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February 2025

1938 Olympia Simplex

The German firm Olympia are well-known for producing the best quality manual typewriters, both office and portable. Some of the best known portables were the SM series, produced and continuously developed from the early 1950's into the 1980's.

The Olympia SM2, SM3 and SM4 from the 1950's are very sought-after these days, and rightly so. The fit and finish on these machines is second to none. But what might not be realised is that the story goes further back much further than that, to before the war when the Olympia factory was still in Erfurt in what became East Germany.

The pictures above show an Olympia Simplex, which was the most basic from the range of Olympia portables at the time. It has no paper rest, and only takes a single colour ribbon. But, on closer examination, it is clear to see that this is the machine that the famous SM series was developed from. There are parts of the internal mechanism that were still much the same as those in production some fifty years later. Just for comparison, and to give an idea of size, the photo on the right shows it with a 1935 Olympia Model 8 office typewriter. Note that the Simplex has black Bakelite keytops, something which Olympia introduced in the late thirties. Absolutely no-where on the Simplex, which was intended for the British market, were the words 'Made in Germany'. Not surprising when you consider the political situation at the time !

This particular Simplex has an interesting back story, as many old typewriters have. In 1967, when it was already nearly thirty years old, it seems that the owner began proceedings to sue her ex-husband for its return through the Scottish legal system! The current owner, who bought the machine in an auction, found the documents inside the carry case. Apparently it was handed over as part of an out-of-court settlement. The legal process at the time cost the equivalent of several hundred pounds in today's money, so it must have had an enormous sentimental value.

The machine was certainly the worse for wear when it arrived here. The platen was rock-hard and several of the typebar links had broken and been replaced with bits of wire. I found that the typebar links from a modern Olympia small portable were similar, though not identical, and was able to adapt them to fit. I know that the current owner probably loves the machine as much as the woman who sued her ex, so I think that it will be in good hands for many years to come.

January 2025

1936 Remington Five Streamliner

By the mid-1930's the American Remington Company were producing an almost bewildering range of portable typewriters. Everything from the cheapest and most basic model to heavy duty, noiseless and even for a brief period - a single element manual portable. Yes, a manual gofball typewriter would you believe ! The Remington Five was the established heavy-duty machine, but for 1935 Remington changed the outer casing to create the now-much-sought-after Remington Streamliner. With its smooth Art-Deco appearance, it made the boxy machines that other manufacturers were producing suddenly look rather old-fashioned. In this form it lasted until the early 1940's. Remington resumed production for a few years after the war whilst they were tooling up for a whole new range of portables - but the post war machines were finished in a crackle paint with plastic keytops, which to modern eyes is nowhere near as attractive.

The Remington Five featured a 43-character keyboard, two-colour ribbon mechanism and something that is unique to this model - the 'Self Starter' key ! The Self Starter would advance the carriage by five spaces for each touch of the key, allowing you to get from the left side of the paper to a position on the right in a number of rapid jumps. It also had a secondary use as a paragraph indent key and can (with some careful setting up) be used as a column tabulator too.

Not to be outdone, rival firm Smith-Corona soon produced a streamlined typewriter of their own. You can see Smith-Corona's take on the theme by looking at the October 2024 'Typewriter of the Month'. Just like Remington's version, this too is a re-casing of an older model. However, it began a trend, and we didn't start to see 'boxy' portable typewriters again until the late 1960's !