Serial Number: 5A 458864
Pica No. 1 typeface; 6 lines/vertical inch
American No. 20A keyboard
Support small framing, roofing, blowing and other general inflation tasks.
(They might not smile much on your use of mineral spirits while you’re there, so use caution.)
Just for fun for the regulars and the collectors, let’s see who can come closest to a make, model and year for this lovely machine I recently acquired for restoration. Please, no more than two guesses per player.
Answer to be posted Saturday.
Along the way I’ve been aggregating some related Olympia SM3 (and other SM family) resources and videos which include several on use, a few comparing them to other machines (for those considering buying them), and a variety on taking them apart and adjusting them to peak performance including doing rack, ring & cylinder, on feet, motion, silent return spring, trip timing, and spacebar adjustments.
First a note on the name. The SM designator is an abbreviation for the German Schreibmaschine Mittelgroß which translates as medium-sized typewriter (portable). This stands in comparison with Olympia’s SG series which stands for Schreibmaschine Groß meaning large typewriter (standard) and the SF series which stands for Schreibmaschine Flach or flat typewriter (ultraportable) .
Olympia typewriters are often identified with clear badging as to their make, but almost never have a model number listed on the typewriter itself. Originally identification was only done with the inclusion of a typewriter manual which listed the model name on the front of the brochure. Sadly, after decades of use, as with most typewriter manuals, it has frequently gone missing. This means that owners and collectors will typically need to be able to visually distinguish between the various models which can often be missing from online sales listings. How is one able to identify which model their Olympia typewriter is?
The best method is often to compare your typewriter against the examples of typewriters on the Typewriter Database, which, in addition to a primary page for all Olympia typewriters and their serial numbers, has individual pages for each machine with a wide variety of galleries of individual machines, viz.: SM1, SM2, SM3, SM4, SM5, SM7, SM8, SM9.
The primary means of distinguishing between the SM2, SM3, and SM4 is the tabulator functionality or lack thereof. The Olympia SM2 doesn’t have a tabulator at all, so you won’t see the ability to set or remove tabs or a tab key on the keyboard. The SM3 has its tab sets on the back of the machine and a simple tab key on the top right hand side of the keyboard. Finally, the SM4 has tab set and clear keys on either side of the spacebar and the tab key in the same spot as the SM3. While there are other subtle differences between the three, which also showed small changes throughout the years they were made, the visual presence or absence of the tabs and their keys is the primary distinguishing feature that most collectors use to properly identify and distinguish among the three.
Most typically the Olympia SM3 typewriter came with a futuristic looking, curvy shaped silver case with a plastic strap handle while the SM2 and SM4 came rectangular cases. There are definitely diversions from this rule of thumb, but it generally holds true which usually allows one to identify an SM3 simply from the shape of its case. Incidentally those restoring broken cases may find it interesting to know that the silver paint is often hiding some spectacularly beautiful grained wood.
Be aware that the various models of the SM series were manufactured simultaneously and their serial numbers ran concurrently, so the serial numbers can’t be used to distinguish between them. Doing so requires looking at the variations of features and visual cues which are generally well documented on the Typewriter Database.
The SM5 and SM7 were introduced at the same time in 1961 and are very similar to the internals of the SM4 mechanically. The SM5 was a less expensive model and the SM7 had a newer and more angular body.
The SM8 and SM9 were introduced in 1964. A primary change here is that they have a segment shift instead of the carriage shift of the earlier SM models. The SM8 is lacking both a keyset tabulator and touch selector which were standard on the higher end SM9. The SM8 also has body-colored carriage ends, rather than chromed ends used on the SM9.
I’ve aggregated a variety of YouTube videos covering the Olympia SM3 typewriter as a playlist which cover general use as well as tear down, common repairs, adjustments, and reassembly. They appear in rough order of introductory to more advanced as well as in order of adjustments. Because of similarities across the SM line, these should serve as a good guide for other machines, though quick searches for specific models may reveal more relevant advice, particularly when it comes to small differences across the line (the shift from carriage shift to segment shift in the SM8/SM9 comes quickly to mind here.)
