Typewriter Deconstructed

I blogged about the mint condition Smith-Corona Super Sterling that Jericho, VT resident Jon Ojala gave me a few posts ago.  (Actually, it is in Sea Foam Green condition - still quite nice.)  Jon had given me this lovely typewriter when I described my plan of having students disassemble a blue Super Sterling in disrepair that I had acquired.  Today I set the blue Sterling out on a desk with two screwdrivers and let some of my "typewriter hounds" know that they could take it apart.  Boy did they ever get excited about this idea.  They wolfed down their lunch so they could go to my office to get started.  Later in the day they begged their teacher to let them come down and work some more.  All in all, it took these three 8 to 9-year olds about 25 minutes to get the case off of the Sterling.  Surprisingly, it actually types better without the case.  Something must have been binding it up.  It also lost a ball bearing out of the carriage in the process.  I promise to post more photos as it gets further deconstructed!

Wait!  Don't take this one apart!