Wizard of Oz

Legendary Robert Messenger's Typewriters: "From A to Z" opens at Canberra Museum and Gallery on 14 July and runs to 16 September.

Canberra museum exhibition page

 Robert's blog "Oz Typewriter"

Video courtesy of the Brisbane Times

Go-between

In confidence

Blink

Same difference

Jesse and the typewriter shop

©Form Follows Function

I know, already posted elsewhere but this deserves all the attention it can get.

On Journalism #2 Typewriter

© Julian Koschwitz 2012

More info...

Torpedo Blue Bird

Research so far suggests it is a West German made Torpedo Blue Bird. Possibly the marque's last incarnation, from around 1964 (tw-db).

Footnote #1: I wouldn't really expect a maths typewriter to have an exclamation mark, but it seems strange that it has neither 1 nor zero - both figure prominently in maths I'm familiar with.

Footnote #2: Given the genealogy this machine might share with the Imperial Good Companion 5, I'm planning a "compare and contrast" photo-feature soon. First impression? They are totally different machines.

Road

© John Hinde Curteich

TypeRider web site

AEG Olympia Traveller de Luxe S

Still about the badge?

Functional, businesslike aesthetic

The AEG has a bigger footprint

Twins under the hood

Almost forgot - it came with an illustrated manual - available here to download [4Mb pdf]

The Lapwings Descending

Slightly wide of topic but hey, it is good to share.

This is no tropical rainforest - though it has been pretty wet recently. But, if you'd like to support the campaign against habitat destruction through mineral extraction, please visit the Communities Against Gravel Extraction website and have an opinion or make a donation.

The Typewriter Insurgency

I found a new use for typewriters. Or maybe an old use seen from a new perspective.

I retyped The Manifesto (and translated it into English) and, of course, in so doing had cause to reflect on the strength of feeling and connection I made with the words. Typewriting does that, if you let it.

I had to fight hard against the instinct to type out the web address of either the "original" Manifesto or the typosphere. It seemed somehow inappropriate. As does sharing it as a scanned and uploaded rewrite of a typewritten original which itself was scanned, uploaded, wound-up and left ticking on Webstarts. So, no links - no tags - no attributions.

In re-reading it, there are sentiments here which chime resonantly with what M.T. "Back from the Wilderness" Coalhopper (see link on right) has to say about the Facebook.

I'm more inclined to treat typewriting as a means of balancing my existence in the data stream rather than replacing it. Yin Yang.

Whether I'll find sufficiently deviant outlets to leave this lying around, I don't know. But manifestos have proved to be equally powerful when carefully folded, tucked into a breast pocket and carried close to the heart.

Meanwhile, there's enough in the sentiment of the manifesto to at least make re-posting a facsimile a good thing to do. And it may be time already to update the rallying cry to:

"The Revolution is being typewritten"

And so on.

Bar-Let: improvisation

Organ donor. Sad face.

It is crude, but it works!

The pivot screw from a child's compass is un-blued and looks out of place, but is a perfect fit.

Centre feed roller from bike pump adaptor. Yellow ones from the inflation tube of a Rock-it toy (you fill a plastic coke bottle with water, pressurise it until it lifts off). Original brass wire roller pins re-used - bike spokes are too thick!

Who could resist those hi-tech spools and cheeky grin.

Click to enlarge

Bar-Let Model 2

The humble, almost toy-like Bar-Let Model 2. S/N30158, Nottingham, England. 1936.

Line return ratchet forms an adjustable 1 or 2 line 'pinch and push' carriage return like the Corona 3. The hunt is on for a replacement for the missing spring which returns the lever to its un-pinched position while (hopefully) engaging the ratchet.

Missing screw and nut from one end of the margin rack. It actually sort of works without it but I'd like to find a replacement.

Behold! The flip-top carriage reveals the strapless, direct drive motor. Note the gaps where the feed rollers have been removed. There's a third hidden (with the carriage in this position) behind the central motor.

