As a Rolla couple quietly types on a phone, tablet or laptop keyboard, they bring to life the sound, feel and smell of an ancient way of getting their thoughts onto the page.

Shane and Amanda Byrne are the owners of Clickety Clack Typewriters, a new store that sells and services vintage typewriters and has built a community of enthusiasts.

For Shane Byrne, the feeling of typing on a typewriter doesn’t mean pixels exploding on the screen. “It’s intentional, it’s intentional.” he said. “You take your thoughts and put them on paper, and no one can take that away from you.”

His love affair began in 2019 when he embarked on a journey for a job in the Navy. He came across an antique store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Royal Quiet Deluxe typewriter saw.

“I fell in love immediately,” he said. “The rest is history.”

Thus began Shane Byrne’s typewriter collection. He soon began teaching himself how to repair them and reached out to other manual typewriter collectors and enthusiasts to learn as much as he could.

Soon, typewriters began to fascinate Amanda Byrne, too. She is getting an online master’s degree in creative writing and often has to write using a computer, but she doesn’t enjoy it.

For starters, Amanda Byrne said, “It’s very two-dimensional, very flat.”

Then there’s the ephemeral nature of writing on the screen. “You put something in the cloud and it just kind of disappears and you really hope it’s there the next time you log in,” he said. “But with a typewriter, you have the touch, the weight of your hands, the sound, the smell of the ink.”

Sophie Proe

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St. Louis Public Radio

More than a store

Now retired, Byrnes moved to Rolla to be closer to family. They opened Clickety Clack Typewriters in May as part retail store, part repair shop, part museum and parts collecting place for enthusiasts.

Among the several dozen typewriters on display in their brick-and-mortar store in the old Phelps County Courthouse is the Underwood No. 1, a worldwide sales leader with over 5 million units sold between 1900 and 1932. There are also 5 typewriters. Also in the collection are keyboards for different languages.

In addition to selling and repairing typewriters, Byrne also hosts community events where hobbyists and enthusiasts can try out typewriters.

“They can basically write whatever they want and take it with them. It will be in their hands so they can gain experience,” said Shane Byrne. “We had people attending these events ranging from ages 5 to 95.”

Sophie Proe

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St. Louis Public Radio

The Byrnes family especially likes that children who have never seen a typewriter before have the chance to try one.

“People say kids don’t have attention spans and are glued to screens, but I’ve seen young kids type on a 75-year-old typewriter for close to an hour and their parents can’t believe how time flies.” Amanda Byrne said.

Byrnes says Clickety Clack Typewriters has so far been less about making money and more about covering its expenses and building a community. But introducing more people to fascinating manual typewriters has been a labor of love that pays off one keystroke at a time.

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