Wednesday, April 4, 2012

The Jaykay typewriter


 
 
 





Followup: The typewriter's Indian origin has been confirmed! Read about it here.

Frans van de Rivière has pointed out to me that there was another Indian typewriter manufacturer: FAL (Facit Asia Limited).

The highest known Brosette serial number is 46160.

Georg Sommeregger on Brosettes
Will Davis on Brosettes
Robert Messenger on Brosettes
Adwoa Bagalini on her silver Brosette
David of 9.ai on his Brosettes
A partial look at a Brosette user's manual, posted by Adwoa

PS (2018): Read Mike Brown's extensive research on the Brosette, including the Jaykay 

15 comments:

  1. Wow, what a super interesting find! Another proof that there is still lots of things to discover. Even though we still need to corroborate the "made in India" hypothesis, the existence of this first Jaykay is a sensation already - so far, the "sold to India" story sounded very exotic - now, we are maybe looking at it!

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  2. Looks pretty unscathed from its travels and seems to type reasonably well. It will be interesting to see if you can flush out a few more JayKays - and maybe answer the question what do the J and K stand for.

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  3. Funny, I was just wondering if you had a Godrej in your collection.
    Since I have not yet encountered a Brosette, let alone a Jaykay (curious name), I'm curious how the typing feel is.

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    1. It's all right -- pretty smooth and easy for a small typewriter like this. Similar to a Cole-Steel/ABC.

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  4. Very nice typewriter. I learned quite a bit by your post. I have a Signet that has the margin on the body also, one margin, no bell, no upper case and quite a bit of no, but it works nice. I guess during the depression companies did what they could to stay afloat.

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  5. My grandpa gave me the same typewriter a couple years ago. Yes, I'm from India and he was used it in his office in Calcutta some 40 years ago.
    I currently use it to write, though the typing is not that good, perhaps because its such an old machine.

    Check it out, lol
    instagram.com/thegoodfornothing

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    1. Thanks for commenting. It's good to see a Jaykay communicating with so many people in the 21st century. Keep it up.

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  6. we have one of this typewriter with case and manual (serial number:85256) it looks like it must be made in india.
    if you need we can send the images reach us purecollectibles.com

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  7. I have this type of typewriter in my eye what's the price to pay . please advise me

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    1. Sorry, I really don't know, because I don't know how common they are in India or how much demand there is.

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  8. Hello Richard,
    Lovely blog! I just got a similar one which belonged to my wife’s grandfather. My father in law has memories of seeing his father work on it as an advocate since he was a kid. So probably the machine is 60+ years old.
    This one doesn’t have an Exclamation mark which is quite quirky.

    Even I couldn’t find much info about it but learned that it was made in Calcutta with 90% Indian parts and 10% imported ones. Mine had a broken main spring which the mechanic replaced with one from a Godrej typewriter, which since was broader had to be ground an a lathe machine.
    This green colour is also quite well known by the mechanics here in India as they were easily able to recognise it when I mentioned Jaykay portable as it’s name.

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    1. Thank you for your comment. That lovely green really is distinctive. I'm glad that you have a skilled mechanic to help you, and I appreciate the information about the sources of the parts.

      Many typewriters lack an exclamation point; just type apostrophe-backspace-period.

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  9. I have Jaykay typewriter and biught it from Calcutta, India.
    I am also from Kolkata

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  10. I have the same type writer in NZ here

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