December 2019

1922 Erika (Bijou) Folding 3-Bank Portable

I last featured one of these machines in October 2016, but these are so rare, I just couldn't resist featuring another one ! As I explained in my previous article, this typewriter is an early product of Siedel and Naumann, who as 'Erika' went on to be the last European manufacturer of manual portable typewriters. The final machine left the production line in 1991.

Possibly the first production truly portable typewriter was made in America as the Corona (later the Corona Three) It didn't take long for other factories to sit up and take notice, and Siedel and Nauman in Germany began production of a remarkably similar machine within a few years. Just like the Corona Three, the whole carriage mechanism was hinged and could be folded down over the top of the keyboard in order to fit into a remarkably small carry case. Corona, of course, held patents for the folding carriage, and when American makers tried their luck at copying the machine, the patents were always defended. It seemed to take Corona's reach a lot longer to reach Germany, but they finally caught up with S & N and persuaded them to cease production. Often sold as the 'Bijou', this particular machine has been branded 'Erika'. It has a German keyboard, so wasn't originally intended for export.

For a machine made in 1922, it was in remarkably good condition - although as you might expect of a typewriter just a few years short of one hundred years old - all the rubber parts had deteriorated. Always an expensive process, but certainly worth it in this instance, the platen and single feed roll were re-rubbered, bringing this long-stored machine back to life.

This machine belonged to a 'trade customer' and has probably by now been sold on his website. I bet that it will be a wonderful surprise for someone on Christmas Day !

November 2019

1949 Olympia Model 8 Standard

Regular readers will probably have realised that I have something of a soft spot for German typewriters, particularly the Olympia brand. In the June 2019 'Typewriter of the Month', I explained that the Olympia factory was effectively split into two after World War Two, and how the original Olympia factory in Erfurt, East Germany, had to change its name to Optima in the late 1940's. This resulted in both factories, one in West Germany, one in East Germany making identical typewriters for the next few years. But the name change didn't happen overnight, and 'Optima' continued making 'Olympia' typewriters for a while - presumably whilst running down stocks of parts with the 'Olympia' logo on them. This 1949 model is the result of this process. By 1952, both factories had gone on to produce different models of their own.

The machine looks a lot earlier than 1949. In fact the design dates from 1934. Before the last war, the Germans pretty well occupied the same position that the Japanese did after the war. In other words, they would look closely at best selling products from other countries and then seek to not only copy them but improve on the original design. Although the Olympia Model 8 isn't a direct copy of another make, it does combine design ideas from several of the leading Amerian manufacturers of the era. The unusual side-mounted ribbon spools, for instance, are clearly influenced by the Remington 16. The accelerating typebar action comes from the Underwood - at that time probably the best-selling make. The whole thing has been put together with typical German thoroughness and attention to detail. But there is an 'Achilles heel' !

That 'Achilles heel' was the original reason that this particular machine found its way to me for repair. Unfortunately some of the minor castings inside the machine had been made from 'pot metal', which is largely an aluminium/zinc alloy with other metals added into the mix. It is a tempting material to use because it die-casts beautifully - but - the structure breaks down after a number of years and a once-strong casting will bubble and crumble away like cake. Ask any classic car owner with a vehicle from the 1950's or '60's. Car manufacturers made badges and door handles from this material and the terrible consequences have become apparent in the last couple of decades. And so the left hand ribbon reverse casting and one of the universal bar pivots on this typewriter had simply crumbled away. Since the owner was really fond of her typewriter, I had to set to and make replacement parts from scratch. I do not have much in the way of engineering facilities so had to do this the hard way - with a hacksaw and file followed by drilling and tapping new threads. After much careful measurement and a little trial and error, the result was a fully working machine once more. At the same time I took the opportunity to re-repair a broken keytop that had been broken in half and crudely glued back together. My customer was delighted, and in due course I received a typed 'Thank You' letter - prepared on the Model 8 of course !

