Das grosse Giveaway

After my previous, perhaps all-too-unsettling post, here's a pleasant one.

I have two copies of the latest catalogue from Auction Team Breker. They're selling a North's and some other nice typewriters, but most of the auction this time is for scientific instruments, toys, musical instruments, and some early personal computers such as an Apple I. Other categories include aeronautica, railwayana, and "gentlemen's effects." These are beautiful full-color catalogues in German and English, illustrating and describing 938 lots. They're fun for anyone who appreciates old mechanical things.

The first two people who reply to this post by listing four typewriters that start with the same letter as their last name will each win a catalogue. (Hey, I had to make it slightly challenging.) Let the giveaway begin!

Not me

Robert's gifts

Here's what happened to the Brillant I bought:

(There was also more damage you can't see in the photo.)

Here's Robert's post about the Brillant.

Now here is the Good Companion case:

Help create a great typewriter repair resource (and tweak your Olympia)

Here's a call to all typospherians!

Nick Beland has made an excellent point:

Collectively, the typosphere has made great progress in solving many of the age- and repair-related complications plaguing our typewriters, finding out that major problems often have simple solutions. ... It's about time we set up a way to keep these repairs organised by brand and model in a central location!

(Nick continues the discussion here.)

As a start, Nick has created a post on Welcome to the Typosphere where we can post links to relevant posts on our blogs. For instance, if you've ever written about how you replaced a missing foot on your Remington portable or fixed a sticky return lever on a Torpedo, just share the URL for your post on Nick's post. He'll start organizing these URLs into a page that is going to be increasingly useful.

Here is where to share your URLs.

As a contribution to this project, here's my discussion of several ways to "tweak" your Olympia SM, from the September 2011 issue of ETCetera (click to enlarge).

G'day and bon voyage, Robert

Book review: Philip K. Dick, In Milton Lumky Territory

KMC in action

I'm really been enjoying using my Remington Rand KMC to type comments on students' papers. This machine is smooth, fast, and a pleasure to type on. (See my review and comparison to the Royal KMM here.)

I thought people might enjoy seeing and hearing it in action.

Word Trek

The ribbon system. Spool from Spitzfaden's Office Supplies on the left,

removed plastic ribbon cover in center, metal core on the right:

The duct tape that made all the difference:

I'm assuming this means "made in September 1966." It's stamped into the 

underside of the ribbon cover. The user's manual is also dated 1966.

You can download the user's manual here (4MB).

The great (?) postcard giveaway