Same difference

On Journalism #2 Typewriter

© Julian Koschwitz 2012

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Keira Rathbone

This just dropped in to my e-mail inbox. Keira Rathbone carries the drawing-with-a-typewriter torch.

   

Seen on Toxel.com

Imperial Good Companion 5

Slower than the speed of light. s/n: 5G 990 c.1958ish

Olympia SF

Vorsprung durch Technik

This 1969 Olympia SF came from Oxford at the same time as the Good Companion 4. So, I was walking along the riverbank yesterday and spotted a 52mm Nikon lenscap - just there on the path. Nobody was around so I picked it up and took it home. It is always useful to have a spare.

I was packing the cap away with my old 'analogue' camera kit: a couple of outdated Nikon FMs and assorted lenses, and there were my old macro extension tubes and 50mm f1.8 Nikkor AIS, just sitting there, doing nothing. I clicked them together and fitted them to the DSLR and had a play under the glare of a 60watt Anglepoise.

For image quality, the 25 year-old lens knocks spots off the new kit zoom lenses I generally use - even though it was designed for full-frame 35mm and you have to set aperture and focus manually. Besides, in macro, you set the focus on infinity and shift the camera to and fro to get focus - exposure's just a matter of trial and error. It doesn't take long. Old meets new - I kept looking for the red exposure guide in the viewfinder. You just have to check the LCD monitor though. I reckon using old analogue lenses with a digital body is a very appealing way to take photos.

Doing this reminded me of a conversation I had a month or so back with someone who was praising the merit of 'fixies'. A modern pushbike with neither gears nor freewheel. You either get it or you don't. If you like the idea of fixies - you'll probably like this way of taking pictures for the same indefinable reasons.

Meanwhile, back to the subject. For all-round typing ability, small dimensions and beautiful results - this Olympia SF is the best ultraportable I have used. By miles. I'm not sure what the differences are between this, the angular SF and the Splendides. Until I took the macros, I thought the typeslugs were spotless but even dirty, the type is sharp, clear and effortless. German engineering perfection. Typecast coming soon.

PS: Anyone know why Olympias sometimes use the four domino dots for the margin release? 

PPS: I feel I should add that all these photos are unedited apart from some overall sharpening to compensate for any softening during processing, and re-sizing from 4288 pixels to 640 pixels.

Imperial Good Companion 4

Erratum: line 16 should read model 4 in the first instance.

Poems for sale...

...not by me, I should add.  I picked up this story about Ryan Ashley Knowles that I think's worth sharing.  

Read Mauricio Rocha's full story in Denver Westword...

Going Dutch

Adler Tippa. s/n 5458311

10/10 for cool logo. Adler is German for Eagle.

0/10 for brittle plastic body.

Now added to my Eurotrash gallery.

Stars

McGet, Mr Wahl, Mr Adney, Tori and Ted. Worth sharing.

Top quote: “My therapist told me to use a typerwriter.” Only in New York...

RR1-carriage strapped

I received an enquiry from James (hi James) by e-mail. Here's the gist of it:

"In the middle of last year I bought a Remington Rand Model 1. It looked great but came with a few hitches, which I had managed to sort out, myself. One of which was a faulty bell mechanism. I found your blog and I fixed it with a safety pin. So thanks for that.

Anyway, I was using it today and it has broken in a new and exciting way. Underneath the typewriter there is a wheel (I don't know the proper lingo for the parts) and there is a chord that comes out from this wheel and goes off somewhere. I don't know where it goes because today it snapped off and bits of thread and dust went everywhere on the desk and beneath the machine and I can't tell where it originally belonged.

...in short: The chord snapped beneath the typewriter. The end attached to the spring-loaded wheel is still attached. The other end is not. Do you know where it should be?"

The path of the carriage strap, the darker part being obscured from this (and any other) angle.

