Typewriter by Typewriter Breakdown - #2

Back for with more typewriters from my collection, this time #'s 7-12. Again, these aren't in a specific order. I just pulled them off the shelf and took pictures. I'm considerably happier with the typers in this selection than the last, because they for the most part work.

This Smith-Corona Sterling is my latest addition, having arrived just a few days ago. They sold millions of the Clipper/Sterling/Silent family and I have several variations of this model, some that look exactly like this one. This one, though a bit dirty and with a broken back hinge on the case, works perfectly well. At some point I'd like to get some serials on them and find out just when they were made...but there are only so many hours in each day. But they're at least fifty years old. We used to make good stuff, here in the USA.

The Tower President XII was made by Smith-Corona and sold by Sears. This one has a unique unpleasant odor that escapes each time I open the case. I love the two-tone color and the diamond-shaped keys. It types remarkably well, though I'm pretty sure the bell doesn't work. My main gripe with this one is the shift lever. Essentially you have to manually scroll to the next line because it doesn't catch. I'm sure it can be fixed, but I'm not skilled enough to fix it yet and don't want to further damage it.

This Hermes 3000 is a very clean and beautiful example of Swiss engineering. It's a lovely machine that's very precise. It has one issue though, and it's a pretty important and annoying one:  random skipping. It can't really go through a line or two without it happening at least once. If you catch it, you can backspace and fix it, but that doesn't really solve the problem. I love it, though. It's like typing with a tank.

This Remington (insert model name here) I picked up for $25 a few years back, I think. A typical quirky Remington, with the weird spools and all. Works fine, save for the space bar, which you sometimes have to hit twice to get it to catch. But it's not like the Cole Steel, which you practically have to beat to death to get it to advance one space.

Circa 1948, a Remington-Rand Portable Deluxe. I dig the round keys, and it works fine, but you really have to be over it to type. It's very old-school in that it's not that easy to see exactly what you're typing as you type. When I started collecting typewriters in 2010, this was the second one I bought, and the first one I got from Ebay. I paid like $20 for it.

This is a personal favorite, and if I had to sell my entire collection except for one, this would be the one I kept. I have checked the serial on this and it's a 1934 Royal Model O with Touch Control. I also paid more for this one than any other machine I own, about $60. Shiny paint, beautiful glass keys, types like a dream...I'm very happy with it. I've used it extensively and I can't say enough good things about it. Just a beautiful machine.

That's #7-12 of my collection. The next few shelves will probably be the Underwood portables and the many, many similar Smith-Coronas. The electrics might be last, because I am racist against them and their sort.

Typewriter by Typewriter Breakdown - #1

I thought I'd put my money where my mouth is and start documenting my collection here. Never have so many orphaned, broken typewriters been accumulated in such a small space. In no particular order, I do typewriters #1-6 today. These are mainly posted because they were out of their cases for me to easily photograph.

Oh, Remington Noiseless. This one is a heartbreaker. The first problem I encountered was when I tried to put paper in it. The second problem was when I tried to advance it. The third problem was when I hit the return. It types well enough, once you manage to get the paper in (you have to use the paper release and feed it through)...but the space bar sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. And the platen won't advance the paper correctly. But the bell works, there's that. Came to me without a case.

This Underwood Universal looks beaten up, but works fine. Everything works as it should even though it got a LOT of use.  No case when it got to me, but I haven't found any issues with it besides the letters on the keytops wearing off and the paint chipping. I ordered some stick-on key covers from Amazon and put them on. They aren't as straight as they should be, but they work okay.

Underwood Noiseless, like the Underwood Universal and Remington Noiseless above, came to me without a case. This is a good typewriter. Very shiny and clean. My main problem with it is the carriage return. It's very small, and you basically have to flick it from above. It's so different from other return levers I found it annoying. I didn't get it in the pictures I took of it, but it's very small. The bell also doesn't work on this one, which is a shame.

