Guest typecast!

From the Emoticon Kid

Play Time

Pretty unrelated to  typewriters and all, except the young 'un was typing while I was watching it and, if you look closely, you might see some in this still. Play Time is a truly remarkable 60's film in the way it examines how humans manage to live - after a fashion - in 'modern' efficient living systems. It took several years to make and practically ruined Jacques Tati - no expense was spared in the production. The 70mm colour process is unique to his studio and the sound design is an extra comic character. What little dialogue there is, is mostly in English.

Foreign correspondent

Life feels so empty and meaningless now the Remington Rand Model 1 is finished. Whatever will I do with all this spare time? Maybe I should dust it.

Looks a bit wonky because I photographed it that way.  The typewriter's fine.

Happy feet

The cobbler in town wouldn't sell me any rubber soles to whittle new feet for my down at heel Remington Rand Model 1. Said he didn't want people going off mending their own shoes, even though I told him it was for a typewriter. Fair enough. But he did sell me a piece of 8mm flat rubber he uses for stacking soles for £2 - enough for 8 feet. Much better material than the heels would have been. It is dense enough to just be able to deform it a little when you pinch it. I used the metal 'shells' as templates, then cut pieces to size and shape with a Stanley knife, chamfering each of the edges and sandpapering to round the corners. For these to work, close is good enough. Clamping the shell to the new foot, I drilled a 4mm hole through to take the bolt. The photo shows the sequence.

The bolts have a shank which prevents them being screwed in too far and I'd evnvisaged having to cut a recess to accommodate the square washer but tightening the bolt snugged it well into the rubber. By the time I'd installed all four new feet, it was obvious that there was a small chance the bolt heads would scratch whatever surface the typewriter may be used on. There might have been 0.5mm clearance, and these will inevitably compress over time. If you could get this stuff in 10mm, it would be ideal. I just stuck on a handy patch of 3mm neoprene to cover the base of each foot. A bicycle inner tube repair patch would probably have been OK too.

Happy feet

For bikethru - RNP vs RR#1

Remington Rand s/n P31552 c.1938

Remington Noiselesss Portable s/n N48665 c.1934

Bikethru queried the 'noiseless' weights on the type bars linkage referring to Richard's Remington round-up.

I'm not sure that the pictures are much help. The Remington Rand Model 1 (s/n P31552) certainly looks to have disk shaped weights on part of the linkage, my Remington Noiseless Portable (s/n N48665) doesn't - yet it has that distinctive 'Remington silent' feel to the action and is, in fact, a little quieter. 

You'll spot the additional felt cushioning at the top of the RNP photo and the elbows which are visible just below that are weighted sections - sort of wedge shaped, as far as I can tell. The only way to be sure would be to strip it down, which I'm not about to do any time soon! The type heads on the RR#1 certainly don't whack the platen like, say, a Corona 4, but they do hit the paper with more energy than the Noiseless.

PS: Bikethru, who are you?