IBM Selectric Composer used to try and reproduce a memo

[ATFFL]

Well, we have all been asking for it, and it has now been tried.  Took a little research to find these, but someone has tried to reproduce a memo on the machine everyone is saying was used to type the original.

http://shapeofdays.typepad.com/the_shape_of_days/2004/09/the_ibm_selectr.html

Here are some snips for those who want to save themselves the time that it would take to read them all.



That is the result fo the attempt to produce it on the IBM Selectric.  Realizing that the spacing could be adjusted to match better the lines were copied in photoshop and each individual line was aligned on top of the oroginal document.  This is the result:



Close, but not perfect.  Not as close as people are making with MS Word.

Here is how the superscript was made:

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Some comments on the centered header on all the memos:

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Finally, an image of the centered letterhead created in MS Word.




There is more information that I have not presented here.  I encourage all of you to read the entire thing before commenting.  


A few reference links.  

The Selectric Typewriter Museum:
http://www.selectric.org/selectric/indexold.html

Comments from the owner of that site.
http://www.selectric.org/selectric/

[ATFFL]

The "1"s in the memo were really "l"s. Whoever made this attempt wasn't doing a very good job.

What happened to the argument that typewriters don't have closed "4"s?

Umm, where are you getting the thing with the "1"s and "l"s?

Could you stick to the content of what I posted.

Someone used the machine that several people have cited on here as using to produce the memos.  They did everything they could to get them to match up.  If that included using alternate "ls" and "1"s that is a good thing, not a bad thing.

[ATFFL]

All of your points are dealt with in the article.

The "th" required a lot of work to produce.  He describes how much in the article.  He also says why it might be off.

Military protocol requires that the typist, if not the author, initials the memo so people know that it was typed by a third party.  these are not present on the documents.  This can be real important when passing orders or making sure secret information stays within the proper clearance levels.  Either the typist forgot these or they were typed by the author, or they were forged.  A professional military secretary is not going to forget something so important.  The author was not a known typist, and this is not an ordinary typewriter.

A regular "th" used to make a superscript would be the same size as the other letters.  They are clearly not in the document in question.

That the documents were respaced to try and match up is a good bit of investigative journalism.  A hack would have just said they don't match and left it.

It looks close with spacing adjusted.  MSWord looks better.

Occam's razor, jfern.  If one method produces a 95% match and one a 100% match which one is more likely to have been used?

[ATFFL]

I am surprised this is not getting more attention here.  This is a test sme of us have been calling for.  Here it is and the Selectric Composer is out as a source for the documents.

[ATFFL]

I just found out what jfern did.  He saw the images I used, and assumed I was pulling them from freerupblic (a known highly partisan site.)  Thus he figured the arguement about the "1"s being "l"s was part of it.  Knowing this is a weak argument he set it up and knocked it down.  A total strawman argument and not a part of the case beign asserted here.

[ATFFL]

I am surprised this is not getting more attention here.  This is a test sme of us have been calling for.  Here it is and the Selectric Composer is out as a source for the documents.

You should read this (and my response to you above) since you think things are so definitive:
http://www.tabloidcolumn.com/bush-national-guard-memo.html

You continue to miss the point.  If there was a typewriter that can produce an exact replica of the document, why has no one done so yet?  I understand it may take time to check all possible typewriters, but many can be eliminated just because the font was not made for them.

The IBM Selectric Composer has been cited by many people as being able to produce the document.  It did have every feature available that was needed for the document.  To test if an IBM Selectric Composer did make the document in question someone attempted to recreate the document.  The document is not a match.  Thus the IBM Selectric Composer can be ruled out as having produced the original.

I am not saying that no other typewriter had all of the necessary features.  However, to this point no one else has come up with a typewriter that had all the features.   There remains the theoretical possibility of such a typewriter, but no one has yet to produce one.

So, find me a typewriter that has the TNR font available, superscripting, kerning, proportional spacing and capable of precise centering and we can run the same test.  An actual typewriter, not a theoretical one.

If the technology existed in another machine, produce it.  None of your previous replies have mentioned a specific machine capable of all the required elements, only that such technology existed.  It clearly did in the Selectric Composer.

The Selectric and Selectric II have both been tested.   http://www.selectric.org/selectric/

And an example comparing the Selectric to the document in question, from the same site as above.  http://www.selectric.org/selectric/fonts/prestigeelite72.gif

[ATFFL]

I am surprised this is not getting more attention here.  This is a test sme of us have been calling for.  Here it is and the Selectric Composer is out as a source for the documents.

