(empo-tymshft) The typewriter, 1867-2011

Here's something else courtesy Lisa Wilkes. I ended up surfing to the Daily Mail for this story:

Godrej and Boyce - the last company left in the world that was still manufacturing typewriters - has shut down its production plant in Mumbai, India with just a few hundred machines left in stock.

General Manager Milind Dukle said that typewriters were still a booming business until recently.

'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.'

Granted that the 2009 level was down from its 1990s production of 50,000 typewriters, but it's still interesting to note that there was still a booming market in the Third World for computers.

So now even fewer people will know what a Smith Corona was. And I'll miss the "ding" at the end of a line when I'm touch typing.