Congratulations to ZetiX for guessing the four winners from Friday's typewriter safari!
1. This Adler J4 was an obvious choice at just $29.99. It's an uncommon and well-made portable with interesting styling (reminiscent of its notorious big brother from "The Shining").
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All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy:
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And—bonus!—this J4 has a beautiful typeface known as Esquire (Rodrian 88) (thank you, Ted Munk):
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2. I couldn't resist the Underwood Master, on sale for $40. I'm fond of this somewhat ridiculous attempt to streamline the boxy Underwood, and I'd been thinking that if I found one in nice shape at a good price, I might pick it up. Notice that this one even has a rare ribbon cover on the left spool.
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It's not quite a giant, but it is a very beefy writing machine. It was made one year after the New York World's Fair.
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Here's what it looks like after extensive cleaning and adjusting. I had to replace one foot and part of the backspacing mechanism. I found the second ribbon cover languishing in the innards of the typewriter!
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3 and 4: These two Smith-Corona Classic 12s also came home with me.
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Why? Look closely:
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The scale on this 12-inch carriage only has markings up to 66 characters. And ...
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... notice the lack of a red ribbon option.
Yes, these are magnatype machines, 6 characters per inch.
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For $29 apiece, this purchase was a no-brainer.
The two keyboards are not identical: notice that the first keyboard below includes the usual symbols #, %, and &, but the second one replaces them with +, ÷, and =.
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Both typewriters include this peculiar key:
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Both typewriters actually print the same characters, including + ÷ =. One of the typewriters has an old ribbon, but I think the typeface is identical.
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The weird character is an em dash (–), as opposed to an en dash or hyphen (-). The em is a little longer, and also prints a little higher on the page: see the ems and ens between the two typing samples above. I'm really not sure why you'd need both kinds of dashes, but I guess the em looks better as a minus sign.
The typeface is similar to Speech-Riter (another grateful tip o' the typebar to Rev. Munk). However, note that the a and 4 are obviously different from Speech-Riter, and there are other, more subtle differences. Sight Saver isn't a match, either.
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According to information scratched into the back of one of these typewriters, it belonged to a fabric supplier in St. Louis. Now both of them are going to WordPlay, either for kids to use or for sale to the public.
1. This Adler J4 was an obvious choice at just $29.99. It's an uncommon and well-made portable with interesting styling (reminiscent of its notorious big brother from "The Shining").
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy:
And—bonus!—this J4 has a beautiful typeface known as Esquire (Rodrian 88) (thank you, Ted Munk):
2. I couldn't resist the Underwood Master, on sale for $40. I'm fond of this somewhat ridiculous attempt to streamline the boxy Underwood, and I'd been thinking that if I found one in nice shape at a good price, I might pick it up. Notice that this one even has a rare ribbon cover on the left spool.
It's not quite a giant, but it is a very beefy writing machine. It was made one year after the New York World's Fair.
Here's what it looks like after extensive cleaning and adjusting. I had to replace one foot and part of the backspacing mechanism. I found the second ribbon cover languishing in the innards of the typewriter!
3 and 4: These two Smith-Corona Classic 12s also came home with me.
Why? Look closely:
The scale on this 12-inch carriage only has markings up to 66 characters. And ...
... notice the lack of a red ribbon option.
Yes, these are magnatype machines, 6 characters per inch.
For $29 apiece, this purchase was a no-brainer.
The two keyboards are not identical: notice that the first keyboard below includes the usual symbols #, %, and &, but the second one replaces them with +, ÷, and =.
Both typewriters include this peculiar key:
Both typewriters actually print the same characters, including + ÷ =. One of the typewriters has an old ribbon, but I think the typeface is identical.
The weird character is an em dash (–), as opposed to an en dash or hyphen (-). The em is a little longer, and also prints a little higher on the page: see the ems and ens between the two typing samples above. I'm really not sure why you'd need both kinds of dashes, but I guess the em looks better as a minus sign.
The typeface is similar to Speech-Riter (another grateful tip o' the typebar to Rev. Munk). However, note that the a and 4 are obviously different from Speech-Riter, and there are other, more subtle differences. Sight Saver isn't a match, either.
According to information scratched into the back of one of these typewriters, it belonged to a fabric supplier in St. Louis. Now both of them are going to WordPlay, either for kids to use or for sale to the public.