You should read this (and my response to you above) since you think things are so definitive:
http://www.tabloidcolumn.com/bush-national-guard-memo.html

You continue to miss the point.  If there was a typewriter that can produce an exact replica of the document, why has no one done so yet?  I understand it may take time to check all possible typewriters, but many can be eliminated just because the font was not made for them.

The IBM Selectric Composer has been cited by many people as being able to produce the document.  It did have every feature available that was needed for the document.  To test if an IBM Selectric Composer did make the document in question someone attempted to recreate the document.  The document is not a match.  Thus the IBM Selectric Composer can be ruled out as having produced the original.

I am not saying that no other typewriter had all of the necessary features.  However, to this point no one else has come up with a typewriter that had all the features.   There remains the theoretical possibility of such a typewriter, but no one has yet to produce one.

So, find me a typewriter that has the TNR font available, superscripting, kerning, proportional spacing and capable of precise centering and we can run the same test.  An actual typewriter, not a theoretical one.

If the technology existed in another machine, produce it.  None of your previous replies have mentioned a specific machine capable of all the required elements, only that such technology existed.  It clearly did in the Selectric Composer.

The Selectric and Selectric II have both been tested.   http://www.selectric.org/selectric/

And an example comparing the Selectric to the document in question, from the same site as above.  http://www.selectric.org/selectric/fonts/prestigeelite72.gif

TNR - typerwriters have it and similar looking fonts (the PDFs aren't high enough quality to be sure which font it is)

Superscripting - It's a raised "th" key

Kerning - Where's the kerning?

Proportional spacing - Been available on typewriters since the '40s

Precise centering - A basic learned skill

If it is so damn easy to find a typewriter that can do all of these, I expect you will be providing a list of them shortly.

I concede that each individual technology was available.  What we need is a typewriter that is capable of producing all of them at the same time.  The Selectric Composer did have that capability; it has been tested and eliminated as a source of the documents.

Please stop telling me that they were available at the time.  This is a documented fact that they were.  No one is still arguing that they were not.  

I know what each of them are.  I am not asking for a definition, I am asking for you (or anyone) to locate a machine that is capable of using all them simultaneously.

We also then have to deal with the problem that these new memos have features not found in documents known to have been produced by Lt Colonel Killian.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18982-2004Sep13.html

That is the Washington Post and it requires a free subscription.  Use an e-mail address you can accept spam at.

The known, control samples lack superscripting, proportional spacing and kerning (proportional spacing is a pre-requisite for kerning).  If genuine these four memos would be the only ones known to have been produced by LtC Killian that had those features.  This would mean that

So you know as you look for a typewriter with all the required abilities, kerning is the ability of one letter to appear inside the area of another.  Here is an example:



Notice how in the second one, the kerned example, the "w" leans over the bottom edge of the "A"?  That is kerning.  It is extremely rare and is the ability that most of the typewriters that could have produced the documents lack.


At this point I am certain the documents are forgeries.

[ATFFL]

All the experts you cite, dougrhess, say the technology was possible.  No one argues this anymore.  None of the experts you cite can point to a typewriter that had all the technology required that has not been tested yet.  They have had a week to find one now.  Every typewriter that it has been said could have produced does not produce a document that matches the documents in question.  When an expert says that it could have have been made on a specific machine, someone should grab that machine and try and reproduce.  It is a simple enough test.

Sure, it could have been produced on an IBM Selectric Composer, but it was not.  It could have been produced on an Executive, but it was not.  If anyone knows of another machine that had most or all of the needed machines, lets try them out.  

Not to mention the documents do not match ones known to have been produced in Killian's office.

[ATFFL]

1. Sorry about the name.  I meant to fix that.  My name gets screwed up a lot, so I know how annoying it is.  Actually confused you with someone from a different forum.  Got his name wrong too.

2. Occam's razor.  MS Word produces an exact copy.  The Selectric Composer is very close on 3 lines, and off pretty bad on one (the second line).  Which is more likely.  MSWord produced the document or the Selectric Composer?  

3. The last one was the kicker for me.  What are the odds that of all the documents produced at the time only 4 , written over the course of months?  Occam's Razor again.  Which is more likely, that an office would only use the advanced features of their typewriter on four memos written about a specific person over the course of three months or the memos were not written in that office at that time?