October 2019

Circa 1985 Silver-Reed 500

When is an electric typewriter a manual typewriter ? It seems to be a strange question doesn't it ? The answer is when it was made in Japan in the 1980's. Both Silver-Reed and Nakajima in Japan did the same thing and produced a heavy-duty manual portable using a large proportion of parts from the electric portables in their ranges. So much so that the similar Nakajima even used the same carriage bed as their electric portable, complete with drilled ventilation holes for the non-existent electric motor ! The Silver-Reed 500 featured here came in two stock carriage lengths - ten inches and thirteen inches. The ten inch model always had a white casing, and the thirteen inch model the rather handsome dark green that you see in the photo. Virtually the whole thirteen-inch carriage, bar the manual linespace mechanism, comes directly from the Silver-Reed 2600 electric typewriter. So does the segment and typebars and much of the escapement. The commonality of parts between models made production costs much cheaper and made for an inexpensive but sturdy large portable typewriter. The thirteen inch carriage machine was particularly popular since it would take a piece of A4 or Foolscap paper sideways - a very handy feature if, for instance, you intended to produce the artwork to photocopy an A5 newsletter. Remember that desk-top publishing was in its infancy when these typewriters were being made.

Even today, these thirteen inch carriage portables are liked by modern scrapbookers and artists. For my own purposes, the commonality of parts means that defunct electric typewriters from the same manufacturers provide a ready source of spares to keep these large portables in repair. The situation with Nakajima machines (sold under a variety of other manufacturers names) meant that I was recently able to convert a German-keyboard Nakajima manual typewriter to an English-keyboard machine, using the complete typebar set from a Nakajima electric - together with additional keytops from a second Nakajima manual. The machine was otherwise as new and the conversion was well worth doing - turning a near-worthless typewriter into a valuable one. From the late 1950's onwards, American manufacturer Smith-Corona also produced portable electric and large portable manual typewriters with many common parts - but the Smith-Corona story is different. Their electric was an electrified manual whereas the Japanese machines were manual-ified electrics !

September 2019

1939 Royal Standard Portable (Model '0')

Amongst the American typewriter manufacturers, Royal was very late to the market with their first portable. Whilst Corona popularised the concept of a small typewriter that could be taken and used anywhere, and Underwood and Remington jumped onto the bandwagon in the early 1920’s, Royal bided their time – only introducing their first portable in 1926. However, having learned from the mistakes of the others, when Royal did get into the portable market it was with a machine that was well thought out. The result was that it was immediately successful and started to take sales from the others. That first machine was called the Model ‘P’ – possibly P for Portable and also because the serial number always began with that letter. Production continued throughout the 1920’s and into the 1930’s, but not to sit on their laurels, Royal developed and launched a more modern variant, the Royal Standard Portable in 1932. Known to typewriter collectors today as the ‘Model O’ from the first digit of its serial number, it became the mainstay of the Royal range throughout the 1930’s. The basic mechanism was later evolved into the famous Royal Quiet De Luxe which by the 1950’s had become one of the best selling American portables of all time.

This particular machine from 1939, the last year of production, probably spent most of its life on one of the Western Isles off the coast of Scotland. One of my best customers, an island resident, is also an avid user and collector of typewriters. The island has a charity shop and they are so used to him that whenever they get a typewriter they always let him know. Just recently, this Royal was handed in! It had really earned its keep and was pretty worn, although I did do my best with it. The pressed steel carriage rails had worn and spread giving rather faint writing and I had to adjust them. Bruised screw-heads throughout bore testimony to many previous repairs. An interesting feature was that the original dealer in Glasgow had replaced the right hand shift key card (that was normally marked SHIFT in white on black) with a custom-printed disc which gave the supplier’s name and telephone number. This was quite common in the days before typewriters came with plastic keytops and formed a very permanent reminder of where one could buy ribbons and servicing ! The machine scrubbed up very well, but due to a worn escapement still jumps a space now and again. A shame really, but sometimes a typewriter can become so worn that reliability suffers and no amount of adjustment can truly compensate.

August 2019

1956 Royal HH Office Typewriter

Royal - one of America’s pioneer manufacturers - was founded in 1904 and after many ups and downs still exists in the USA today as an office equipment and supplies company. Royal’s reputation was based first on the No.5 ‘flatbed’ model, and then on the Royal No.10 – their first ‘upright’ office model that was so good that it remained in production from 1914 right through to the 1930’s. One of the nearest things to an ‘indestructible’ typewriter, the Royal 10 is still a common ‘find’ today. The late 1930’s successors to the Royal 10, the KHM and KMM, were still largely based on the original. A break in production to concentrate on the war effort from 1942 to 1945 led to a back-log of orders that took until 1948 to clear ! The first truly all-new model, the HH, wasn’t produced until 1954 and only lasted until 1957 when the similar Royal FP took over. Whereas previous models had been only available in black or grey, the HH broke new ground in being available in a variety of pastel colour schemes – at least in America. Here in Europe, where tastes in office equipment were much more conservative, grey was still the norm for this model. Demand for the new machine was so great that Royal (by now merged with a company that made accounting machines as Royal McBee) opened a new factory in Holland. These 1950’s Royals are wonderfully engineered and rugged machines and probably represent something of a golden age for Royal . Later, Royal seemed to lose direction and after investing in newer and newer models with relatively short product life-cycles, finally fell victim to a take-over that led to a severe cheapening of the product.

