Posted on 09/11/2004 1:46:40 AM PDT by The Bandit
Talked back and forth with a typewriter collector named Chuck who lives in Redlands, CA. He happened to have a working IBM Selectric Composer Typewriter circa 1972! Here is the scoop I got from him....
IBM had a Roman font element, he said it was called "Aldine Roman." The element I guess is what we been calling a golf ball on here! He said it is very similar to MS New Roman, in fact ALMOST identical. BUT, he said the IBM element Roman font had a observable difference in the capital C. He says he does not see a IBM Selectric Composer Typewriter element C in the Killian memo's. He also said if the memo's line up exactly with text from MS Word then he would be very, very suspicious of the source.
About the superscript, he said it could be done but not exactly like it shows in in the memo's AND would take effort, not something he'd expect a unexperienced typist using a such a new type of machine.
Bottom line: memo's did not come from a IBM Selectric Composer Typewriter.
I am beat after all this, good night and hope this info is useful!
It seems to me a comparison of authentic typed documents from that unit during that time would settle the issue.
Are you telling me that the CBS pdf has to be scaled to make it compatible with the Word document? If you allow scaling, the whole business becomes a lot more subjective.
"However, none of these distotrtions cover up for the fact that gross comparisons alone - line breaks, automatic superscripts in all places EXCEPT where a space is inserted, etc. - nail the documents as forgeries."
Is it so far fetched that default Microsoft document formatting would be based on industry-standard IBM typewriters?
"And then there are the dozens of diversions from military style in the documents."
Well, some of the documents seem to be made just for personal filing purposes.
"And then there is the center-justified headings INSTEAD OF letterhead."
So?
"And on and on. At this point, you'd have an easier task making the Hitler Diaries be accepted as genuine."
All I'm saying that FR and other conservatives on the web will have a huge egg on their collective face if it turns out that the documents were indeed authentic. We should be a bit more cautious.
There's a marked difference between Times Roman and Helvetica. But, point taken.
If you compare the "th" in the forged document with the "th" on the second line of the official document - the one that Dan used to "prove" that superscript was available on typewriters, you will see that on the official document the top of the "th" is level with the top of the numbers preceeding it.
In the forged document the middle of the "th" is level with the top of the numbers preceeding it, and the top half of the "th" is above the top of the numbers. Can't do that with a typewriter.
IMHO, they had the best keyboard of any device known to man (well, at least this man!)
I've got one old IBM computer keyboard that comes close to the selectric in terms of feel, with a hard and distinct "key click."
Does anyone know where I might be able to find more keyboards like this? I've never seen them anywhere else, and it seems all the newer keyboards have a sort of "mushy" key feel, even the IBMs.
The keyboard I've got was old when I bought it (used), and that was at least 12 or 13 years ago!
Mark
If Col. Killian's business documents produced before and after the dates on these "memos" show any uniform and consistent flaws, then these memos would have to have exactly the same imperfections as the real documents, if they were produced by the colonel. Is there any repository of unclassified documents bearing the signature of the good colonel around the time of these "memos" that we can use to establish a baseline for the typewriter?
Phil Dragoo has provide a link which shows us how this forgery was done on a computer with MS Word 2002.
Go to the link and see what Howlin told us, unfold in about one minute.
http://img41.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img41&image=60minbusted.swf
Go to this link and see how the forgery was done with MS 2002.
http://img41.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img41&image=60minbusted.swf
Would a Composer's default vertical single space default line up PERFECTLY with a document made by MS WORD? The Killian documents line up vertically perfectly with the MS Word default single space for Times New Roman.
If the Composer's default verticle line spacing was not identical to MS Word, then it could not be the typewriter even if the fonts lined up perfectly (which they don't).
You're right about the machine costing as much as 2 cars. I bough a new Firebird in 1970 and it cost about $3,700 in 1970 money.
The argument about Killian somehow, months apart, *manually* producing pixel-level corresponding centered letterheads is new to me but seems crushing.
It's not clear to me that the th is raised, but it is definitely in a different font than the rest of the text and would have required (minimally) a change of a selectric ball for two letters on a fricking memo which was going nowhere.
About like the odds of the sun coming up in the west tommorrow morning.
The memo is a fraud.
I clerked in the Georgia National Guard from 1971 - 1977.
I never saw anything but a manual typewriter.
Yes, the line-breaks alone nail it. Typewriters have a margin bell. By default, MSWord calculates line breaks to avoid hyphenating words.
Well, perhaps, but would they degrade upward? The serifs on Times Roman have fine strokes, which would, I think, disappear with deterioration.
13 point line spacing. Find ANY typewriter on the planet that does that...
...didn't think so.
I suppose you think OJ DIDN'T slash those people's throats? This crossed the line of reasonable doubt long ago.
You are interested in the IBM "Model M" keyboard. IBM sold the technology to their internal company Lexmark, which was spun off. Lexmark eventually sold the keyboard technology and rights to a company called Unicomp.
Unicomp makes new keyboards with the old IBM "buckling spring" technology, you may find them at this URL on the web. You may also find sites that sell old IBM model M keyboards such as this on-line store.
IBM did a great job with the keyboard feel of the IBM model M keyboard, but even they never quite got the Selectric II keyboard feel translated to a computer keyboard...
Good luck,
dvwjr
Good days work, my friend. We'll take it from here.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.