The Royal HH is a fine, heavy typewriter. This one was missing the number 7 key, so I was able to cannibalize one from the old broken Smith-Corona desktop I could never do anything with. The bell works, but seems to stop just short of it. I was trying it out earlier and noticed it skipped once during a paragraph. No major issues detected with this one.

This Underwood Standard is one of the heaviest things I own, and I drive a Chevy. The bell seems hit and miss sometimes, and the carriage wants to slide all the way over if you turn it on its side, but it's in place when you're typing. The keytops are wearing off, so the extra stick-on letters I have might come in handy.

This Cole Steel is a beautiful machine, and it types cleanly and is pretty neat. But the backspace doesn't work, and if you hit the space bar you had better mean it. I mean you practically have to punch the damn thing. These don't come up a lot that I've seen, though the ones I see don't cost that much. I really wanted to own one, though I can now see why I wouldn't use it very much. I'm not sure how much I paid...but I'm notoriously frugal in my typewriter purchases, so it couldn't have been that much.

When I get a little more time I'll list the next 5 or 6 typewriters. Probably a few days. I await the final two stragglers I have coming in the mail, and I'll give the details when I get them in.

And We're Back.

I must admit my time has been consumed lately. Been doing some writing (Randy X. Porter on Amazon) and have been working a good bit. Also have been acquiring many books I've been missing from places like Ebay and Abebooks. Private eye series fiction about Mike Shayne and Shell Scott, mostly.

I hadn't bought a typewriter in months. Last week I bought...a few. Five. No, six. I now own 52 machines, though I await the arrival of a few of them in the mail.

I can't begin to understand how my mind works. Maybe it's broken.

Here are a few current shots of the Deep East Texas Broken Typewriter Museum. When the last few arrive, I will be completely out of space. Actually, I'm already out of space.

It's hard to find the time to maintain them, make sure they still work, keep the dust off them. I like to think as time goes on I will be able to do it all, but I won't. Writing, full-time job, something has to give.

I hope to keep this blog updated but I've failed to recently. When my new children begin arriving in the mail I hope to offer updates.

A Second Opinion

Was out again today prowling antique and thrift stores. Same old machines, marked at their high prices, not selling. I told you about the Tower President a few weeks ago that was marked $6 and I believed it to be an error in pricing. Today it was still there. I looked around the booth (in an antiques mall) and noticed that all of the vendor's goods there were ridiculously cheap. A huge stand-up radio from the '30s was $32.50, some books were $1.25. I took the typewriter to the front of the store to confirm the price on the tag. It was correct. The lady at the counter told me that the vendor attended a lot of auctions and estate sales and didn't really care if he made a huge profit on his stuff. Well, all right then. I bought it. You don't have to tell me twice.

Finally, a President I would actually vote for.

Now, you may remember there was another Tower President I had looked at. This one was in perfect physical condition except none of the keys worked.  I saw that one again today, unsold. I think it was still marked $25. No deal. The one I bought actually works, if a bit rusty. I noticed the space bar seemed broken, but it's just the plastic part of it coming loose. It can be snapped back on or otherwise repaired. No big deal, and still a bargain at $6.

No. Just no. Stop pretending to be a typewriter.

I consider it a mark of semi-maturity that I did not buy this one. I did check it out and found it to be lacking. If it was $5, maybe...but $12.99? For a cheap plastic Chinese-made Generation 3000 typewriter? And allegedly one of the worst typewriters ever made? I can't have it mixing with my other machines. It would be bad karma, and a bad influence on the rest of my children. I understand that some people would be fine with it...and maybe it does work, who knows? But it's not for me. Also, when I was young, I heard a tale of an Asian fellow, who, while playing a prank, put urine into the soft drink of another gentleman. I guess you had to be there.

Another day, another $60 typewriter. 

This Remington looked promising, but the $59.99 price tag put me off. I didn't even check it out. I find it disappointing that the price point for used typewriters in Lufkin (with very few exceptions) is around $60.  This isn't practical in the real world. The most expensive typewriter I've ever purchased on Ebay, shipping included, came in well under that price. But of course I've bought a lot of broken crap, so go figure.

