Last Typewriter Factory in the World Shuts Its Doors

SEWilco pointed out that the last typewriter factory has shut its doors. Indian typewriter manufacturer Godrej and Boyce stopped production today after 60 years. The company's general manager, Milind Dukle, says, "We are not getting many orders now. From the early 2000s onwards, computers started dominating. All the manufacturers of office typewriters stopped production, except us."

Comments

This is just not true

[Anonymous Coward]

Brother still makes and sells typewriters. This is just bad reporting by The Atlantic, which has REALLY gone down hill since it changed hands.

I assume that this is the last *manual* typewriter factory.

Re:This is just not true

[UnknowingFool]

Yes. Also the company is not shutting down. It is merely selling the last 500 manual typewriters and focusing on its other products. It also stopped making them in 2009.

Re:This is just not true

[MarkGriz]

I assume that this is the last *manual* typewriter factory.

Nope. Someone posted this comment there:

This article is NOT correct. I am with Royal Consumer Information Products in Somerset, NJ. We have been making typewrithers for over 100 years. We are still making both manual and electronic typewriters and we have no plans to discontinue them! True, the market size is small in comparison to what it once was but there is still a steady demand for both types of typewriters.

So, it appears to be a crap story. Moreover, WTF does this have to do with news for nerds

Re:This is just not true

[SteeldrivingJon]

"Moreover, WTF does this have to do with news for nerds"

Interest in typewriters is pretty nerdy.

But even nerdier, there are still people hacking typewriters into USB keyboards and such, or doing Arduino hacks, etc.

Re:This is just not true

[Insightfill]

We have been making typewrithers for over 100 years.

Apparently, not very good ones.

Re:This is just not true

[WiglyWorm]

I'm pretty sure it's safe to presume they didn't use a typewriter to post to the message board.

Re:This is just not true

[rubycodez]

Typewriters still have at least two important uses. One is for filling out duplicate/triplicate/quadruple pressure-sensitive forms that have to be done in either pen or typewriter (I had to do some a couple years back for a foreign government as part of immigration of relative).

The other important use is that some famous writers love them rather than computers for whatever reason, some authors that slashdotters like might be some of those people.

Re:This is just not true

[Zerth]

To limit the ability of inmates to pass notes using the internal storage of electric typewriters, same reason tape recorders(but not players) are frequently prohibited.

You only need one line to type "shiv jimmy in block 8", so I'm not sure why there is a specific limit instead of only permitting electric typewriters that clear on power down.

For that matter, you could just look at the ribbon and see what the last guy typed.

Not the last, but likely to be last *major*

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

As others have pointed out, there are other companies still making and selling manual typewriters. But Godrej is probably the last major English manual typewriter maker. I have used this typewriter, and it is almost ubiquitous in India. Almost every village or a hamlet in India would have a "typewriting" institute. Tiny private trade schools. It was almost a rite of passage in South India to join one of these institutes and pass the "lower" (60 wpm) or the "higher" (90wpm) certificate examns. If you could get a higher certificate in typewriting or shorthand (90 wpm and 120 wpm respectively in shorthand) you are sure to find a job. One of the most surefire tickets out of poverty for the rural folks. I remember seeing a magazine story about a steno-typist who built a temple for Pitman, the originator of English shorthand long time ago.

Now a days all these "typewriting institutes" are teaching Java/Oracle/Dcom/PeopleSoft/Ansys and all kinds of assorted often unrelated software packages.