Guest Typewriter from Turkey

What I learned about languages just by looking at a Turkish typewriter

Article by Marcin Wichary

From the House of Cards

A Gift from My Students

Better Not to Know

The Olympia SF: Schreibmaschine "Fixable"

The description of this Olympia on the auction site was honest. It said that the keys would not depress and the carriage kept moving all the way to the left. What I didn't know is that it had taken a very hard knock to the rear and the sheet metal was quite bent. Here is what it looked like when I first took a look at it.

I was pleasantly surprised that the sheet metal comes off a SF very easily, exposing its well built aluminum frame.  As I said in my typecast, simply moving a spring on the lever that engaged the escapement ratchet did the trick for the carriage and keys.  I heated up the sheet metal a bit and was able to form it enough to make the typewriter function and look presentable.  

I really like the way this littlest Olympia types and I'm quite pleased that my under $50 gamble on a "broken" machine turned out so well.

Guest Typewriter: Imperial Good Companion

The young typewriter collector at my school brought one of his latest acquisitions to my office today.  It was a machine I had not seen in person before, an Imperial Good Companion. With a serial number starting with a B, this model is from 1932.  I didn't get to type with it, but it is quite a looker.

In fact, it looks a lot like my Remington model 1 (or 2) but clearly the lineage is different as this article on the Portable Typewriters blog points out.  

The one thing this typewriter needs is a carriage return lever.  Please let me know if anyone in the typosphere has one to spare and I will let this young man's family know.

A Brother from the Same Mother

I can definitely see the appeal of these early Brother typewriters. They are full featured and type really well. Growing up in the 70's myself, this little typewriter and its cardboard/vinyl case reminded me of the toys and transistor radios that also came from Japan at that time.  Though this typer is far from a toy, I'm still holding out for a Valiant or Deluxe!