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Saturday 7 May 2016

How to Fix a Typewriter: Oz-Style, 80 Years Ago - with Rubber Bands, Meat Skewers and Corks!

On May 22, 1936, the Australian Government reduced the importation of fully assembled US-made typewriters by 75 per cent. People who already owned typewriters were told to look after them, keep them well serviced, or fix them themselves. Otherwise - pretty much go without.
That very same month, Queensland country and northern New South Wales newspapers revealed a typewriter owner in the town of Warwick had come up with an "ingenious" way of keeping his machine functional:
Now Warwick is a nice place. I stayed there once, happily very briefly. And one of my nephews has a lovely wife from Warwick, so I better be careful what I say about the place. But fair dinkum?! Rubber bands, meat skewers and corks? He had to be kidding!
Warwick, in the Darling Downs of south-east Queensland, 81 miles south-west of Brisbane, is the birthplace of the famous filmmaker Charles Chauvel. It wasn't the birth place of clever ideas about fixing typewriters ...

2 comments:

Richard P said...

Nutty!

Rob Bowker said...

This reminds me of my rubber band and assorted bits to fix a Bar-Let.