They're in season this month

Typewriterly books are in season, this season.

This week my copy of the Uppercase typewriter book arrived. Like the title says it is about the graphic history, more than about the machines themselves. Lots of pictures of typewriter ephemera and period illustrations of and about the typewriter in their historical context. Nice!

(Package got the comment: "There can't be a typewriter in that box!")

Also just now the Typewriter Revolution book is announced as ready and available. As the subtitle says, this one is more about the actual use of typewriters in this modern day and age. Look forward to seeing that one make it across the pond also :-)

They're in season!

Ephemeral small object - dated

This little tape holder was always around the house, for as long as I can remember.

Browsing LIFE magazine back-numbers a while ago, spotted the exact same little object in an advert.

(LIFE magazine, October 1951)

Seeing this made me go find it. This particular one was made by 3M in Birmingham, England - probably in the early fifties. It's metal, but fairly flimsy.

Having this extra bit of information adds now a bit of extra context to this small and almost disposable little household object.

Adler Favorit 2 late model

More of a project than thought from the image and description, but was curious for one of these thrust-typebar machines. Also the austere modernistic design has its appeal. Probably very common in Germany, but these don't show up all that often locally here.

The machine is complete (as was advertised) but has an unfortunate haze of rust all over machine and case. It also was extremely dirty, surprising really how much dirt can be collected when inside the case. The case lock has rather more than a haze of rust, was frozen solid actually and took some doing to open again.

An overall austere, grey machine. At least, it was a brownish grey when it arrived.

The machine is actually more of a crinkle black, anthracite black perhaps. With a strong detergent and a (cheap) new toothbrush the paintwork comes out again from under the grime. Really makes a difference in color. (And in hygiene - it was filthy!)

Quite liberal amounts of oil have loosened the mechanism again, it is complete and functions. Ditched the moldy old ribbon and fitted a new ribbon for first testing. For such a large and heavy machine it is quite basic. Hadn't realized, but no bi-color function - the machine does not have a ribbon vibrator.

Komische Maschine...

Next (project...)

The Ranger Elite typewriter is fully cleaned, polished and oiled (where appropriate) and entered into The Database. It is pretty much in pristine condition, apart from a small white-out stain on the top left of the cover. I'll be passing on this machine to its new owner next week, but already a next 'impulse-buy' arrived.

Turns out to be more of a project than anticipated from the listing. The images were a bit dim, granted, but this one really needs some polishing. A small peek at the new side-project:

(Am sure the exact type will be identified quickly by the sphere of experts out there :-)

Ranger Elite - picture gallery

Ranger Elite

Normally not my cup of tea, but this looked clean in the listing and was really literally just round the corner. And the case still had the key.

This contained a Ranger typewriter, model Elite.

No markings on origin or manufacturer anywhere, two small holes but no type-plate on the backplate. Nevertheless it clearly is an Optima produced Elite based on the original '33 Olympia design. (Many thanks to Nick's great write-up on Optima's.) Spruced up with some olive drab crinkle paint to make it look '52. And as further modernization the control levers that were chrome on the pre-war Olympia are now blackened with bakelite knobs.

Likely branded as 'Ranger' to hide its Erfurt, Germany origins, as also described on Scott's item on 'Anglicised' Schreibmaschinen. Nevertheless the 'Elite' decal is the regular Optima type and includes the Optima company logo.

Taking the machine out of the case, putting in paper and it typed away very decently already. Dutch keyboard.

(Not used to typing with an actual 'ij' key, obviously.) Also typing was not helped by the ribbon having been threaded wrong through the vibrator. This wrong way round it snags on the type-guide at avery shifted character. (Thank you for the clear images that made me realize the cause of snagging.)

Some more light cleaning, righting the ribbon and it should be fine :)

Father of the typewriter and about efficiency

Browsing, came across an issue of the Remington Notes on the Internet Archive. In this number 7, volume 4 (1918) much is made of the Self Starter. Had only linked that with the Portables (#3, #5) really, not realized it was on their standards already then.

In this issue also an in-memoriam for the father of the typewriter, William K. Jenne. In the detailed article it is explained that he developed the inventors' model into a manufacturable machine and remained active in the Typewriter Works for 30 years until 1904.

From the article; 'It has become so indispensable to us that it is hard to realize that it has not always been.' and it remarks how recent an invention it was; 'Men today who are scarcely past middle life remember when it was an unknown and undreamed of.' (And now this century later, people of today scarcely remember that it was ubiquitous and indispensable...)

On the last two pages of the small booklet are efficiency tips. How to optimize every motion and not waste a single keystroke.

A section on the SelfStarter key explains that it really is useful when used backwards, to be pressed when returning the carriage. That starts to make sense for a correspondence machine. Also tab-stops work both ways of course, using the tabulator backwards can make sense.

Now who realized that? Not I. Like the article says: 'It is strange how many Remington typists, even today, have not yet learned this "backward setting".' Similarly it seems that the paper-guide of the Standard was a feature that sometimes not known to the user of the machine.

Another related item is a small paragraph that explains why the carriage return lever on a standard should always be on the right-hand side of the machine. (Wonder if the writer of that statement knew the team developing their new Portable machine...)

With thanks to the Archive (and the kind uploader of this scan!).