Useful template for emailing about shipping typewriters

Dear TK:

Quite often typewriters are damaged beyond repair in shipping. This is particularly true of larger/heavier typewriters like this one.

Primary concerns are to prevent movement of the carriage and protecting the carriage knobs and the silver carriage return arm.

Please use an elastic band(s)/rubber band(s) to permanently hold the carriage release lever to the green carriage knob(s). The carriage release lever is the silver piece just above the green knobs on either side of the typewriter carriage (the part that would move back and forth while typing.) This should allow the carriage to move freely back and forth to the right or the left and prevent any damage to the delicate escapement mechanism inside the typewriter.

Next, to prevent damage to the carriage with respect to the heavy metal frame, use plastic wrap or bubble wrap to ensure that the carriage is roughly centered on the typewriter (or flush on the left side) and can’t move back or forth while being shipped.

Finally, ensure appropriate amounts of packing material around the carriage, the knobs, and the return lever to prevent them from being broken or damaged in shipping. In particular, make sure there isn’t any empty space (or dead space) inside the box or the machine is guaranteed to bounce around and break. The box being dropped accidentally from even a foot or two is enough to either bend or break the heavy frame or destroy the carriage. This sort of damage is often what makes what is otherwise a fully functional typewriter a useless boat anchor.

Thanks in advance for your kind assistance in helping this vintage machine reach me in its best condition!

Warmest regards, name

Video example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNISoY_7g9s Written example: https://johnlewismechanicalantiques.com/packing-instructions/

I've picked up about 20 of the typewriters in my collection from ShopGoodwill.

Only two were impeccably/properly packaged and shipped and one of these was a special machine that I emailed them after purchase with written details and links to videos about how to pack and ship it just to be on the safe side.

Three were dreadful disasters: one was a 40 pound standard that was dropped and the frame bent drastically (it had almost no padding materials inside the box), two were shoved into cases (one upside down and the other right side up, but neither locked into their cases properly nor with their carriage locks engaged so they both bounced around for the entire trip) and put into boxes with almost no packing material. All three refunded portions of the price and/or all the shipping costs.

Most of the remainder (all portables with cases) were packaged with a modicum of care (some packing material in the case and some outside the case with reasonable boxes) and showed up in reasonable condition.

Two of the machines were local enough that I did a local pick up to ensure better care.

Generally, it's a crapshoot, but this is also the reason why I don't spend more than $20 on any machine I get from them (except one reasonably rare German typewriter in the US and a Royal with a Vogue typeface that still came out at less than $100 because only one other person noticed its rarity in the photos).

Only one of the machines was clean as a whistle and ready to type on day one. All the remainder required serious cleanings at a minimum. Two were missing internal pieces, two had repairable drawband issues, one had dramatically bad escapement issues, and one had a destroyed mainspring that I need to replace.

Only one of the group had a platen with any life left in it. One had a completely unusable platen, but it was also relatively obvious in the photos. Most of the rest were hard, but usable.

I live in the US and typically only bid on machines that are in the top 20% of their class cosmetically.

I'll echo the thought of others that I wouldn't have a machine from them shipped directly to someone as a present unless I knew they were a tinkerer and had the mechanical ability, the facilities/tools, and desire to clean and service their own machine. Otherwise, I'd do that myself and ship it to them directly.

reply to u/Tico_Typer at https://old.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1g28v6z/i_am_curious_about_the_shopping_goodwill_websites/

Some of the Smith-Corona 6 series machines (electrics) came with copper shipping restraints that were meant to be removed by the dealer prior to sale. Sometimes they can be found inside cases and in other instances, inside the typewriter itself.

via: https://old.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1ew971o/need_help_finding_where_this_came_from_more/

See also:<br /> https://imgur.com/a/xbo6SoY<br />

https://imgur.com/a/PMPCXN5<br />

https://johnlewismechanicalantiques.com/packing-instructions/

Solid advice for shipping typewriters here, which is frequently repeated. This advice is given by a specialist with expertise in typewriter repair and restoration.

