In Mechanica Antiqua

It has been quite a while since I last wrote an article here.  To be honest, I was mostly being lazy.  My workshop has been flooded with repairs up the wazoo and I haven't had the time I'd like to document them.  A lot of them were videotaped and edited for social media use, but for some reason, the easier aspect of taking simple photos eluded me.  But this typewriter in particular, this beautiful red royal, had to be written about.It came from a client downtown, his Uncle painted it a wonderful deep red with silver flecks visible in the right light.  Truly stunning, though it's trip down to the suburbs in a duffel bag on a motorcycle damaged some of the paint and broke the paper release leaver off.  Not terribly hard to fix for the leaver, but the paint couldn't be fixed.For the most part, it was in well working condition, but the bane of most of my work was also handed over: the bag of parts.  Indeed after the machine was repainted, a plethora of miscellaneous parts…

Typo is a very ironic name for a typewriter.  This machine is actually the Imperial Model B, branded Typo and produced in France.  This particular model features the early top plate embezzled with the word "typo", as well as a French keyboard.  If you have been keeping up with the typewriter world, you may be interested to note that this typewriter came from the famous Russo collection which has been sold off by Breker Auction house in Germany.  I purchased this machine just before the shipping services closed down due to COVID in April.  Mid July is when I received it in Chicago.  Aside from a dry ribbon and flat feed rollers, this machine is basically mint.  



From my conversation with Mark Albrecht, there are only 30 or so Typos known to exist, and some additional ones which he expects to be undocumented.  The Typo was produced alongside the Imperial Model B starting in 1915, and features dual shift and figure keys on either side of the keyboard.  The curved keyboard strike…

This is the Remington Noiseless 7, one of many styles of machines that sought after suppressed sound.  I will say it is easy on the ears, but not the quietest machine out there, nor the quietest machine I've used.  It features a triple pivot type bar mechanism which shunts the slug out almost horizontally to the platen, a bit of a thrust action machine, but thrust actions are generally quieter.
I got this machine from an author downtown who was seeking to get a full restoration.  I generally don't take jobs like that since I lack the patience to get down to the nitty gritty details, but it was in good shape so I figured I might as well take it on and do my best.  This machine started off in very good condition with some worn rubber and a few broken functions like the tab.  It was well cared for by his grandfather, who was the original owner.  
At the time, I had several other projects underway, including four Oliver typewriters for Tim over at the Vintage Mancave on etsy.  I sen…