The only significant piece missing in the series is for cleaning them, but that’s remedied with an endless variety of videos (including one of my favorites) and advice from Richard Polt on restoration. I’ve also aggregated a large amount of advice on cleaning and oiling typewriters.
Special thanks should go to Duane Jensen of Phoenix Typewriter and Gerren Balch of The HotRod Typewriter Co. for the bulk of the work in creating and generating most of these videos.
Surely there are other excellent videos out there, but this list makes a pretty solid crash course which can be used as a jumping off point.
If you’ve just purchased your first SM3 or SM4, you’ll want to be aware of the number one most common issue these machines have: the rubber bushings on the bottom have been compressed after years of pressure and will need to be replaced.
Visually looking at them is usually enough to diagnose the issue, but the problem usually presents as the carriage sitting noticeably lower than it should so that it rubs against the body of the typewriter and/or doesn’t move freely. Some people will notice that typing in lower case is troublesome, but that typing in uppercase doesn’t present any issues. Often these rubber spacers have been compressed and have hardened. In less lucky cases, (usually only) the rear bushings have turned into black tar, so you’ll want to take care to keep this tar off of anything nearby as it’s incredibly sticky and difficult to clean. It can definitely stain the case and/or the machine itself.
Fortunately the repair only requires some readily available generic rubber washers and a screwdriver to replace them. This is one of the quickest and easiest typewriter repairs to start off with and can be a good confidence booster. Incidentally appropriate washers should be approximately 1/4″ thick, large enough in diameter to provide some cushion and with a hole big enough to fit the screw that holds the frame on. Your plumbers’ section at the local hardware store likely sells something appropriate. I’ve used Everbilt 1/4″ thick flat bibb washers with 1/2″ or 9/16″ OD. Others have reported good luck with Danco 1/2 rubber washer Universal (item #198804, model #88569) — 00 trade size with 1/2″ OD and 3/16″ ID.
Along with other typewriter manuals collected by Richard Polt, he’s got manuals for the Olympia SM3 in both English and German. Manuals for most of the rest of the series are available on his site as well.
And for the completist, you’ll naturally want copies of the repair manuals via Theodore Munk: [paperback] [digital]. There are also downloadable versions of a 1955 repair manual and a 1959 Spare Parts and Price List Catalog available.
Hopefully this aggregated list of resources will help the next Olympia typewriter enthusiast who finds one in grandma’s basement or who wants to kick off a writing career following in the footsteps of fellow SM3 typists including John Updike, Woody Allen, Frank Herbert, Patricia Highsmith, Robert Penn Warren, Harlan Ellison, Carson McCullers, John Hughes, Louis L’ Amour, William Gaddis, Stan Laurel, Ryan Adams, Ruskin Bond, Evan S. Connell, Kevin McGowin, or Anaïs Nin.
If I’ve missed any truly important resources, please do let me know.
Cheers!
S/N: J2013204
Remington Pica 534, 10 pitch typeface; 6 lines/inch
These photos have lots of uses from basic identification to showing historical conditions of machines or highlighting immaculate restoration work. They also allow tracking changes in manufacturing methods and materials over time as well as documenting machines which may eventually become so rare as to eventually fade from memory beyond their archiving on the site.
One of the difficult parts of documenting your own models on the site seems to be getting a good “hero” or primary photo of your machine to represent it in various locations within the database. (The database labels them “Main front-face Typewriter” in the user interface.) This primary photo is usually the first one you upload and it is used in the “Most Recently Edited Typewriter Galleries” on the front page which shows thumbnail photographs, in individual model galleries, in the various “Grid View” (GRD), “Typewriter Porn View” (TPV), and the “Serious Research Views” (SRV) provided by the database. This primary photo is the one that represents each machine in almost all of the main areas of the database and is usually the one that draws viewers and researchers into its individual gallery to find out more detail about it.
