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1921 Underwood Three Bank Portable

The story of the American-based Underwood typewriter company is well-known. From the first Underwood office typewriter being made in 1899, over the next twenty years, they came to dominate the market, selling as many typewriters each year as all the other American makes put together. However, by around 1915, the Corona Typewriter Company was becoming equally successful with a tiny folding typewriter that was truly portable. It was an ingenious design featuring just three rows of keys instead of the usual four, with an extra shift key to access numerals, punctuation marks and symbols. This cut down the amount of moving parts, and combined with a lightweight aluminium frame, made the machine both light to carry and reasonably priced. For the first time, the average person could afford to have a typewriter of their own at home.

The First World War intervened, but nevertheless the company were eying the Corona upstart with interest because they did not have an equivalent product of their own. In 1919, they did what several other manufacturers have done from time to time - they bought in a design from an outsider. Lee Burridge, who had worked up designs for other manufacturers and for a short period manufactured a typewriter of his own, had just completed work on a compact portable in 1915 when he unfortunately died at the early age of 52. A few months after his death, his brother applied for patents based on Lee's design. Clearly intended for the same market as the Corona Three folding portable, it had the same three-row keyboard and double shift, but not the folding-down carriage which was a Corona patent. A masterpiece of engineering, it managed to be as small as the Corona when folded.

Underwood bought the design and patents in early 1919, and later the same year, production began. This model had a life of ten years, but in 1926, now faced with the competition from Remington - who had also bought in a design for a compact typewriter - but this time with a full four row keyboard - Underwood developed a four bank version. This became the basis of all Underwood portable typewriters until at least the 1940's.

The machine in the pictures was made in 1921 but is practically identical to the 1919 original. It came to me in a truly awful condition, and if it wasn't for the owner's family connection, would not really have been worth spending the money on. It was rusty, with parts missing from a botched repair attempt on the spring drum, and of course as one might expect of a typewriter over 100 years old - all the rubber parts had literally fallen apart with age. The one and only saving grace it that it had been fitted with a cork platen - an alternative to the usual rubber (which incidentally was revived as an idea during the World War Two rubber shortage). Cork platens, although not offering as much grip on the paper as rubber, seem to last almost indefinitely. I had to make new feet, feet for the carry case baseboard that the typewriter is normally attached to, and a host of small parts. I found that the missing mainspring could be substituted with one I had from an early four-bank model. Considering the very hard life and neglect that this machine had suffered throughout its' life, it turned out to have an acceptable line of writing.

As is often the case with 'family heirloom' typewriters, my customer was very pleased with the results - even though she could have bought a fully-refurbished slightly later Underwood 3-Bank for less money. But it wouldn't have been the same, would it ?

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 !