Together Again For the First Time: The Deep East Texas Broken Typewriter Collection

Above, left to right: (01) (Brother) Webster 300, (02) Sears Chevron, (03) (Olivetti) Underwood 330, (04) Royal Royalite '65,  (05)  (Royal) Singer Scholastic T-4, (06) Smith-Corona electric.

Above, left to right: (07) Royal Caravan, (08) Smith-Corona Skyriter, (09) Hermes Rocket, (10) Montgomery-Ward Escort 350.

Above, left to right: (11) Olivetti Lettera 22, (12) Olivetti Lettera 22, (13) Olivetti Lettera 32, (14) Olivetti Lettera 32, (15) Royal Sprite.

 
Above, left to right: (16) Remington Noiseless, (17) Smith-Corona electric (I am not necessarily a collector of electrics and don't know much about them. They're just kinda...here. This one was gifted to me by my mother, as it belonged to her boyfriend when he died in December).

Above, left to right: (18) Underwood Standard, (19) Royal HH.

Above, left to right:) (20) Olivetti Studio 44, (21) (Olivetti) Underwood 21, (22) (Brother) Montgomery-Ward Signature 510, (23) (Smith-Corona) Sears Citation 12, (24) (Smith-Corona) Sears Tower President XII.

Above: (25) Smith-Corona word processing typewriter, early 1990s. Still packed in foam, with all paperwork. Probably used just a few times.

Above, left to right: (26) Hermes 3000, (27) Olympia DeLuxe, (28) Royal Sabre.

Above, left to right: (29) Remington Personal-Riter, (30) (Olivetti) Montgomery-Ward Escort 450, (31) Olivetti Lettera 35

Above, left to right: (32) Smith-Corona Silent Super, (33) Royal Model O, (34) Underwood Noiseless (in wrong case, long story).

Above, left to right: (35) (Smith-Corona) Tower, (36) Remington-Rand Portable Deluxe.

Above, left to right: (37) Remington Letter-Riter, (38) Underwood Golden Touch Jewell, (39) Royal Quiet Deluxe.

Above, left to right: (40) Smith-Corona Clipper, (41) Underwood Universal Quiet Touch.

Above, left to right: (42) Smith-Corona Clipper, (43) Royal Heritage. 

Here at last, all are in the same room. It's a very small room, mind you, but it is a room. In fact, there is so little space between the two facing shelves that I couldn't step back far enough to get good pictures, and not enough light to make everything completely visible. Regardless, here they are...all 43 of my adopted children. Some have led lives of reckless abandon and abuse, while some have been stored away and forgotten for half a century. Some work flawlessly while some not at all. They are what they are, but at least they're here.

Tales From the Inside

Rockers and Skyriters and Chevrons and Escorts and 22s and 32s...

 Finally got a day off, the the moving of the typewriters has begun. There are two metal shelves in the walk-in closet that face each other, with about 3-1/2 ft between them. I moved most (34) of the typewriters in today.

And Sprites and Royalites and Personal-Riters and Signatures and President XIIs....

As you can see, the adjustable brackets on the left shelf need to be let down so that the typewriters fit better. The idea is to put them in sideways, as you can see I did with the Olivetti 22s and 32s above. They need about another inch of clearance to truly fit comfortably.

And Model Os and 3000s and Noiselesses and gifted electrics...

 But, with the brackets on the left shelf properly adjusted, it looks like everything is going to fit. There are two shelves fully empty, and just a few more typewriters left in the storage unit to go. The only things that are not going to work with this setup are the Underwood Standard and the great big fat Royal HH that are still in the storage unit. I could just give them a shelf all their own, though.

And on and on and on....

So, with that done (and it looks like rain most of this week, so who knows when that's going to happen), the Deep East Texas Broken Typewriter Museum will be back in business. Can't wait.