Typewriter Tools

Back in the day, you had to be familiar with the various brushes and pick tools required to keep the type heads free of lint and ink from the ribbon:

The wooden brush in the photo above was a Hesco, a brand of the H.E. Smith Company of  Newark, New Jersey.  They were an office supply manufacturer dating back into at least the 1920's.  They seem best remembered now for litigation instituted against them by the Dick Company in 1927 over something called "the Hill patent."  The top blue brush is an IBM product, a company which obviously better managed the transition to computers (as did Olivetti, whose tool pouch is pictured at the bottom).

These tools, like buggy whips, have just about disappeared.  I can't remember the last time I saw a typewriter brush at a yard sale or thrift store.

For those of you who want to know how to take care of your typewriter, I've posted a two-page instructional article from the January 1967 issue of Mechanix Illustrated:  How to Clean a Typewriter.