Posted: Tue 20th Nov 2012

Wrexham Produces The UK’s Last Typewriter

Wrexham.com for people living in or visiting the Wrexham area
This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Nov 20th, 2012

The last typewriter to be produced in the UK has come off the production line at a factory in North Wales.

Brother’s CM1000 electronic typewriter will now take its place in history on display at the Science Museum in London. It is the 5,855,533rd typewriter to be produced in the factory since it opened in 1985.

The factory – owned by Brother International, a worldwide technology and electronics company which has its European and UK headquarters in Manchester, England – will continue to be in operation.

Edward Bryan is one of Brother’s longest serving members of staff at the North Wales factory. He said: “I’ll be sad to see the end of the typewriter. I started working here in 1989 and have helped to make around 5.8million typewriters. But we have to move with the times, and so now we’re enjoying working on other office technologies and Brother’s recycling scheme for its used printer cartridges.”

Phil Jones, UK country head of Brother said: “We made the decision to end production of the typewriter simply because office culture has changed so dramatically since we began back in 1985. Employees are now much more collaborative, for example, sharing work using cloud computing and interacting more face-to-face, which has become easier and quicker due to new technologies such as web conferencing. Our business now focuses on bringing these new technologies to our customers.

“However, despite all these changes, the typewriter does hold a special place in the hearts of some of our most loyal customers and staff. Because of this, and the typewriter’s importance in the history of business communication, we felt that giving it a home at the Science Museum would be a fitting tribute.”

Rachel Boon, Assistant Curator of Technologies and Engineering at the Science Museum, London, said: “We’re excited to add the Brother CM1000 to our rich collection of typewriters. This object represents the end of typewriter manufacture in the UK, a technology which has developed over the last 130 years and has been important to so many lives. This model will enable us to tell the story of how technology has evolved in accordance with our communication needs. We’d like to thank Brother for the company’s kind donation, which will be an invaluable addition to over 200 typewriters in our collection.”

You can view the BBC’s video report here.



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