The fix:

1. Get some fresh cord. Something around 2mm diameter as it will need to be fine enough and flexible enough to travel from the motor round the pulley. Old nylon guitar string/tennis racket gut/cobbler's thread - improvise.
2. You'll also need a 12" length of stiff wire and a small screwdriver.
3. Knot the end of the cord and slot it into the appropriate slot in the motor's rim. The remaining short end should point you in the right direction. Having the machine in your lap on a cushion works best for me but however you hold the typewriter, you'll run out of hands.
4. From below, wind the cord around the motor once in a clockwise direction and, with the carriage moved out of the way to one side, drop the free end of the cord (which has now miraculously transformed into a carriage strap) over the pulley where it immediately doubles back on itself. A blob of BluTak may serve to keep the cord temporarily on the rim of the motor before step 5.
5. Gently and gingerly, thread your length of wire along the path shown in the photo. If you hit an obstruction, stop and use something thinner or improve your aim. An unbent wire coat hanger may work, if that's too thick or you don't have one, try my favourite makeshift tool - a bicycle spoke.
6. Tape the end of the cord to the wire and carefully pull it through and clamp it lightly at the far end of the carriage.
7. With the carriage exerting the just a little tension on the motor, and positioned at the end of the carriages travel (as if you were typing), knot the cord and secure the clamp.
8. The tension in the motor should be just enough to overcome the weight of the carriage and the friction it encounters as it travels along the rails. Just enough to get to the end of the line. Any greater tension could cause the escapement to skip spaces as you type. You can wind on more tension (or slacken it off) using the ratchet lever on top of the motor, visible when the carriage is all the way to the right.

I think that's it. Comments or improvements to this technique welcome!

Royal Standard

No, not THAT Royal Standard.

Last night, I picked up a Royal from an old friend who needed space. 

It has no bell that I can find and a few odd-looking levers. I should look for a manual somewhere.

So I think it is what's generally referred to as a "Royal KHM", circa 1937, one of the finest writing machines of its day. When it is cleaned up and running smoothly, I'll let you know.

Meanwhile, here's a pre- spit and polish photo. 

SN: KHM 2191365

Behemoth

Not nearly as pretty as a Valentine - or a house brick - the new Olivetti I have is, I think, a Linea. That's about all I can guess at, on the assumption that the only other desktop Olivettis I can find reference to are Lineas. The serial number is B03 0537 which, with inference from the Typewriter Database, possibly makes it a 1969/70 Linea 88. Advice to the contrary welcome!

It is actually a pretty good typewriter. The keys and tabs work fine. The left spring-loaded margin setting needs some oil and the paper table needs a good scrub - I'll find out how to re-fit it properly. As well as weighing a ton, you can comfortably 'park' a portable under its extended carriage! There's even a little bounce in the platen rubber. And the plastic shines up OK with lighter fluid and a soft cloth.

Thanks to Robin for the photos

Surprising as it may seem, it doesn't really hold a lot of appeal. OK, it types really well, but it is pretty soulless. The best part is the return lever and the smoothly restrained action of the carriage as it glides under braking all the way to a long-set tab.

Grumpy wizards

Click image to go to Google Web Font

Just been alerted to Google Web Fonts new collection. If you fancy adding a "... Smith Corona Special Elite Type No NR6", and don't mind getting your hands dirty under your website's hood, head on over to the collection and pick a font to add to your site. For legibility, I'm sticking with Georgia, for now. Special Elite could be good for headlines though!

Angels

So, Typewriter Day 2011 has been and gone. Trips were taken, photos made and videos captured. Google's response to typewriterday2011 numbers 129 results and counting - the typosphere's 40 watt light bulb glows a little brighter this evening.

For me, it was a day in two parts: first, I have made better movies with typewriters in them - but when you see everyone tapping away on the same day and for the same purpose, well, it brings a tear to the eye. Fun to be part of it. Like Facebook groups, another strange 'out of body' experience, bumping into folks on the 'Tube. But then, my view count went through the floor. Could it be all my regulars were out with their camcorders? Not that stats matter. This is all about personal expression and a fondness for typewriters... right?

The Good Companion has just left the building on its way to my little sister, courtesy of another good companion. Sorry it is late Di, worth the wait, should be there by 11.00pm. And there's a gap in the carpet on the dining room floor where it used to sit. Sigh.

NOT to worry, please allow me to introduce you to Everest K2! You'll have spotted it in action in the video of the previous post. At £32.45, it was VERY expensive (for me) but worth every penny. Proper photo under controlled studio conditions will follow soon when the K2 is greeted at the Pearly Gates and finds a  final resting place among Typewriter Heaven's other Eurotrash.

