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Typewriter Crafting: Dirt is an Enemy

If you were to read any instruction manual from the golden age of the typewriter you would find many references to the importance of covering your typewriter. This started me thinking. I have some typewriters that sit out and are completely unprotected. Sure, I want people to see them, but I also want to be able to use them without having to dust them off first.

Covers were once ubiquitous typewriter accessories. Now, they are nearly impossible to find in good condition and made of a material of which my wife would approve. That's why my wife and I made this:

What could be under this cover?

A blue Olympia SM-3!

When I say I helped, I measured machines and cut out the fabric. The actual sewing was done by the missus., but it looked easy enough to do.  I am currently working on a pattern that you can download and make your own. We also have been toying with the idea of selling them, but look for the pattern in the next few days.

In case there were any doubts in your mind as to the importance of covering your machine read this excerpt from the 1950 Federal Work Improvement Program Equipment Maintenance booklet (You can find the booklet in its entirety at this link):

Just Right

The Typecast.

The Pad.

Final Indulgence

Now, the only problem is that I think that the ratchet wheel for the line advancement is worn unevenly. I think it's making some odd line spacing happen. I'll post about that later.

Maybe It's The Type-In Effect?

Tired Digits

Just a preview, but it is about 80% done. Huge project that I am unlikely to do again. Now I know why people have buffing wheels in shops. Doing this by hand has been a labor of love. So, enjoy the photo. I need to go and try to get this aluminum dust out of my hands.

As you know, pictures can never do these sorts of things justice.

We Need More Cowbell

After the baby was put to bed, I retired to the back patio to continue sanding the body of the Lettera. It is far from done. I still have the 150, 250, 400, 600, and 1500 grit papers to go, but 400 and higher is wet paper. Wet paper lets me sit inside and work on while watching television.

In Progress. Lots of elbow grease. See that reflection on the left side
of the ribbon cover? Quality.

The cover is sanded to 1500. The lower part is 150. See the difference
in shine? All I did was sand.

Pretty cool. 

I need to start looking for a buffing wheel that can fit in the chuck on my cordless drill. I think that Auto Zone or O'Riley might have something like that. The buff is the last step on this "little" project. I am hoping that by the end of the week I'll have a complete machine to show off. In fact, it might make it's way to the type-in on June 18th.

Movement!

The Slow Methodical Plodding Along

So I don't know if I have the most horrible luck or what, but my Silver Surfer project is taking a long time. So far I have completed...nothing. Well, nothing isn't quite true. The cover of the old Lettera is coming along nicely. The body still needs the paint sanded off. Initially, I tried using acetone and it worked to some degree. The paint didn't peel off in one sheet. It just became soft enough to scrape off with an old paint stirrer.

After the paint was scraped and the surface cleaned, the aluminum looked heavily scratched and pitted.. It was probably made that way to give the paint an excellent key. That would be great for old paint that looked wonderful, but the putty color on the Olivetti was really unpleasant. I needed to sand a lot.

Starting with a 65 grit block I was able to get the paint off. It worked, but the work was slow. I might try to find one of those sanding disks that mount into a portable drill. Speed might get that ugly paint to vanish. 150 followed the 65. After that was a succession of finer and finer grit papers; 250, 400, 600, and 1500. As of tonight, I just need to buff out the micro-scratches that make the surface look brushed. I know there are buffing wheels at ACE, so I am going to get one of those.

The work looks great and I can't wait to finish and get to typing. Below is an adequate, but not very accurate picture of the cover.

Looking shiny!

Another angle, same model.

 I think I will be done some time next week.

Lonely Typewriter

Summer school is in full swing and the students are already using the machines. We are just about 1-to-1 in student-to-typewriter ratio. This allows the kids to choose a typewriter and keep it at their desk. This one ,complete with a story about a first football game, was left mid-word. The author will return to the story on Monday.

Water, Water Everywhere

On the Bench

Silver Surferizing is all the rage. I've been sucked in with a Lettera that needed a little attention. All I am willing to show, yet, is an uncovered typewriter, but soon it will be ready to share.

Pride

Royal Goes to War

In honor of Memorial Day I wanted to look back into Royal's war-time advertising past.

Royal's wartime advertising is interesting. Shortly after war was declared the company followed the tenor of the nation and ran patriotic advertisements. The first two full-page ads (below) come from early 1942 and are the most overtly patriotic. As time went on, though, Royal knew that it must keep its product line in the mind of a population who couldn't buy them. The war stretched on and the Royal's advertising changed focus from patriotic populism to helpful and informational ads. The remainder of the ads I have posted are these information type. In the middle of the war Royal started pushing their Roytype ribbons and carbons. I am sure that management knew that they could not count on war profits forever. They would need to grow the business in the only way they could until production picked up after the war.

This push for revenue from accessories is not seen from Smith-Corona. Smith-Corona did run wartime advertisement, but the tone of SC's work was more patriotic throughout the war. They did not work on the pushing branded accessories and authorized repair centers. I don't even know if SC had their own ribbon and carbon paper brand.

Regardless, the efforts of Royal's Madison Ave. wizards must have paid off because Royal was very successful after the war. They were so successful, that McBee, Litton, and Olivetti all purchased the company albeit at different phases in its history.

Dear Typosphere

Of course, you can still find this blog at the old address http://magicmargin.blogspot.com

A Time-Honored Concern

In a 1916 article from the magazine America, there is a summary of an argument made by Mr. Thomas L. Masson in a paper he wrote for another magazine called Bookman. His idea is that if Milton used a typewriter to write "Lycidas" or "Hymn on the Nativity", these poems would not be as good. Pen and paper, apparently, are the only way for an author to slow down and revise. It's fine to use the typewriter to "conform more closely to our modern standards of orthography" but the use of one for composition is met with the invective, "Perish the thought!"

The author of the column also concludes that the current dearth of quality literature in America is due to the number of authors who use a typewriter for composition. (Start reading from "That fatal...")

The entire idea of this blog is that the typewriter is an excellent way to compose writing. I (and others) actually believe that it is the superior way to compose writing. The computer marks a "crisis in the history of letters." With the speed of creativity no one takes time to slow down and work on writing. Revision is passe'. The typewriter offers a way for an author to select words carefully without the harsh distraction of the modern computer. Well, reading this column I can see that the concern over the typewriter edging out the traditional way of writing was a concern to early twentieth-century litterati.

The goal of my Classroom Typewriter Project has been to show that the physical act of writing on a typewriter allows a writer to focus. And through that focus become a better writer. In the teens there was a similar concern:

Is it natural that every iteration of technology causes people to worry about losing some ineffable quality of an older method? Did writing strike fear in the heart of the Chavet-Pond-d'Arch painter? Did movable type strike fear in the heart of the Lindsfarne monks?

If you want to read the entire column...read on, Macduff!

Typewriter Bites Man, Circa 1943

I found this in an old Saturday Evening Post. I wonder what the machine the story is referencing? I think it might be a Williams, but I am sure there were a number of machines that used an ink pad. What's more frightening is how modern this experience sounds.

Royal Gravitas

I have been thinking about the Royal Model O that I posted about Sunday evening. I am an unapologetic Royal fan. I have alluded to this before, but it wasn't until the Model O came into the collection that I have really come to an understanding of what makes Royal so special.

Royal, as a company, never set the world on fire with any feature. If the ads that Royal ran in Life are any indication, Magic Margin (after which this blog is named) was their proudest accomplishment. That's a little sad because I have always felt that Royal's margin system was a little over-designed and far from the greatest addition to the world of typewriters. It's more magical if you could figure out how it works. Touch-Control might pop your mind as being something entirely special, but key tension adjustment can be found on many typewriters of the time. It's not the styling that marks them unique. Every industrial designer at Royal must have shopped at the same Brooks Brothers because there is nothing daring about any Royal design. Even when daring is attempted it's done as if someone had suggested that cocktails be served a three instead of four. Scandalous! No there is something else that makes the Royal special.

That "it" factor is gravitas. Royals are weighty. Serious. They are as frivolous as a chartered accountant. You can ever go wrong with a Royal and if you do it's your own fault for not being serious enough. As seen in the advertisement from a 1942 Life, Royal's and serious things like war are synonymous. Would you want some little Smith-Corona or a pipsqueak Underwood doing war business? I don't think so.

Next time you find a Royal in a thrift store, don't discount it because of some fictional (yes, I refuse to believe the problem exists) escapement problems. They are wonderful serious machines.

Model O Gallery

So, the other typewriter that I received this weekend was a beautiful model O. It's in great shape too and even came with the original instruction booklet. (I'll scan it soon.) It works well and has a very small typeface. Enjoy these photos.

Even includes a mint instruction booklet.

Nice decal.

Clean, modern keytops.

My good side.

In situ. 

Ding!

New (to me) Royal Portable

Actually, it looks as if it new. Beautiful paint and bright nickel accents makes this machine look very fancy. It's in absolutely pristine condition. This machine came with another Royal portable that I will post later. It also is in great shape.

What's amazing is that there is very little yellowing of the keys. As you can see above, they have stayed uniformly white. Wonderful machine. I think I'll expand this post a little later, but in the meantime I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

The HH in Advertising

If you've read once, you've read a thousand times that I love the Royal Standard HH. Apart from being the most amazing standard desktop machine, it was also the subject of some of Royal's most mid-century advertising. Each one is rife with the subtle sexism of the decade, but it makes them no less enjoyable. So, please enjoy this little gallery.

Pink typewriters improve office morale!

Romancing the Royal.

Is it a little troubling that I want one in each color?

Put an HH on the back of your Vespa and that'll be the end of you.

It'll Be A Blast!

Yesterday my email account had four RSVPs for the Typewriter Round-Up. So far it looks like we are on-track for almost twice as many as the last event!