Wireless Telecorrespondent Update
Contrary to our earlier prediction, it now appears that the mechanical skeleton of the Wireless Telecorrespondent will be the Remington Noiseless Number 8 typewriter. There appears to be enough room in its interior (once gutted) for the requisite Mini-ITX motherboard, and the condition of the exterior shell is superb.
The Noiseless #8 is a beautiful machine. Of all the devices that we’ve been cannibalizing from in the course of this project, the #8 was by far the most pleasant and exciting to dig into. Not that we know all that much about typewriter internals, but this one is very obviously superbly designed and solidly built. We look forward with great anticipation to the adaptation work that lies ahead of us.
In the meantime, we’ve decided to use the shell of a Remington Rand adding machine
as the base for a combined numerical keypad and optical trackball. (Plus maybe a power switch and a few other geegaws, as inspiration strikes us.)