This is a great vintage tech video! You show this great 1950's machine in action, just as it worked in the old days. Seeing the inner workings of the machine gives one lots of appreciation of how the early computer operators had to get "hands on" with their computing devices. Many people today don't realize how much early computing was "electromechanical" and LOUD. Lots of punched holes making confetti one had to sweep up too. Thanks for posting this! (I'm a subscriber too!)
Ex Flexosmacher here, haven’t seen one of these in decades, this was my first commercial office product line that I was hired to repair by Singer Business Machines. Yes, as in Singer sewing machines. The start of a long career in small office equipment repair. Mid 70’s.
I became a Typewriter repair technician in 1980 and worked at a local company called Tri-County business equipment, which had been in business selling typewriters in the area for 40 years. Back then a customer brought in a Friden and I got to work on it. These old mechanical machines are really quite amazing....
Don't know why this popped into my head after all these years, but it is fun to see it again. Used it in my first job in 1967 to do checks for an insurance company. After a few months you can actually read the holes in the tape as if they were printed text.
I worked for Frieden as a technicia and repaired the entire line including the Justowriter. Training in Rochester for 8 weeks. it was an excellent school. Also fixed "Collectdata" a first factory system designed to automate work flow
My Dad Rene Gonzalez, then Msgt. F. R. Gonzalez, USAF Ramstein Germany, used Flex-O-Writers to automate processes in USAF procurement. As kids we would go to work with Dad on evenings and weekends when he would be doing catch-up work, and loved to collect the dots that were punched from the tapes and play with them. My Mom even used piles of the white dots as snow in our Christmas Nativity scene at home. Dad was an innovator. He taught procurement and was on the cutting edge of computerization of procurement in local government in Texas in later years, serving as Purchasing Agent in Bexar County, Travis County and City of San Marcos, TX. This in addition to being a popular and respected TV Reporter for KENS, KSAT and then-KMOL.
I worked on one just like this in the early days of silicon Valley. Worked at a circuit board company drilling out circuit boards...it got boring so I moved on to learn to be a machinist. That was not boring!
My first job at 15 when I left school this is one of the old models they became more streamlined and modern I operated thecflexowriter till the 80's and computer with monitors became the norm but still loved these machines
My father worked for the local council from 17. Many years later became computer manager, in fact he encouraged the system installation. I dare say he started with punch card/typewriters. I happened to see one of these machines with punch card tape, similar to this video on The Rockford Files (Y.T), hence my comment to yours.
Seeing the kid's hand shoed away from pressing buttons in beginning, only to let a read tape be feed wrapped around platen knob makes me know this isn't done by a tour guide. Next the ribbon is dry , so are the machines gears: What kind of technician (if any) does the Typewriter Museum have!