Royal HH & FP typewriter shipping help by [[Typewriter Justice]]

Advice for how to package a heavy standard typewriter for shipping. Two heavy rubberbands to hold the margin release buttons to protect the escapement. Then plastic wrap to keep the carriage from moving during shipment. Then protection for the knobs and carriage return levers put into a first box. Then packing peanuts in a second box, fill to completely full and tape closed.

How to package an antique/vintage typewriter for shipping <br /> by [[Tampa Typewriter Co.]]

Use elastic band to permanently engage the carriage release so it doesn't engage with the escapement and then cling wrap the carriage so it can't move. (Especially on models without a carriage lock.)

for - suggestion - Russia Ukraine war - shipping blockade of illegal oil tankers

https://www.vintagetypewritershoppe.com/vintage_typewriters_21.html

[[Joe Van Cleave]] in Typewriter Video Series - Episode 46: Escapements, Their Care & Feeding

• for: progress trap, red fire ants, fire ants, progress trap - shipping, unintended consequences, unintended consequences - shipping

• paraphrase

  • Fire ants would be devastating if released in continental Europe and even more all around the Mediterranean Sea.
  • The cost for human economies and well-being would be enormous. Where they have been invasive, they have:
    • displaced native ant and other species
    • damage electrical equipment
  • A genetic analysis of the Italian ants suggests they likely came from either China or the United States.
  • In the U.S., the species causes an estimated $6 billion in damage each year.
  • The insects spread internationally via shipping, especially of plants and soil.
  • Red fire ants have been detected in imported products in Spain, Finland, and the Netherlands, but not as wild colonies.

Die Beschlüsse der Konferenz der Welt-Schifffahrtsorganisation MPI zur Dekarbonisierung der Schifffahrt genügen nicht, um die Ziele des Pariser Abkommens zu erreichen. Man will die Emissionen bis 2030 um mindestens 20% reduzieren und „um 2050" emissionsfrei sein. Ein Beschluss zu einer Abgabe –zur Finanzierung der Dekarbonisierung armer Länder – wurde aufgeschoben.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/07/shipping-emissions-levy-delayed-but-goals-for-greenhouse-gas-cuts-agreed

Mehr zu der Konferenz zur Dekarbonisierung der Schifffahrt: https://hypothes.is/search?q=tag%3A%22event%3A%20MEPC%2080%22

Eine von 30 NGOs ausgearbeitete Studie zeigt, dass die Schiffstransporte sich auf das Klima so negativ auswirken wie der Luftverkehr. Hintergrund der Veröffentlichung ist die Sitzung der Welt-Schifffahrts-Organisation MPI zur Dekarbonisierung der Schiffahrt.

https://www.liberation.fr/environnement/climat/le-transport-maritime-est-aussi-deletere-pour-le-climat-que-tout-le-trafic-aerien-20230704_VTYBHGJNEVHUXIO5I5GKLOJRUA/

Studie: https://seas-at-risk.org/publications/the-state-of-shipping-oceans-report/

On Ahrens' shipping container analogy to the zettelkasten

@ZettelDistraction said Perhaps the shipping hub is a better analogy for the Zettelkasten than the shipping container (Ahrens, 40).

We should be careful to separate the ideas of analogy and metaphor. Analogies are usually more direct and well-defined in scope.

While there's an apt and direct correlation between shipping containers and zettelkasten as boxes, Ahrens was making the analogy with respect to the shift that shipping containers made to the overall system:

shipping containers : shipping industry and globalism :: zettelkasten : thinking and writing/content creation

As with many analogies, stretching it the way one might stretch metaphors isn't usually fruitful or even possible.

In hindsight, we know why they failed: The ship owners tried to integrate the container into their usual way of working without changing the infrastructure and their routines. They tried to benefit from the obvious simplicity of loading containers onto ships without letting go of what they were used to.

He's saying one needs to consider how one's note taking method fits into their work in a more integrative way. Without properly integrating it into one's workflow seamlessly the system will fail. This is also one of the most difficult problems many zettelkasten aspirants have. In addition to creating a zettelkasten, they're often also simultaneously trying to integrate new (digital) tools into their process at the same time and they get distracted by them rather than focusing on the move to increasing writing/creating and creativity overall (globalism).