This particular HH model was one of the last made in Holland before the next model took over. It would have been in generally good condition except that when my customer bought it, he sent a ‘man with van’ to collect it for him. Somewhere along the way, the machine received a severe jolt to one end of the carriage which broke a tooth clean off the escapement pinion. Normally this would have made the machine a complete write-off since spare parts (even second hand ones) are not easy to come by for a 1950’s machine that was only produced for three years. However, my customer – a highly skilled engineer - had bought the typewriter for use in his model engineering supplies business and had no intention of giving up. He had another Royal HH already in use (and an Imperial 55) and fully intended to use this one too. So I dismantled the machine and extracted the broken pinion which he used as a pattern to make a new one from silver steel. He told me that it was a bit of a job, but the resultant new pinion was a perfect replica and fitted like a glove. We were not quite out of the woods though. The impact had bent the all-important front carriage rail by a minute amount, making it very difficult to arrange a smooth run from side to side without any binding. A compromise adjustment was finally achieved, giving a free carriage with only a little more shake in the rails than standard. The 1950’s rubber feet had obviously disintegrated at some time in the past and been replaced with hard plastic knobs, which would have made the machine glide gracefully all over the desk each time you returned the carriage. New rubber feet were sourced and fitted. The platen had suffered with age and was rock hard. This too was replaced. Although it was a long and expensive job, the result was a 1950’s typewriter that performed like new. My customer was delighted and pressed it into service immediately, doing just what it was designed to do – commercial work in an office !

July 2019

1957 Optima Elite 3

The story of this machine is an interesting one to say the least. It is a product of the division of Germany into two. East Germany (the DDR) and West Germany, which also resulted in the division of a typewriter company into two. Olympia and Optima. Pre-war, Olympia was a successful firm in Erfurt, producing portable and full-size office typewriters. Unfortunately for them, after the war ended, they found themselves in the Russian sector - which was later to become East Germany. The top brass - management, designers and senior technicians - fled to Wilmhelmshaven in West Germany, leaving the workforce, tools and jigs behind. There, they set up a new Olympia company and began producing the same typewriters as before. Meanwhile, production of Olympia typewriters re-started in the old Erfurt factory, leaving a situation where there were two Olympia companies, one East, one West - both making exactly the same models !

Something had to give, especially as the Erfurt factory was now under Soviet State ownership. In 1950, an international tribunal had to make the tricky decision as to which factory was entitled to use the Olympia trade mark. Although the original factory was in the East, they decided that the West German factory had the rights to the name. This left the other factory having to think of a new one. They chose 'Optima' - which at a glace looks like 'Olympia' and begins with 'O' and ends with 'a' just the same ! It took about a year for the East German factory to go over completely to the new name, and a couple of years more for the West German factory to design and produce newer models.

Bearing in mind that most of the technical people went west, it isn't surprising that Optima's progress with new models was much slower. In fact as far as portable typewriters were concerned, they simply chose to further develop the old models to update their appearance. Olympia's 1950's heavy-duty portable was the SM2, SM3 and SM4 (the difference is in the number of features and the kind of tabulator) - the 'works' of which came from a 1940's machine called the Olympia Elite. That same 1940's machine became the Optima Elite in East Germany !

Looking at the two machines side-by-side, it is clear that they share a common DNA. The earlier the machine, the more parts they share. I have fitted early Olympia parts to an Optima portable on a couple of occasions, with little or no modification. That is how close the two machines are ! Optima finished making portable typewriters in 1961 to concentrate on full-size office typewriters only. An East German state edict decreed no duplication, and the Erika factory (also in East Germany) was tasked with making portable typewriters from then on.

This particular machine was a family heirloom. The lady who brought it to me remembers her father constantly tapping away on it throughout her childhood. He was a technical translator - hence the special symbols added to the right of the keyboard. Dad had certainly had his value out of it, it was very worn indeed ! The main problems were a broken mainspring and a missing pop-up paper rest. Perhaps it wouldn't be a surprise if I told you that I adapted an early Olympia SM rest to fit ! It looks as if it grew there !

