My huge vanity post, on the CBS fake Killian memos!

Me | 9/09/04 | Me

[Tijeras_Slim]

Just finished trekking to the storage unit where we store obsolete equipment... Checked 2 mid-80's vintage Selectrics. No "th" on them.

[xkaydet65]

The reason FR rules? We THINK!!!

[CougarGA7]

Did you check Steve's doctural thesis? That's got to date back at least to the 70s.

[sissyjane]

I think a lot of us contacted Drudge.....

[alnick]

In 1976 I had a part-time secretarial job at which I used an IBM Executive. Each line did not have to be typed twice; however, in order to backspace to the correct space if I wanted to use correction tape, I would have to backspace various amounts of times, depending on which letter. For example, for an "M" I would have to backspace three or four times, but for an "i" only once.

In any case, the font was completely different from the fonts on the Killian documents.

[Enterprise]

The possibility that the documents are faked has touched off a firestorm! And you threw an early match! Congratulations - I'm loving it!

[netmilsmom]

Fantastic!!!!!

You've done us all proud!

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

Congratulations, good eyes! While it's perhaps true that such a machine might have existed circa the dates on those memos, I most seriously doubt it would be hanging around a funky National Guard base in Texas.

[Cyber Ninja]

We must keep the poressure on! SAF-Ping

[BooBoo1000]

This is really a very good example of the low, untruthful, lying, that the Democratic Party is willing to go to sink G.W. I am sure of if you asked anyone in the Kerry Camp, they would disavow any knowledge of this.

But it would seem to be the type of think James Carville would be involved in. Too bad, but just wait until October, we will all be ashamed of both party's by the time we get to vote.

[billhilly]

You may get the presidential medal of honor for this. The DU crowd is probably thinking purple hearts. Watch your backside.

[Cboldt]

Actually, I think the IBM Executive serios typewriters were fairly simple to use. I never used one, bit judging from the advertisments used to market these machines, they weren't tough to use.

The more difficult task of full justification is a device facilitated by the "Selectric-Composer" model.

The proportional font spacing of the Executive was introduced by IBM in 1941.

http://www-1.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1941.html

IBM announces the Electromatic Model 04 electric typewriter, featuring the revolutionary concept of proportional spacing. By assigning varied rather than uniform spacing to different sized characters, the Type 4 recreated the appearance of a printed page, an effect that was further enhanced by a typewriter ribbon innovation that produced clearer, sharper words on the page. The proportional spacing feature became a staple of the IBM Executive series typewriters.

[putupjob]

Brilliant.

That was just plain incredible detective work. I saw one of your earlier posts and was musing...interesting. I see the day of MSM dominance is over. It's what Drudge said long ago, we can all become reporters.

Well done.

[Oblongata]

"I think a lot of us contacted Drudge....."

I think you're right. I need to apologize to all the other FReepers. I feel guilty like I'm taking to much credit here. I'm just caught up in the moment, because it's the first time I feel like I am involved in what could become a huge story. But you're right I need to keep a level head.

[daviddennis]

The Selectric is more recent than the Executive. The Executive was a traditional hammer and typebar unit, not a ball printer.

I actually used an IBM Electronic Typewriter 50 with proportional spacing in the 1980s. That was a Selectric with proportional spacing typeballs. I think that technology pretty much lived and died with that model. I don't remember a font similar to the ones used in the memos even then.

The Selectrics were hot stuff when introduced and were extremely expensive. They had interchangeable type fonts which made it possible to use different faces. The Executive did not have such a feature.

There's no way you could type a th as one character with an Executive unless it was actually part of the type font hard-wired into the typewriter.

I would say that in a military setting it would be extremely unlikely to have something like that lying around. These typewriters were designed for applications where the look of a document was important. All the military stuff I've seen is typed on old-style typewriters that don't even have the baseline lined up. I don't think they would ever have proportional units.

D

[billhilly]

In the mid 70s I bought a correcting selectric. If I recall correctly, it had two font balls. It was expensive, but not excessively so.

[ravingnutter]

Secretaries had to go to school to learn how to use these.

Yup...I was in the last half of my senior year in high school in 1976 when I learned how to use one at a vocational technical school, we didn't have them in our high school typing classes. I hated those things...making corrections was a pain in the posterior.

[TankerKC]

The proportional font spacing of the Executive was introduced by IBM in 1941.

Ouch.

I still say that there may be a problem with the formating (headers and signature block).

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I have seen and have actually used an IBM Selectric with the justified margins feature (I'm trying to remember what its official name was). It was used by our publicity department to lay out brochures, annual reports, etc.
I remember it was bigger than a regular Selectric and had a built-in computer that would not type at the same speed as I typed into it. Very unnerving for a two-fingered typist, believe me.

[rocklobster11]