Unfortunately, this one’s missing its platen knob.
The TW-1450 was introduced in March 1987: indeed, a written note on the inside of the instruction guide tells me this typewriter was purchased new on the 29th of September that year, for $749 AUD.
A new ribbon was last installed in this machine in November 1991, since when this typewriter has remained unused, unloved, and put into storage, until the previous owner put it up for sale last month.
With a top speed of 12 cps, the TEC TW-1450 is not the fastest, nor the most attractive, compact electronic typewriter out there; the build quality, however, is excellent.
The TW-1450 manufacturer badge states “Made in Japan”:
The TW-1000 serial number has an “S” prefix which indicates it was made in Singapore:
The 98-page instruction guide is in good condition, apart from a damp affected and cello-taped cover page, and serves as a reminder that something important is missing.
While I can still turn the platen to manually feed paper into the typewriter, I can’t press (an absent button) to adjust the paper to any line position.
TEC compact electronic typewriters take an Olivetti Praxis 35 compatible ribbon, of which I have plenty. Two more came with the typewriter, along with a Courier 10 print wheel and six spares (Tile Italic 10 12, Cubic 10 12, Orator 10, Prestige Elite 12, and two Script 12 wheels).
The TW-1000, which came to me with a single Letter Gothic 12 wheel, now has a few more options.
If I just had time to actually use ’em …
This 1994 charcoal-grey USA-made Brother AX-325 portable electronic typewriter is (I’ve decided) the Official Typewriter of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
It’s a typewriter that was happily looking forward to a future that didn’t happen.
It shares the same scalloped design as my UK-made Brother AX-440; the same slightly asthmatic print carrier, the same slightly arthritic wheel, the same stated top speed of 12 cps.
In this case, of course, there’s no LCD screen, no eco-friendly sticker.
The charcoal-grey body, in stark contrast to the white keys, is, of course, an improvement on uniform grey-beige. Another improvement, and a difference, is the hand grip on the underside of the machine (although the user guide still calls it a “handle”).
Compare this to the fold-out “handle” on the UK-made AX-440:
I say “improvement” because the hand grip definitely feels more secure than the handle does.
It’s also more in-keeping with the overall “minimalist” design, which is exemplified by the door-less cord compartment on the rear:
The profile of these typewriters has what I like to call a “float” (think of the floats on a sea plane). The left-hand platen knob is built into the “float”:
Whoever designed it also decided (quite rightly) there was no need for a paper bail when the ribbon cover could easily do the same job.
No point wasting plastic needlessly, which is why the keyboard cover also doubles as a paper rest.
Also “minimalist”, the user guide has no front or rear cover, simply comprising one double-sided sheet of paper which folds into 16 pages.
A bit awkward to read, however the upside is, its easy to scan in two-page pairs.
