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!

Blue turns to Lovely Green

It was fun to dream about the mystery typewriter that I found on Craigslist.  The only thing I knew for sure was that it was blue.  I liked "Words are Winged" suggestion that it might be a blue Royal Model P from the 30's.  I was pretty sure it was not John Lennon's typewriter!  I would have been psyched if it was a blue Quiet DeLuxe from the 50's.  I even thought about a Lettera 22, those come in that fantastic Olivetti blue.  But Ted was right, it turned out to be a blue Brother Charger. The ad did say vintage and not antique after all.  But what constitutes antique?  A 1966 Mustang is considered an antique but a 1966 Royal is vintage.  Where do you draw the line?

But read on, my blue disappointment turned to 

excitement when I found this mint condition green Super Sterling!