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Sunday, June 5, 2011

Groma T from '53



Postscript: a German collector alerted me that my newer machine is not a model E. The model E was a prewar version of the model N with no ribbon color selector, and is quite rare. According to this collector, my green machine is a fourth-version model N. But more recently, AmsterdamAssassin has assured me that this is a model T. See his comment below. (Why can't manufacturers clearly mark their models?)


This is my 1938 Groma N for comparison:


at

10 comments:

  1. Ton S. June 5, 2011 at 12:33 PM

    The green Groma has lots of personality; very 50s modernist aesthetic (that return lever is just awesome!) and the "crude" East German touches.

    I'm curious about the noise this makes.
    Would you say it's loud?

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  2. Richard PJune 5, 2011 at 1:13 PM

    Listen for yourself:
    MP3 here. Can you hear the little bell?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ton S. June 5, 2011 at 1:28 PM

    I was expecting some noisy clacking but that's quite a pleasant low-pitch sound; a bit like a Hermes 3000.

    Thanks for posting the MP3!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Philosophothinker, ThDJune 5, 2011 at 5:07 PM

    Wow, that's... really pretty. I love the keys and the body shape most of all.

    My Torpedo's paper suppoert is also long like that though it retracts, then folds down. (But if you don't have it out all the way it works wrong so it's meant to be always out)

    Also, new background image I see!

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  5. shordziJune 6, 2011 at 12:21 PM

    Nice sound file! These Gromas are very elegant, and the "N" model very high on my watch list.

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  6. kcbJune 13, 2011 at 11:22 PM

    wow, that 1938 groma n is spectacular.

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  7. Bert van den BerghFebruary 5, 2013 at 2:46 PM

    I have one just bit different s/n 347273

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  8. x over itMarch 8, 2015 at 6:00 AM

    At this point I've used quite a few of the larger Groma portables and it seems like some of them feel very stiff, while others have a pleasant flowing touch that is rather light. In my experience, you're just as likely to find one of the stiff ones as one of the nice ones to use.

    I have a newer one like yours (I'll be typecasting with it soon) that I wouldn't call stiff in any way. It does have a heavy shift, but I never notice those much any more.

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  9. AmsterdamAssassinMay 22, 2019 at 7:30 AM

    I'd like to correct you on the type - this is neither an E nor an N, but a T (for tabulator). You can easily distinguish the N from the T because the T has that lever on the side that you press down to set a tab or pull up to erase that tab. It also has a lever to the side of the carriage that removes all tabulator stops in a single swoop.
    The Groma modell N has no tabulator.

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    Replies
    1. Richard PMay 22, 2019 at 1:01 PM

      Thanks very much. I have updated the text and title of this post.

      Delete