OK, I'm back from Argentina and can post the answers to the quiz in my previous post. No one earned the coveted (?) "typenerd" designation, but some readers are certified members of the mechanographical literati.
Quiz
1. How is this model different from all other Remington Noiseless models?
Answer: This machine is just like the model made by the Noiseless Typewriter Company before it was bought by Remington. Remington sold the remaining stock as the model 5, but thoroughly redesigned the machine with the model 6. The most obvious difference? This is a three-bank, double-shift typewriter; later Remington (and Underwood) noiseless standards are four-bank typewriters with a single shift. The mechanism had to be changed dramatically in order to achieve this change.
2. Lexikon 80s are very common in Argentina—but not this one. Why not?
Answer: This is one of the very first examples produced, which had metal-ringed keys instead of plastic keys. (The decimal tabulator is not so rare.)
3. Can this Remington portable type in Spanish? Why or why not?
Answer: No one got this one. People focused on the two odd devices that made them think of dead keys. That may be what they are; I don't know. But here is what you should have focused on:
The mainspring in this typewriter pulls the carriage from left to right. That means that the machine types from right to left. So it can't type Spanish, or any language that uses the Roman alphabet. Instead, it's an Arabic typewriter:
Pretty cool, eh?
In my next post I'll show you a few more typewriters I spotted before I had to leave Argentina, all too soon.