June 2019

1945 Imperial 50 War Finish

Regular readers on my Typewriter of the Month series will know that I have something of a soft spot for Imperial office typewriters. In fact both as an apprentice typewriter mechanic and at school before that, where I learned to type – an Imperial was the first typewriter that I encountered. I therefore make no apology for featuring yet another Imperial – this time a special variant. Introduced in 1927, this model was manufactured right through until 1955 with only minor tweaks and improvements along the way. The best looking machines were made prior to 1940. These has a deep black gloss enamelled finish – almost like a grand piano. Because the Imperial 50 was the typewriter of choice for the British government, armed forces, police and major industry – thanks to its clever interchangeable carriage and type unit – the makers were allowed to continue to produce these machines throughout the war. Every other typewriter manufacturer had to suspend production and make items for the war effort, like bomb fuses, but Imperial production was considered too essential to halt. From 1940, as factory personnel were called up to serve in the war, ways of making the machines involving less labour had to be found. The first thing to change was the finish. The previously glossy-black enamel gave way to crackle-finish black paint. This was because the cast-iron frame had to be polished to an almost mirror-like appearance before the enamel was baked on. For crackle paint, the castings only had to be smoothed out – the paint disguised any minor imperfections. The glass side-panel ‘windows’ were boarded up for the duration – replaced with steel closing panels of the same shape. As the war continued, further economies had to be made. Pre-war stocks of chromium-plated parts became exhausted and so the factory went back to bright nickel plating, as on the original models of the 1920’s. Alas, the nickel was needed for the war effort too, so many parts were finished in dull black as the batches of nickelled parts ran out. Worse still, all the UK’s rubber was shipped from abroad, and our waters were being blockaded by German submarines, so there was a shortage of rubber for all but the most essential war supplies. Imperial turned to using cork for the platens, feed and bail rolls instead. Right at the end of the war, there wasn’t even any rubber left for the typewriter’s feet, so these were replaced with cork too – double the surface area of the rubber ones because they would not be as durable. Around 1943-44, Imperial had to apply a ‘War Finish’ transfer to the front of the machine by way of an explanation for the thoroughly miserable appearance of their ‘ersatz’ typewriters. The machine in the photo was made in 1945 and shows the ‘War Finish’ in its final form – except that all the key rings are chromed, almost certainly a post-war addition to liven the machine’s appearance up for resale ! Yes, even the key rings were matt black by the end of the war and this machine would have been originally equipped with those.

This particular machine was delivered to me by the owner’s grandson, who wanted it brought back to life. It was pretty dusty and dirty inside, but fortunately it hadn’t been stored somewhere damp, as many old typewriters are. Fully cleaned and serviced, it came up rather well – and we sold him a brand-new custom-made dust cover to go with it, which should keep it looking a lot better in the future !

May 2019

1939 Continental Standard with Forms-Writer Carriage

One of the best office typewriters ever made was the pre-war German Continental Standard. Continental’s parent company, Wanderer-Werke, also made cars, bicycles, motorcycles and machine tools. Typewriter production commenced in 1904. The quality of Continental’s products was second to none. The Standard was clearly influenced by the American Underwood Five, the best selling office typewriter of the day. However, Continental’s version solved engineering problems that Underwood hadn’t even considered ! Carriage removal on the Underwood consisted of parking the drawband, then removing four screws, one bracket and the front scale before the carriage could be lifted clear of the machine. On the Continental, you simply operated a hidden lever and the carriage would slide off to the left – drawband automatically parked ! There were many, many other quality features. On some models, the rear feed rolls underneath the platen ran on miniature roller bearings. Other makes made do with metal-to-metal contact and a drop of oil !

The machine in the picture is ‘one that got away’. Eagle-eyed observers will see that it has a Scandinavian keyboard. It was bought in a flea market and brought to England by my customer. Unfortunately it got damaged on the 'plane journey home, which is why it was offered to me for repair. Unfortunately, not only had the tabulator rack been broken, the whole carriage had been shunted forwards and the carriage frame twisted. Being cast iron, any attempt to straighten the frame would have resulted in complete breakage, so sadly I had to hand the machine back unrepaired.

