Some offices prefer the typewriter over the computer for certain tasks.

Some offices prefer the
typewriter over the
computer for certain tasks.

By ELISE McKEOWN SKOLNICK

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

Click-clack. Click-clack.

The distinctive sound of typewriter keys is rarely heard these days. In many offices, the loud rapping has been totally replaced by the quiet tapping of computer keys.

But the typewriter isn’t dead, local office supply stores say.

“In a year, we’ll probably sell 20, 25 of them,” said Tony Perrett, general manager of Pro Business Systems in Boardman.

Though not the focus of the business, Team Office sells three or four of the machines a month, said Tom Reeveley, company president.

Plus, the Austintown business continues to service typewriters for longtime customers.

Schools, manufacturers, insurance and title companies, doctors and attorneys, among others, still purchase typewriters, Reeveley said. Typewriters are perfect for use on index cards, thick paper stock and multipart carbonless forms, he said.

Typing envelopes is another use, Perrett said. Some printers are unable to print or feed an envelope. 

And one of the biggest reasons to use a typewriter is carbon forms, Perrett said.

“You cannot do a carbon form on a printer,” he pointed out. The impact from typewriter keys striking the form is needed.

Other people simply don’t want to bother with a computer.

“They just want to type a letter and that’s all there is to it,” Perrett said.

For example, some elderly people whose writing might not be good want typewriters because they already know how to use them.

“They don’t want to learn a computer just to type and get something out,” Perrett said.

And, he noted, some businesses don’t use a computer at all.

Perrett added, however, that there isn’t much of a typewriter industry left to provide machines to these people.

“Most of what we sell is refurbished IBM equipment. The IBMs were very well-built. They were Cadillac-type machines,” he said.

IBM no longer manufactures typewriters.

Team Office also sells refurbished IBMs, as well as new machines manufactured by Brother. Prices range from $69 for a home typewriter to $399 for a commercial IBM.

Fred Hanley, owner of Emch Spring Service in Youngstown, said he prefers using a typewriter for general office tasks.

“Even though we employ computers and word processors, sometimes it’s just easier to revert back to an old-fashioned typewriter,” he said.

The business also uses typewriters to create specialty checks when doing business with steel companies in Canada and for creating specialty work invoices. Typically, Hanley said, the space available on the printed invoice isn’t large enough to list details of specialty work, so Emch makes a special invoice.

Emch, which manufactures springs and services truck suspension systems, boasts two refurbished IBM typewriters, he said.

“Even though IBM doesn’t make them anymore, once they rebuild them they’re as good as new,” Hanley said. “We get three to five years out of a good, old, heavy, American-made typewriter.”

Hanley said he only wants to buy American-made products but doesn’t think any manufacturers make typewriters in the U.S. anymore. Smith-Corona moved its typewriter manufacturing from New York to Mexico in 1995.

Hanley added, however, that he will keep using refurbished American-made models as long as he can find them.