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He Fixed 300,000+ Machines - America's Oldest Typewriter Repairman Dies At 96
An anonymous reader writes "The New York Times reports, 'For eight decades, Manson Whitlock kept the 20th century's ambient music going: the ffft of the roller, the ding of the bell, the decisive zhoop ... bang of the carriage return, the companionable clack of the keys. From the early 1930s until shortly before his death last month at 96, Mr. Whitlock, at his shop in New Haven, cared for the instruments, acoustic and electric, on which that music was played. Mr. Whitlock was often described as America's oldest typewriter repairman. He was inarguably one of the country's longest-serving. Over time he fixed more than 300,000 machines, tending manuals lovingly, electrics grudgingly and computers never. "I don't even know what a computer is," Mr. Whitlock told The Yale Daily News, the student paper, in 2010. "I've heard about them a lot, but I don't own one, and I don't want one to own me."'"
Or so it lets you think.
To be fair, I know people in their 40s and 50s that don't even know how to email. Computers and their connections can be a daunting things, especially if you just didn't grow up with it or have a kid around to teach you and fix things. If tech competence were common, all those overpriced computer repair shops wouldn't be around.
Plus if the guy was running a business sucessfully, there probably wasn't all that much personal incentive for him to learn although Computers benefit the elderly greatly.
"I've heard about them a lot, but I don't own one, and I don't want one to own me."
He claims that he does not know what a computer is but he appears to understand very well what it does. /RIP
Humanity needs more of him and less FB-Fanboys.
Voiceover: This man is no ordinary man. This is Mr. M W Superman. To all appearances, he looks like any other law-abiding citizen. But Mr M W Superman has a secret identity. When trouble strikes at any time, at any place, he is ready to become... TYPEWRITER REPAIR MAN!
Boy: Hey, there's a typewriter broken, up the office.
Typewriter Repair Man: Hmmmmm. This sounds like a job for... Typewriter Repair Man. But how to change without revealig my secret identity?
Superman 1: If only Typewriter Repair Man were here!
Typewriter Repair Man: Yes, wait, I think I know where I can find him. Look over there!
Caption: FLASH!
Supermen 1-3: Typewriter Repair Man, but how?
Superman 1: Oh look... is it a stockbroker?
Superman 2: Is it a quantity Surveyor?
Superman 3: Is it a church warden?
Supermen 1-3: NO! It's Typewriter Repair Man!
Superman In Need: MY! Typewriter Repair Man! Thank goodness you've come! Look!
Caption:
Clink!
Screw!
Bend!
Inflate!
Alter roller!
Superman 2: Why, he's mending it with his own hands!
Superman 1: Se how he uses a spanner to tighten that nut!
Superman In Need: Oh, Oh Typewriter Repair Man, how can I ever repay you?
Typewriter Repair Man: Oh, you don't need to guv. It's all in a days work for... Typewriter Repair Man!
Supermen 1-3: Our Hero!
Voiceover: Yes! whenever typewriters are broken, or menaced by Al Qaida Typewriter Repair Man is ready!
This guy was a specialist, who specialised on his expertise and lived a happy life. I will live a happy life having nothing to do with sport nor fashion.
Are there repair persons anymore? Seems stuff is so shoddy nowadays it is not expected to last more than one or two years. Even if I want to have my machines repaired, they are either impossible to repair or it is cheaper to purchase a new one.
I hope they set his obit in Courier
mod me funny
There have been about 30,000 days since he started working in 1930. If the 300,000 number is accurate, he would have had to fix an average of 10 typewriters, every day, for the past 80 years. That's without any weekends or holidays.
I guess I have no direct experience repairing typewriters. However, I would have certainly guessed that it takes longer than ~1 hour to "fix" a typewriter. In addition to that, I would think it's hard to find a stream of that many typewriters to repair. (I.e., a rather successful business.) If these numbers are true, the guy was pretty impressive.
R.I.{.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Sergey Brin: 40
Linus Torvalds: 43
Kirk McKusick: 59
Vint Cerf: 70
It's not an age thing.
It's not an age thing.
Why do you say that? Everyone on your list is young.
Let me put it this way: Mr. Whitlock became an expert in a technology he learned in his teens, and rejected a technology that developed around him in his sixties. How receptive will you be to the state-of-the-art, game-changing technology of say, the year 2050, that makes the computer technology you have worked with your whole life, obsolete?
I never said it was. Hence, saying that even some 40-50s year old (vs this 96 yo) don't use computers.
But there is definitely several generational gaps or cutoffs at play, from where computers were a luxury/novelty to something optional to something necessary.
I don't count the average American person today being able to use a manual transmission for much the same reason.
To be fair, I know people in their 20s and 30s that don't even know how to email.
20 years ago how many people could fix everything in their car? How about everything in their house? Technology is no different. There will always be polymaths but aside from that most people specialize to be good at something.
Farming, Beekeeping, plumbing, etc.
I'd be willing to bet there are almost as many tech saavy people over 50 than there are under (ratio wise). I know plenty of 20-30 year olds that have the same toolbar problem. They get viruses constantly. They never copy their photos from their camera and when the SD card eats itself they ask me to recover it.
The guy that invented C would have been 72 this year. The SR71 Blackbird made its first flight 49 years ago. Presumably the guys who designed it were in their late 20s-40s. So the oldest of them would be near 90 now. Fortran, Ethernet, GPS, GSM were all designed by people well over 50 by now and without them your tech savvy life would be pretty boring.
There are plenty of old people that know nothing about computers but could fix your car blindfolded. And there are plenty of young people that know nothing about computers but are the same way with cars.
There are plenty of people who run successful car repair shops because people don't want to learn cars. There are plumbers, electricians, welders, etc because people don't want to learn each of those skills. And there are people that run businesses that serve the tech illiterate.
How many 20 year olds could fix their registry if it ate itself? How about creating a boot USB with GRUB2 installed on it and mounting an Ubuntu ISO in loopback so they could copy off all their files? I'm in my 30s, people I looked up to technology wise are in their 40s-50s. If anything I'd say it's the 20 year olds that know less than nothing about their computers. If their phone doesn't boot they just replace it. Look at clients at the Genius bar or Geek Squad counter sometime. It's not always a bunch of 50 year olds