In Mechanica Antiqua

Left: 1901 Right: 1905 I guess I would consider this an extended version of the Williams article, focused on two repair jobs for the Model 4.  My lack of organizational skills have decreed "continuity begone."  Try not to hold it against me despite it being entirely my fault.  A few things may repeat, but largely this should focus on the 4, rather than the company history which I shall link here. An original advertisement scan The Model 4 was introduced in 1900, and advertised with the most beautiful of sales manuals.  Red leatherette, lettered in gold leaf, and it outline some of the massive mechanical improvements undertaken to make this machine that much better than the Models 1 through 3.  While the most obvious changes occurred to the keyboard, opting for four banks rather than three, the most user noticable change was to the carriage and escapement.  The new model 4 featured a direct geared mainspring, a rotary escapement, and a much improved line spa...

Mostly complete.  Time to install the body  It is not an uncommon occurrence in the world of typewriter repair to be given a selection of parts and be asked to create a whole machine.  This month it has happened twice.  Since I love royals, I though I'd give a short overview in the work that is involved in such a project. Dirty Dirty One of the parts machines The two subjects in question were two Royal Os in gloss black, the first of which was missing all feet, the spacebar, the entire constitution of the carriage besides the frame, and had (as I discovered) a bent rack.  The bent rack caused the carriage to bind on the escapement pawl.  The second O was missing the carriage entirely, which was situated off to the side in a heap.  It was also missing the bell striker and the rear carriage rail, as well as the shift bearings. Post cleaning Really clean Picking and chosing.  I actually had three options including the parts I picked from my own stock...

My 1982 IBM taken on my 1982 Nikon F3/T using Kodak Tmax The renown IBM Selectric II was released in 1971, ten years after the wildly successful Selectric I, which exceeded sales projections by the hundreds in a mere six months.  The IBM was the precursor of personal computer interface, the gold standard of late 20th century productivity, and an icon of the written word.  The first IBM typewriter paved the groundwork for an empire.  It employed a single type element of 64 characters commonly called a "golfball".  An element strikingly similar to the rotating drum of the Bickensderfer typewriter from the late 1800s to the early 1900s.  While the idea of single element typewriters had been toyed with many times before, in regards to the ease of swapping typefaces, IMB was the first to create a truly remarkable single element machine with unparalleled speed and consistency.  It could be related to the Hammond, and the later Varityper, which were both perfected...