Fixing typewriters is a devotion for Downers Grove ‘old soul’

Lucas Dul tinkers in a windowless workshop, his machines heaped on shelves — some pristine, some tucked away in their original leather cases, others mere carcasses.

So many that he has lost count.

The nail on his left thumb was shattered when a piece of hardware fell on it a few weeks ago. Otherwise, his hands are unblemished — 23-year-old hands devoted to a technology most probably consider all but extinct: the typewriter.

Dul works out of his parents’ Downers Grove basement repairing typewriters. He has repaired hundreds of them since, at 14, he picked up a 1930s Royal No. 10 at an antique shop and tried to fix it.

And there are so many more that need screws, springs and rubber pieces replaced — or whole mechanisms rebuilt.

“Even full-time is not enough to cater to the need that’s out there,” Dul says. “I have a backlog 70 people-deep. Sixty machines sitting behind you. Every single one of them needs work.”

To read more of this story, visit https://chicago.suntimes.com/entertainment-and-culture/2024/1/29/24050876/lucas-dul-downers-grove-typewriter-repair.