The forms-writer carriage must make this example practically unique. The Continental isn’t a particularly common machine in the UK, and I have certainly never seen one with a carriage like this. The forms-writer can be unclipped from the carriage for servicing, but is certainly intended to be a part of the whole rather than a bolt-on accessory. There is a special paper pan specifically for forms, and the dial on the right is to pre-programme particular line positions on the form before the typewriter’s line-space mechanism triggers the automatic feed as the carriage is returned. In conjunction with the tabulator, any part of the page (or form) can be reached in an instant. It was an absolute triumph of pre-war mechanical engineering by the typewriter firm best placed to produce such a wonder. Continental continued to produce typewriters throughout the Second World War, but when Germany fell, the factory was raided by the Russians, who took all the tooling as wartime reparations. What they failed to realise is that Continental were dependent on dozens of small sub-contractors in the locality and they were unable to reproduce the machines in Russia without those skilled suppliers. Some say that was the end of the Continental factory, but it seems that it soldiered on into the early 1950’s when the make finally passed into obscurity.

April 2019

Typewriter Accessories

Almost as soon as the first commercially-successful typewriter was launched in the 1870’s, someone spotted a gap in the market and decided to fill it with an accessory not thought of by the manufacturers. The first ‘third-party’ add-on was born ! Over the next 120 years, many ‘non-manufacturer’ improvements made it to the market, some more successful than others. A lot of these are pretty rare now, most having long-ago been consigned to the back of a desk drawer and then discarded.

The picture above shows a rubber ‘over shoe’ that fits over the platen knob. This arrived attached to the right hand knob of a 1936 Royal KHM office typewriter. Clearly there must have once been a similar shoe over the left knob, but that one had dissolved into a mass of sticky rubber. I must admit to being intrigued. You never stop learning in this trade, and I have never seen another. The raised wording on the rubber says, ‘ COLLIN AND HALLAM. LEICESTER. TEL. 21014.’ Whether this is the maker, or more likely, an enterprising typewriter dealer who had their name moulded onto the ‘shoe’, I really couldn’t say. I wonder if anyone would answer if you tried to ring that number now ? The purpose of the ‘shoe’ was probably three-fold. If it was a typewriter dealer’s name, then it would be an excellent form of advertising. If you were typing large quantities of, say, record cards – the increased diameter of the platen knob would ‘gear up’ the turning of the knob. This would allow the card or paper to be fed into the machine quickly. And of course, a nice soft rubber grip would be easier on the hand than a hard Bakelite knob when used repeatedly in the course of a working day.

Going back to what was probably the very first accessory in the 1870’s, it must be remembered that on the first Remingtons the operator was unable to see what they were typing as they were typing it. The sentence only appeared about four lines later as the paper gradually rolled up around the platen. You could stop and check your work by hinging the carriage upwards to look at what you had just typed, but this was obviously time-consuming so you wouldn’t want to be constantly doing this. Someone soon invented a little glass prism which clipped onto the front of the machine, enabling you to peer up inside and see the last three characters that you had just typed. Not exactly ‘visible writing’ then, but certainly better than nothing ! All sorts of other improvements were tried over the following decades. Something which is not appreciated by the present generation is that the circular metal and glass keytops of pre-war typewriters, so beloved by the ‘vintage and retro’ brigade, are actually quite hard on the fingertips. This is why typewriter manufacturers changed to moulded plastic keytops post-war. When using an older machine five days a week in an office, the typist soon developed hard skin on her fingertips after an initial period of soreness and discomfort. Once again, a solution was offered. One could buy a set of spring-loaded rubber keytops that clipped over the metal ones ! Each one consisted of a thin metal shell which went over the ‘key ring’ and contained a short, fat spring which provided some cushioning. The top surface was a rubber button marked with the letter of the alphabet. The German manufacturer Olympia obviously thought it was a good idea and revisited the idea in the 1950’s with a built-in cushioning spring and plastic keytop on both their large portables and office manuals. Versions of the accessory keytop covers without any markings were often also used by typing schools to obscure the characters on the keyboard as a means of training their students to ‘touch type’ without glancing downwards.

