Watching Assignment Earth - Typewriter in Gary's office

[draderman]

I was watching Assignment Earth and thought:
How cool would it be to have that self-typing typewriter! I bet it would be easy to do. A Raspberry Pi, some speech recognition software, and a way to tie it into the typewriters original "software". It might take some thought but there's got to be a way. I checked eBay and there are tons of electric typewriters from the 60's on there - still working - and cheap!

So here's some screen-caps from the episode. does anyone know what kind (Brand) of typewriter this is?

 

[MANT!]

It looks to be an IBM...very common for the era.. exact model is unknown, but it looks like a Selectric..

http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1961.html

 

[Push The Button]

You need to include the flashing, talking cube that was on Roberta's desk, too.

 

[Maurice]

As I recall, the trouble with most electric typewriters don't have mechanical linkages between the keys and the "golfball", so you can get it the type via and interface, but the keys probably won't move as it does so.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

There's no golf ball, and it has a traditional moving carriage. I'm not on board it being a Selectric.

screencaps

You can plainly see the grove where the traditional type bar will go to strike the page on the moving carriage.

 

[draderman]

I don't think the keys need to depress when its typing what I say. The one in the episode didn't.

 

[draderman]

Clsest one ive found so far is a Royal Electress.

 

[draderman]

How about this one

 

[draderman]

K so, yea its a Royal Emperor. Look - Even the table is a close match to the one in the episode. Maybe the high-end ones came with a stand.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Very good. That's almost it exactly. Same general model, just maybe off by a minor revision number, as it were. Or perhaps any remaining differences can be accounted for by the model being "dressed up" for the show.

 

[draderman]

Yes I think, like many other shows, some tape was used to conceal the brand name for filming.

Found this on ebay: Unfortunately, no luck finding the real thing so far.

 

[telerites]

Could it be a hybrid that the prop guys made so not a real model?

 

[Christopher]

^No, see post #9 -- it's definitely the Royal Emperor with the logo taped over.

 

[Elder Knight]

In the 1980s when dedicated printers for home computers were generally too expensive, there were interfaces (probably RS-232, for Commodores and Ataris and TRS-80s) that worked with electric typewriters. It was a slow process, but better than nothing.

One might be able to retro-fit a modern PC to an old interface to achieve no-touch typing.

 

[Hando]

Is it just me or is the desk also the same?

Was it included in the purchase? Or were desks with buttons and an electrical outlet typical for that era?

And what is the purpose of the box-like thing on the table behind the typewriter?

 

[arch101]

I remember when the ball model came out. I think it was '74. My father had one. It was quite revolutionary at that time.

I'd love to see someone try "Assignment: Earth" again today. Heck, they could loosely tie it to the JJ movies. It might actually work.

 

[Maurice]

How about this one

Mystery solved. It's a Royal Automated Typewriter. The thing makes and reads punched paper tape and acts like a printer. I suspect the "stand" contains the paper tape mechanism. No doubt that's why it was used on the show: because it typed on its own.

 

[Christopher]

That's so funny -- the gag in the episode was that it was amazing and futuristic for a typewriter to self-operate, and yet they got an actual, existing self-operating typewriter to do it!

Well, except that Gary's typewriter was voice-activated rather than tape-driven. I guess that was the futuristic element.

 

[draderman]

LOL Chris I BET there was at least one secretary out there that saw Assignment Earth when it first aired and said, "Hey, that's my typewriter from work!" Who knows - Maybe she went to work the next day, typed the dialogue from the ep into it, and played Roberta Lincoln for her trekkie co-workers

 

[ZapBrannigan]

The best thing about this board is that Star Trek questions get crowd-sourced, and answers get found.

On my own, I would likely have gotten stuck and never found the make and model of that machine.