To focus on Ahrens' analogy a bit, if Obsidian, for example, is your "ship", is it as custom built for your specific purpose the way a container ship would be for a cargo container? Might you be better off with something like The Archive, ZKN3, or simple index cards that help to limit you to only do the function you want rather than all the other possible functions (wiki, blog, to do list, calendar, journal, kanban, etc.)? Obsidian and many other applications can be a proverbial row boat, a yacht, a tugboat, a steamer, a cruise ship, and even a warship in addition to a container ship, so one has to be extra careful how they choose to use it.

Misreading of Ahrens. The shipping container wasn't a direct analogy to the zk. It was an analogy about process of building a system from the ground up to better effectuate a result.

How Shipping Containers Took Over the World (then broke it) by Calum on YouTube

Oct 5, 2022

The humble shipping container changed our society - it made International shipping cheaper, economies larger and the world much, much smaller. But what did the shipping container replace, how did it take over shipping and where has our dependance on these simple metal boxes led us?

As is common in the tradition of the zettelkasten, Goutor advises "that each note-card should contain only one item of information, whether a quotation, a summary, or anything else". (p28) He ascribes this requirement to his earlier need for clarity. (cross reference: https://hypothes.is/a/SfWFwENIEe2KfGMbR5n7Qg)

He indicates that while it may seem wasteful to have only one item on each card that the savings in time, efficiency in handling, classification, and retrieval will more than compensate for the small waste.

This sort of small local waste being compensated for by a larger global savings and efficiency can be seen in the design of the shipping container industry as discussed in Mark Levinson's The Box (Princeton University Press, 2008). Was this the exact sort of efficiency mentioned by Ahrens'? (Compare at https://hypothes.is/a/t4i32IXoEeyF2n9jQxu6BA)

https://www.shiply.com/us

Planning and especially overplanning your writing work can be counter-intuitively non-productive. A smarter reading and note taking approach can allow one to be playful and creative in a way that more focused, goal-oriented writing would never allow. It's also an incredibly valuable tool for when one becomes "stuck" and working on something else seems easier or more profitable.

An example of this is the Ahren's extended use of the shipping container metaphor with respect to the zettelkasten. By having a variety of ideas stewing in his zettelkasten, a simple search or link using the word box allowed him to create a fantastic metaphor for reshaping one's note taking practice. It's a bit sad that he didn't take a moment to point this out explicitly (though perhaps this isn't the way things came about?)

Streamlining one's entire workflow from start to finish can unleash tremendous amounts of additional system-wide productivity. Starting out by tinkering with small things here and there is more likely to doom these smaller individual changes to failure with out associated global changes.

Once the overall system has been redesigned and reconfigured, then one can make and perfect smaller scale local changes.

Link this to the idea of kelp and sailing/rowing from The West Wing.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/29/us/cargo-ship-cookbooks-overboard.html

Book releases push when shipping containers go overboard.

There could be an interesting movie idea here...

Dempsey, H., & Parkin, B. (2021, May 5). India’s Covid surge rocks global shipping industry. https://www.ft.com/content/cf40d764-6ab6-4638-bea6-594cc3cd5d53

Precursor of Ikea and others in the modern era. I wonder if there are other earlier/contemporaneous examples? Shipping would certainly have been at a bigger premium at the time compared to containerized shipping now.

The World’s Supply Chain Isn’t Ready for a Covid-19 Vaccine. (2020, July 25). Bloomberg.Com. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-25/the-supply-chain-to-save-the-world-is-unprepared-for-a-vaccine

Lee, K., Worsnop, C. Z., Grépin, K. A., & Kamradt-Scott, A. (2020). Global coordination on cross-border travel and trade measures crucial to COVID-19 response. The Lancet, 395(10237), 1593–1595. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31032-1

Devereux, H. (2020 May 04). Thousands of seafarers are stranded aboard ships, with no end to their shift in sight. The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/thousands-of-seafarers-are-stranded-aboard-ships-with-no-end-to-their-shift-in-sight-137324

https://celartia.com/

The "Golden Round" - how ships circumnavigated the continents, or the globe, prior to construction of the Panama and Suez canals.

See this animation by Ben Schmidt of 19th-century shipping routes from 1800-1860, based on ship's logs and extant records.

Are we going to offer free delivery? And to where?