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Do Any Of You Collect Typewriters?

Started by foots, June 06, 2009, 05:29:21 PM

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foots

I don't collect typewriters nor do I care to, but I do have 3 that I inherited from my great aunt. 1 of them is a Smith-Corona Classic 12 portable, 1 is an Olympia Deluxe portable (cursive script) and the 3rd is a giant Hermes Ambassador. I also have an electric Smith Corona Coronet Super 12 that I got from my brother's father in law for free. I am still trying to figure out the some of the controls on the Hermes.
"Ain't Worryin' 'Bout Nothin"

benhutcherson

I don't collect them, per se, although I do have an old Remington. It has a broken space bar, and I haven't been able to find a ribbon that's right for it(everything I've found is just a hair too wide).

I also have a Singer portable that my Dad used in college. Nothing too special about it, although it works very well and is nice to type on. The key travel is similar to a Selectric, and, since I oiled it, it doesn't require much more effort. Once I cleaned 40 years of crud out of the typebars, it prints really crisply, too.

I've turned in more than a few papers typed on the old Singer. Despite being slower, I get a lot more done since I don't have internet on it to distract me :)

bingster

I have a few, but I don't really collect them, either.   I have a 1930s Remington portable that belonged to a great aunt, and a big 1940s Royal that I bought at a yard sale.  I also have an Underwood from the 1930s that my dad brought home from work in the 1970s.  He brought home a 1940s IBM electric, too, but years ago one of the fabric straps that pulls the carriage back and forth broke, and I tossed it.  I swear that thing must have weight a good 50 or 60 pounds.
= DARRIN =



McHeath

Hmm, I don't actually collect them but certainly have enough for a collection. 

1890s Underwood
1930s Remington
1940s Royal
1950s Remington Rand
1960s Olympia Deluxe  (West German)
1960s no name portable I used in high school

Would like to have an original IBM Selectric, the curvy 1961 type and not the later squared off model II. 

Amusingly, when I learned to type in high school in the early 80's it was on manuals. 

All my typewriters work, though I never use them.  You have to plug them in, wait for the tubes to warm up, make sure the screen is plugged into the right port, upload the software, and..oh, wait, wrong technology.   ;)

bingster

In high school, I learned on the curvy Selectric you mentioned.  I'd love to have one of those, too.  The interchangeable type balls would come in handy.
= DARRIN =



Steve

Quote from: bingster on June 06, 2009, 10:27:40 PM
interchangeable type balls would come in handy.

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bingster

= DARRIN =



benhutcherson

"Would like to have an original IBM Selectric, the curvy 1961 type and not the later squared off model II.  "

I bought one at auction a few years ago, and, unfortunately, never could get any signs of life out of it. It was a lovely avocado green color-a perfect match for the WE 500 sets of the same vintage. I pulled the works out and poked around at them some, but never could get anywhere. Talk about complicated-those things probably have as many cables and springs as your average small-town Strowger switch  :).

I think that the motor on mine was dead, and lord knows I never would have even gotten it out to replace it without messing everything up beyond repair. It's nigh on impossible to find someone who can work on them anymore.

I also briefly had a black Selectric II, which worked for the most part but had a few dead keys. That one could have probably been rehabbed, but didn't have time to at the time. Although the Selectric IIs aren't as nice visually as the Is, they do, at least, have a built in corrective tape.

If I'm not mistaken, the Selectric Is also used a nylon ribbon, while the IIs and later used a carbon ribbon. Nylons last forever, but carbon prints so much more nicely that it's a small sacrifice.

AET

I have an electric typewriter that I actually put many miles on in Junior High.  It was blue and I cannot beleive that the name isn't coming to me on this one.
- Tom

foots

Hey Tom, was Smith-Corona Coronet? Mine is blue.
"Ain't Worryin' 'Bout Nothin"

AET

That actually sounds right!!!!  I think it is!  I googled it and came up with this which is almost a dead ringer for mine, I think mine was minus the faux wood though.

- Tom

mienaichizu

I do collect typewriters but to date I have 3

foots

Wow, for people who don't collect typewriters, we sure seem to have nice collections.
Tom, my SC Coronet was a Super 12 - other than appearance I don't know the differences between the 2.
Mienaichizu, what kind of typewriters do you have?
"Ain't Worryin' 'Bout Nothin"

Bill Cahill

In my homeroom in grade school, we used two Remington "Large type"  writers. I'd like to find one of those.
Bill Cahill

"My friends used to keep saying I had batts in my belfry. No. I'm just hearing bells....."

mienaichizu

#14
I have two underwoods, a large one and a small one shown in the photo below 9whoops, my desk is kinda messy right now). The other one I can't remember what make it is, its in my resthouse so I didn't have the time to take a photo of it. It is a portable one, probably a 60's typewriter

The third photo is a close-up shot of the large underwood typewriter