In the 1960’s the American maker Smith-Corona brought out an interchangeable type feature on some of their larger portables. One or two of the minor characters (positions generally occupied by fractions on most keyboards) were set up so that different removable spring-loaded typeface with alternative characters could be clipped to the end of the specially-modified typebar. A matching keytop could be clipped into place on the keyboard. As far as I know, no other manufacturer offered this feature – possibly because Smith-Corona held the patent. However, there was an alternative system which could be fitted to a variety of makes of office typewriters – the ‘Typit’. A modified type guide was fitted to the typewriter, which allowed a special attachment to be slid into place containing the desired alternative character. This was struck from behind by any random typebar, and like one billiard ball transferring motion to another, the impact would push the ‘Typit’ onto the ribbon and the paper. A system like this would be useful for inserting, for instance, a scientific or electrical symbol into normal correspondence.

Going forward into the 1970’s, when the IBM Selectric golfball typewriter was becoming common, and three other manufacturers had licenced the IBM golfball head design for their own machines, a third-party company started manufacturing golfball heads with alternative typefaces to the ones that IBM were offering. They even made a special ‘test head’ for typewriter engineers, to assist with setting up the ‘tilt and rotate’ functions of whichever machine was being worked on !

March 2019

Olivetti L20 circa late 1980's

This is one of the last manual typewriters to remain in production. Like all other models of Olivetti portable typewriter, the ‘works’ were based on the Olivetti Lettera 32, which was introduced in 1964 to replace the previous-model Lettera 22. It is said that the only reason that the previous model was dropped is that it was too expensive to manufacture. Olivetti had a good run for their money when the new model came on stream, because it went on to spawn many, many new varieties during the following twenty-five years. Although the appearance of these models varied widely, and even included the famous Olivetti Valentine, widely regarded as a design icon, mechanically they were all similar.

Olivetti made the various portables in different factories throughout the world. As well as the main factory in Ivrea, Italy, Olivetti had plants in Barcelona, Spain and Glasgow, Scotland to name just a few. To remain competitive, Olivetti spread their wings further afield, and made portable typewriters in the former Yugoslavia and finally Mexico – where the last Olivetti manual office typewriters were also manufactured. After the late 1970’s, Olivetti’s serial numbering system became chaotic to the point where it is no longer possible to identify the year of manufacture of any of their typewriters. Therefore, we can only guess that this Olivetti L20 was probably made in the late 1980’s or very early 1990’s. It is certainly the last of the line. To keep costs down as far as possible, these last machines do not have a carry case, but instead come in a vinyl bag emblazoned with the word ‘Olivetti’ repeated over and over again in the pattern of the fabric.

This particular machine was brought to me for a service, and turned out to be a pleasant little machine once adjusted correctly. The ‘Olivetti L20’ logo was missing from the front of the case, so I made up a black plastic blanking plate to take its’ place. The angular 1980’s styling still looks good today. It is a shame that they don’t still make them.

February 2019

Factory Ribbon Winder - Age Unknown

From time to time, the Typewriter of the Month isn’t a typewriter at all ! This month is no exception. What you see in the picture is a special home-brewed factory jig for winding small batches of typewriter or adding machine ribbons. There have often been instances in my career when I have needed to wind the fabric from a ‘donor’ ribbon spool in order to re-ribbon an obsolete or out of stock spool. Until very recently, I did this by hand. I can transfer a ribbon between spools remarkably quickly; I guess that four decades of practice counts for something. However, this little machine can wind a ribbon faster than me, and has become something of a favourite just lately.

Like many of my ‘cobblers shoes’ projects, I had sat on this device for a long time awaiting some spare time when I wasn’t working on a customer’s machine. It was given to me when I bought a job lot of obsolete ribbon spools from the family of a former ribbon manufacturer. The winder had been used in the ‘works’ for winding small batches by hand, and had certainly seen better days. It had then spent some years rusting away in a shed, and one of the knobs had gone missing. It was dirty, dusty and rusty when I got it. Furthermore, the winding part was semi-seized and someone had bent the handle trying to force it round. My wife is a vintage tool collector, and when I told her about the winder she was intrigued. She started cleaning it up, and then I finally took over to strip and re-paint it. I was able to find a Bakelite knob which was the same thread as the missing one, so that was fitted. On examination, I could see that the gearing-up mechanism to which the winding handle was attached was actually adapted from a hand-turned grinding stone. This is the sort of thing that would be screwed to a workbench in years gone by, to enable you to sharpen knives, screwdrivers and chisels. I would have thought it a difficult operation to crank with one hand and sharpen the tool with another – perhaps you got someone else to turn the handle ?