L-R: intact brass wire feed roller pin, atrophied roller with flat spots, broken pin, blade-scraped roller, even more broken pin and finally, a cleaned up roller awaiting new rubber.

Robert Messenger's recent post on Bar-Lock portables moved me to climb into the loft and drag out my much neglected Bar-Let Model 2. Many moons ago, I bought this from someone in Loughborough for either £6 or £16, I can't remember. A friend picked it up and held onto it for 6 months or so before I managed to collect it. Then I discovered that although it was a very interesting machine in lots of respects, it didn't work very well. But what value. All these years later it is still providing entertainment, but it is maybe time to address some issues.

I did manage to force-feed a sheet of A4 onto the platen and type a few words - not a pretty sight. Though the ribbon is OK, the alignment needs adjusting a pain, as it is a 3 bank with cap and figure shifts) but I think I have found the correct adjusters. But first, it needs to take paper and perform a reasonably efficient carriage return. The brass wire pins should be easy enough to replace. For new rubber for the feed rollers, I'll look for some tubing with more or less identical inner and outer diameters. I'm not sure how heavy duty the return lever spring needs to be, or what length, or what it attaches to... and I have no idea where to find a small screw and nut set for the margin rack - I wonder if a defunct electrical appliance might have the right scale hardware?

The excellent news is that the case is sheet steel and in good condition. The base-board is thick cork, through which the rubber feet of the machine are threaded. It generally stays fixed to the base board.

For ingenuity and innovation, the Bar-Let Model 2 scores highly and when it is up and running, I can find out if it truly is the rubbish typer it is reputed to be.

 Alan Seaver's useful background to this typewriter.

Typewriter medicine

Off sick from school? Bored of daytime TV? No homework? No problem! Just come on over to Wallingford Typewriter Exchange and we'll sort you out with a loaner.

After trying quite a few different machines, Evie fell upon the Olympia SF with gusto (kid's got great taste) and ended up taking it home. Maybe it was the way I described it as a bit more lady-like than the SM2 she was wrestling with.

I hear she's on her second novel now (mostly in red, as it happens), and hopefully well enough to be back at school.

Now all I need to do is persuade her to bring it back... you see, it isn't my typewriter.

What happens next?

Case closed

Still not a pretty sight, despite an hour's attention with 40 grit AlOx paper.

Robert Messenger's recent post on Bar-Lock portables
Alan Seaver's ode to an evolutionary cul-de-sac

The quick brown fox...

On the strength of Florian's recommendation, I bagged myself some Cold War iron with this Optima. It is quite a distance for me to collect but plans are afoot for a pick-up. Thank (Typewriter) Heavens for godchildren - though technically I'm a supporter rather than a godfather - my accursed atheism gets in the way sometimes. Chocolate keys and the nose of a lazy dog!

Open and shut case

Larry, for short

Photos by request of Bill M. Harsh sunlight not showing the rich tweedy green colour to its best. Very different to the dove grey/green SM3

Plenty of pitted and tarnished chrome but the badge is pristine. It is all about the badge.

Unsuccessful attempt to install Adobe CS... it is still a typewriter, no matter how close you put the mouse.

Lazarus? Larry? It'll do as a name (strictly one-off) until I make a note of the serial number. First look, its appearance is better on-screen than in the flesh (how often do you hear that in the green room).

Apart from blowing away some dust and hair and moth larva cases (and the laying on of hands), I haven't cleaned it. There's tarnish to the brightwork on the carriage, especially the control surfaces. This is just part of the machine's story, like wrinkles. But in comparison to an SM3 in far finer fettle, the key action is a tiny bit on the stiff side. The surface tarnish has affected the segment but it is easing with use. It is impossible to clean the slots and the pivot area of the type arms so I'm tempted to try a miniscule drop of WD40 (a "dry" lube) along the pivots to free them up further - any objections?

