Serial Number: 46-0171787
Olympia Pica No. 12 typeface, 10 pitch, 2.6m/m, 6 lines/inch, keyset tabulator, half-space spacing, vertical spacing, portable, bichrome, segment shift, American keyboard, 44 keys, 88 characters, white and gray plastic body with grey hood and gray plastic keys with white characters
Manufactured in Wilhelmshaven, Germany
Along with Ron Rosenbaum, Steven Levy, Patricia Highsmith, and the fictional Frank Navasky of You’ve Got Mail fame, I have joined the Quiet Cult of the Olympia Report de Luxe Electric Typewriter.
I acquired this at thrift for $21.95 on 2026-05-10 for Mother’s Day in immaculate condition! It’s as if someone used it to type up a few essays then put it in the case for 49 years. Other than some minor wear, this may be the singularly cleanest typewriter I’ve ever purchased. As my first typebar electric Olympia, I was so looking forward to taking it apart and giving it a full clean, oil, and adjust, but beyond wiping off some exterior dust, this machine really needs no work. I’m both disappointed and elated at the same time.
“Now listen to this.
The gentle and soothing lullaby of a piece of machinery so perfect –”
—Frank Navasky, YOU’VE GOT MAIL (Warner Bros., 1998)
What a fantastic find! Looks like new!
“Report. As in gunshot.”
Nice
For the past month or so, I’ve been making a concerted effort to reawake and reinvigorate typing skills I learned a very long time ago. That effort involves typing dozens of full pages of formal text.
One thing I’ve noticed is that virtually every letter on every page is applied with a different amount of (for lack of a better phrase) finger energy. Some letters are thin and spidery, and some are thick, dark, and full. Some are even over-full and a bit bloated. I can attribute some of that discrepancy to old, dried-out ribbons and to new, modern, small-lot reproduction ribbons that are a bit over-saturated with ink. But, I think, most of the discrepancy comes as a result of fifty years using IBM chicklets that don’t care whether you pound them or touch them with a fleeting feather finger. Manual typewriters do care.
Ever since taking up the sport of typewriter collecting, I’ve not been a fan of electric machines, despite the romantic whirr and hum. But I will give them some credit — the clacking keys appear to produce (more-or-less) uniform strikes.