A good soaking in penetrating oil got things moving a little better, but the mechanism was still jamming. These little bench grinders are riveted together and are not intended to be dismantled. I am always up for a challenge, so filed the end of the spindle rivet off and took the whole unit apart. It was jamming because it was literally worn out and the resultant play was allowing the gear teeth to partly jump out of mesh. Everything was cleaned until spotless, and quantities of a special high-tech gun lubricant applied - which seemed to ease matters. Then I managed to find ‘just’ enough metal in the spindle end to rivet the whole thing back together. Once reassembled, I tried it with a ribbon. Success ! The gearing-up effect of the grindstone mechanism makes the spools fairly sail round at high speed, whilst the steel flywheel smoothes out the variations and keeps everything turning evenly. My guess is that the winder was originally made by the factory maintenance engineer in the toolroom, since there are certainly many custom-turned and welded components there. The idea of using a grindwheel mechanism is a masterstroke and probably makes it unique.

Back in the day, some typewriter workshops were equipped with a ribbon winder for winding ribbon fabric from a ‘factory roll’ containing several hundred yards of fabric onto a customer’s spools when a typewriter came in for service. However, these were an American pattern and were quite different to this one. The ‘factory roll’ went onto a much larger carrier and the whole thing was used vertically – often screwed to a bench-end or even a wall. I remember using one at a firm that I worked for in the late 1970’s. Like some of the service tools that I finally acquired a couple of months ago, I have waited a lifetime to have a ribbon winder of my own. Perhaps good things come to those who wait !

January 2019

1935 Ideal DZ33 Standard

Siedel and Naumann of Dresden, Germany started in the 1870s as makers of sewing machines, but by the early 1900’s had diversified into many other lines including bicycles and typewriters. Later on, typewriter manufacture became the largest part of the business and the sewing machines were quietly dropped. S and N sold their typewriters under a number of names. The portable typewriters were called ‘Bijou’ or ‘Erika’ (named after Herr Naumann’s grand-daughter). ‘Ideal’ was the name chosen for the office-size typewriters. Like some other German manufacturers before the war, they tended to copy and improve upon the best selling products of other factories. Certainly, S and N followed this route with blatant copies of Singer sewing machines and they also did this with typewriters. The Bijou folding portable typewriter was such a close copy of the American Corona 3, that the Corona factory was able to threaten legal action and make S and N discontinue production. Less successful was Underwood who it seems were unable to stop the Ideal ‘Underwood Five copy’ from being manufactured. Clearly the Ideal DZ33 was derived from the Underwood, although in many respects it was an improvement. To remove the carriage on an Underwood Five involves taking out four screws and a bracket. On the Ideal (and the Continental for that matter – another German ‘improved’ Underwood) it is only necessary to operate a concealed lever and pull the carriage to the left. The drawband is neatly and automatically parked and with the carriage off, the machine can be cleaned or repaired very easily. When the war ended, S and N found themselves on the wrong side of the East/West divide, and eventually became subsumed into the East German state industries. Still using the ‘Erika’ trade name for their portable typewriters, manufacture continued until as late as 1989. Utilitarian but well-made, the Erika portable typewriter was one of East Germany’s most successful exports.

When this particular typewriter was made, Germany was fully under Nazi control. In fact I have read that Hitler’s personal typewriter was a Siedel and Naumann. Certainly the German military were using them, and I was told that this typewriter was ‘liberated’ from a high ranking German official’s office during the latter stages of the war. The owner’s father had done the liberating and had then carried the machine all over Germany in his kit bag before finally coming home and being de-mobbed. Since this is a heavy office typewriter, he must have been tough ! The chap went on to be a policeman in civilian life, using the machine to type all his police reports until he retired. Originally with a German keyboard (of course), he had had the machine converted to a standard English ‘QWERTY’ keyboard for his personal use. The right hand side of the machine had been engraved with a German word which means ‘Property of the Reich’. I wonder if he took the machine into work with him, and if so, what his colleagues must have thought of it. An excellent quality machine, no wonder it survived its original use and then a second life typing police paperwork.

Sadly, by the time the machine was brought to me it was in a rather rusty condition. Its original owner had passed away, and his daughter had carefully wrapped it in polythene before placing it in a damp shed. Instead of protecting the machine from the damp, the plastic had actually trapped the moisture like a wet poultice – attacking the plating. Only the original high quality of the enamel finish had saved things from being far worse on the framework. Large parts of the mechanism had seized, but I was able to free it all off in the end and partially re-paint the machine. It could never look as it did when new, but it now works and is once again capable of typing a letter – or even a police report !