Notes

1. The shift and backspace are mossy green, the rest of the keys are black.
2. None of the character keys are sprung - unlike SMs 3 and 4 - though the shift keys are.
3. The return lever sticks up at the end, not down.
4. All sheet metal surfaces of the housing have black felt sound insulation. Therefore it stinks a bit.

There's a group of men in the street in hi-viz jackets digging a hole. They are either looking for Lazarus or fixing my broadband. Hard to tell. Hard hats conceal halos.

Lazarus

The Raising of Lazarus. © Giotto 1306

This is Typewriter Heaven, but we'd rather be raising the dead than super-gluing wings to typewriters, especially post-Easter:

Having recently teetered on the brink of getting a much-coveted Hermes 3000, I decided to neither pay tons of cash nor take a risk on a broken "Buy It Now" example from a commercial business clearance depot. Sincere thanks for fellow collectors' advice. As consolation, and in the true spirit of these austere times, I took a chance on a £10 Olympia SM2. This, too, was listed by the seller on eBay as "carriage return not working" but it was for sale nearby and Olympias are fixable, especially if you have working models to compare with.

Image "borrowed" from teeritz

At first, I couldn't even open the case. The familiar catch was a bit rusty, never a good sign. Then, inside I found that the typewriter wasn't fixed to its mounts inside the case. Aaaargh! But it didn't seem to have suffered. What was immediately obvious was that the carriage return was indeed not working. It just ran freely and with lots of for and aft play (let's call it yaw) up and down along its tracks - unimpeded by the escapement except when a key was pressed. With the help of an SM3 for comparison, I managed to track down the problem to a delicately sprung ratchet pawl - easily reached from below. A couple of drops of WD40, an hour or two to for it penetrate, and the legendary silent ratchet action of the Olympia's carriage was restored. Big smile.

Next-up, the "yaw" in the carriage meant that the characters were coming out faint along their bottom edges. The two screws holding down the carriage rail are in different spots to later SMs, but still recognisable and easy to reach. One of the screws wasn't very tight at all. Slackening-off both screws to the "just tight enough to hold fast" torque setting and pulling the front rail forward evenly was enough to take all the excessive play out of the rails. Screws tightened and all the characters are now even.

Some people give their typewriters names. I don't. Still, welcome to Typewriter Heaven, Lazarus.

This corner of the firmament is currently without internet. To augment the power of prayer, an engineer will call, apparently. So, photos coming soon with a "how to..." guide on locating the parts addressed above.

Apologies to teeritz for the unauthorised photo borrow. Apologies if references to Christian history offend. Most of all, apologies to you, Giotto - you couldn't have foreseen this misappropriation while you were mixing the egg tempera.

Bikes and typewriters...

Boy on a bike, Lindley Road. West Bowling, Bradford, England. February 1982

...what's not to like?

I'm backing (for a VERY modest sum) a Kickstarter project by this writer/poet I came across named Maya Stein. To mark her 40th birthday, she's taking on an unusual writing project: biking from Amherst, Massachusetts to Milwaukee for 40 straight days towing a typewriter behind her. She'll be cycling for about 1,300 miles and holding typing events along the way, inviting people to contribute to a collaborative piece of writing she'll publish after she returns in June. She needs some help reaching her funding goals in time for the April 23 Kickstarter deadline.

Find out more about her project and the reasons she's doing it.

Keira Rathbone

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

   

Seen on Toxel.com

London buses

The saying about London buses goes: you wait for ages and none arrives, then three come at once.

But in this case, two Hermes 3000s.

 

So, this item is a good price and "buy it now". Imagine the temptation.
Being described as faulty, but could just be a simple ribbon or drawband replacement,
or the seller doesn't know where the carriage lock is...

 Then there's this one, no claims to be working but a much nicer case and with a price
approaching the top end of my limit.

 

Ted and Tori got married

Ted's post of his and Tori's typewriter-themed wedding party

Congratulations!

Tages Anzeiger: Questions 9-21

See Retro Tech Geneva where this thread began.
See Manual Entry and Type Clack too.