Alicia Keys - Typewriter

Just in time for International Typewriter Day (23 June) a new anthem for angst-ridden typorati. Nice change from Leroy Anderson's The Typewriter.

What's new?

Is there a name for a blog post which shamelessly re-hashes other people's stuff? Anyway, when I saw this Royal advert posted (can someone remind me who?), it triggered an instant recall of...

...Todd McLellan's image of the disassembled Smith Corona which, in turn, reminded me of ...

....a Keith Haring painting...

...who's style was ripped-off rather poorly for Her Majesty's Government's Change 4 Life campaign to combat obsesity. Pity the imagery relates less to health-giving vegetables and more to...

...Jelly Babies! The only food you'll ever see Time Lords eating. There's been a bag in the Doctor's pocket for, well, millennia. Which brings us nicely back to typewriters. 

This season's redecorated TARDIS must have picked up its new typewriter in the Typosphere :-)

Orwell's long shadow

A neighbour of mine was helping out at The Orwell Prize awards evening in London on Tuesday this week (17 May 2011). Here's an author who was not featured in the LIFE gallery a month or so ago: George Orwell (Eric Blair) at work on an unspecified typewriter. He's reported to have owned a Remington Portable...any ideas?

His work lives on through The Prize, and in his still-popular political novels, for example The Road to Wigan Pier. His books were certainly part of my political education. Although he died in 1950, you can subscribe to his 70 year-old blog (which he wrote longhand) of world events during WW2. And as you do, take note of how his reporting resonates to this day.

He's buried just upstream in All Saint's churchyard in the village of Sutton Courtenay.

© Unknown. Possibly The Manchester Guardian

Type bar? Cheers!

Spot the typewriter? No, I couldn't see one either. But you just know there's an old Underwood lurking out of shot. 

Half a dozen bar type jokes: 

1. Munk walks into a bar with Kennedy. Barman says, "Why the long face?"
2. Big typewriter fighting his way through a crowded bar. Bumps into a little typewriter. Big typewriter yells, "SHIFT".
3. Homeless typewriter walks into a bar. It was a Bar-Let.
4. Where does an Alien Typospherian drink? In a space bar.
5. A keychopper walks into a bar with a Corona under his arm and orders a screwdriver. Barman says, "Sorry, we don't sever your type in here."
6. A Mexican typo walks into a bar and orders a Corona. Barman says, "Sorry, hombre, we don't sever your type in here."

Over to you...

Post script: Turns out this type bar post was proividential. 
Happy Birthday type bars around the world. Thank you Jennifer.

All work and no play

After a week's neglect, I revisited the misaligned lowercase on my Olympia SM4 with the same hopes I might harbour returning to a baffling crossword clue. 

The upper and lower stops for the carriage's vertical travel (see earlier post) were so hard to reach, I decided that their adjustment shouldn't be the solution to fixing the unusefully large amount of play problem on an otherwise pristine Olympus. 

There were two sources of to-and-fro play in the carriage that I could see. One being the (unfathomable) shifting linkage, the other the bearings and the tracks the ball-races run along. I unclipped the carriage strap and spent a few minutes running it from side to side to see how the play might be eliminated. I'd assumed the two rails were part of the same pressing but when I got my magnifying glass out I could see that the rails were separately mounted and that the rail on the keyboard side showed a tell-tail knurled surface beneath one of the screws. An adjustment slot? Could be. After slackening the screws at both ends of the rail, I pushed each rail away from the other as far seemed practicable. I'd guess somewhere between 0.5mm and 1mm. Then I retightened the screws, adjusted the back rail stops (at bottom, see photo) and checked that the carriage still ran freely under ts own weight. It did and it worked! A few lines of type showed legible descenders on the lowercase where previously they'd been faint ghosts. The seven eighths is joy to behold!

Both photos taken under a desk light, typing not scanned. PS: The slow bike ride happened - I lost - and I didn't suffer the indignity of the knobbly knees competition.

So, if you find yourself with misaligned lowercase on an SM4 - maybe the above will help. I hope so. And thanks again to Robert and Mike for their helpful suggestions. Sometimes it is good to walk in the wrong direction before arriving at the destination.