Tuesday, March 24, 2015

The Last of the Good Smith Coronas?

As I have said before, it is good to let people know you collect typewriters.  I received the latest addition to my collection from Gail, a Foster Grandparent at my school.  A friend of hers had a Smith Corona Coronet Automatic 12 that she was thinking of taking to the recycling depot.  I'm glad they gave it to me.  My collecting focus is on manual typewriters, but I like this little Coronet.  My guess is that it is from the early 1970's since it has an actual ribbon rather than the slide in cartridge that SCM would introduce around 1973.  I actually took one of those cartridge Smith Coronas to college in the 1980s.  This Coronet takes a lot of cues from the Galaxy 12 and in my mind, is the beginning of the end for Smith Corona typewriters.  It types really well and I could remember what it felt like to type out essays for college on an electric typewriter.  The only issue with this Coronet is that the "Automatic Return" key has jammed, causing the carriage to return again and again.  I wish it had the manual return of the less expensive models.  I wonder if the issue might be solved with a cleaning.  I would welcome any insight on trouble shooting these electrics.

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