Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Maylan Schurch
Sabbath, November 15, 2025
A couple of weeks ago I dropped by a favorite thrift store, headed to its office supplies section, and spotted the above glorious display. Ancient as they are, each of these machines was once received with gladness or relief by employees who’d previously had to do their work without them.
On the left is by far the oldest of the three, a Victor adding machine. You punched in numbers, you pulled the handle, and the machine stamped those numbers on a paper strip. The handle also advanced the paper so you could enter more numbers. When you were done, you did something with the buttons (I’ve never worked one of these, so I don’t know what), and the entire column would be magically added!
On the right you have a Tower manual typewriter, which used ink ribbons and your finger-muscles to type letters (and if you were sensible you used two sheets of paper with a “carbon” sheet between so you could keep a copy. This was before copier machines.)
And in the center is a handsome Smith-Corona electric typewriter, which did exactly what the Tower did but had a much lighter touch and a built in error-correction system. (What’s fascinating to note is that when I zoom in on the covers of both typewriters, the store is charging much more for the manual Tower — $199.99 – than the electric Smith-Corona — $42.99. “Antique value” at work!)
But what would be truly breathtaking to the original users of these machines is that I snapped these machines’ photo with a device which performs the function of all three – my smartphone — which I carry in my shirt pocket!
My Bible tells me that advanced knowledge is only one of several thrilling signs of Jesus’ return. To read about these signs directly from Scripture, click this link: