Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Elgin Collegiate

At the last possible moment this morning, I switched lanes to avoid a traffic jam and found myself heading in the direction of the Ohio Valley Antique Mall.

Good decision! I found a $20 Smith-Corona Courier I'll fix up for WordPlay, and a typewriter for my own collection: this pretty Elgin Collegiate.


It was made in Japan by Nippo (website by Will Davis, courtesy of the Wayback Machine).


The Nippos essentially follow the design introduced by Halberg and then found on scads of little Royals made in Holland after Royal bought Halberg.


One difference I've noticed, though, is that the Halbergs/Royals have a carriage return lever that pivots, unusually, on a horizontal axis, whereas the Nippo lever is on a more conventional vertical axis.



The shell, while similar to the Royalite, has its own attractive shape and these eye-catching gullwing ribbon covers.
This typewriter is missing a feed roller and is a bit rough in some other ways, but I don't think I've ever run across any sort of Nippo in the flesh before, so I'm very happy that I made that split-second decision to follow The Typewriter Bone today.



13 comments:

  1. It does have a nice and rounded design. I do very much like the curves on this machine. Nice little score. Incidentally, what do you mean it is missing a feed roller. Is it the rubber? Or is the entire axle and roller section missing.

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    1. Not just the rubber but the entire right rear feed roller has popped out, apparently.

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  2. And..... Just backed that project. Looking forward to seeing the outcome!

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  3. Hi Richard. I have quite a few of these models and have posted on them a few times - Atlas and Orven mostly. Very common in Australia. They featured in Portables, ETCetera in ETCetera not so long ago. Do you want me to post you a feed roller?

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  4. Yay, Typewriter Bone! :D

    Nice score! never seen a Nippo in the flesh.

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  5. Hey that's cool! More typewriters should have got onto the upward opening rubbon covers, sort of like the doors of a Lamborghini

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  6. Frst one I recall seeing. Nice typewriter.

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  7. Thought I recognized it from somewhere! It's indeed similar to the Royal Halbergs. But this one looks like it wants to fly. Those ribbon covers are neat!

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  8. Very nice machine, indeed! I agree with Steve, the ribbon covers give some sort of a Lambo feel to the design. I bet you'll have a lot of fun getting it back to proper working order.

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  9. Certainly not your usual find, congrats.

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  10. I see the resemblance to the Royalite. It's a lovely little machine in a great colour. I've always liked gullwing covers, though sometimes they don't quite fit right. More vulnerable to damage over the years, I guess.

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  11. (From the title, for a minute I thought you'd gotten a watch...)
    Never realized that the basic Halberg design traveled that far. The gullwing covers work very well on this design, especially with the bodywork colour. Sportscar-like :)

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