Sadly, most of these primary photos seem to be taken and thrown up onto the database and the manner in which they’re presented is far from ideal. They’re often off-center, appear to be close up shots of random typewriter parts, or just plain unidentifiable. Even the so-called TPV or “Typewriter Porn View” photos are far from their descriptor; many would turn you off of a model altogether regardless of whether it’s a stunning Sholes and Glidden, a well-tuned Hermes, or a truly dreadful We R Memory Keepers plastic doorstop.
So the question is, how can we easily make these primary photos into the “hero” or typewriter porn photos they’re really meant to be? The secret lies in how the photo is laid out originally so that when it’s uploaded, all of these views are immediately accommodated. The Typewriter Database automatically crops photos down in a simple grid format to generate all of the thumbnails and custom views. Knowing exactly what it’s doing will allow you to take a simple, straightforward photo and upload it so that everything looks perfect without needing to modify or edit anything at all. (This also makes it simpler for lots of photos to be uploaded more quickly.)
For the Main front-face Typewriter photo, the database is expecting a landscape photo roughly broken up into imaginary thirds both horizontally and vertically splitting the image into nine rectangles. If you imagine a tic-tac-toe grid imposed on your photo as you take it, you’ve got the right idea. These days, most cameras and smartphones actually have software settings that will superimpose imaginary grids just like this onto your screen which makes doing this even easier. The diagram below will give you an idea of what I mean.
With this 3 x 3 grid imagined on your picture, center your typewriter exactly in the middle square. This center square is exactly what the database will display as the square thumbnail or “grid view” photo.
Next for the same picture consider only the three rectangles horizontally across the center of the picture. These three will become the TPV or “Typewriter Porn View” photo that’s displayed in the various galleries.
After you’ve taken the photo you’re going to feel as if there’s a lot of wasted space. When you look at it, it’s going to feel like the typewriter almost isn’t there. Why is it so small and lonely in the picture? But things will improve dramatically when you upload it and look at it in all the database views. Your sexy typewriter is going to shine online like it never would have before. Because you’ve done a little bit of planning, all those custom views are going to automatically look as lovely as you intended them to.
When uploaded, this photo
becomes this thumbnail grid photo
and this TPV photo
Would you rather see this:
Or this:
Pro TWdB tip: If you’ve got an account and you’re logged in, you’ll see indicators of which galleries have been recently commented on and how many comments they’ve got. This is where some of the smartest people in the typosphere can often be found hiding in plain sight. The database doesn’t have a notification system, but this is as close as it gets.
Once you’ve figured out your hero photo, you may ask yourself what other sorts of photos you might want to include in your gallery. Naturally having front, sides, back, top and some oblique angle views are excellent ideas. It’s often useful to include other photos researchers might appreciate or have specific uses for. These additional gallery photos are all displayed full-sized as you’ve uploaded them, so you don’t have to worry as much about any cropping worries or issues when you’re taking them. Just focus on getting great photos.
Does the typewriter have a special font? If it does, definitely include a close up photo or two of the type slugs so that people can see the small foundry markings between the two (or more) characters on each slug. This may help to better identify typefaces in the future.
Does the typewriter have special features? If so, get close up photos of them.
Does the typewriter have a custom paint job? Show it off with lots of photos and close ups. Most of my liked photo galleries on the database are machines with lush custom paint jobs.
Did you clean and service the typewriter yourself? Take photos of the process as well as close ups of pieces that needed extra attention or had tricky configurations. These can help guide people to know what regular configuration and morphology ought to look like on their models when compared with the broken versions they may have in front of them. These photos can be useful to other users for diagnosing problems they may have. While you’re at it, take a photo or two of the bottom of the machine.
Maybe you took a “naked” photo of the machine while it had the shell, platen, and keys off for cleaning? These can be useful for dating changes in internal configuration and features over time as much as changes in design features on the shells themselves.
Where is the typewriter’s serial number? Often people can’t identify their particular model, but can take guesses. If your gallery includes a photo of the serial number along with some context about where you found it on the machine, it might help them find theirs so they can better date their year of manufacture. (A close up of a number that doesn’t show were it was on the machine doesn’t help much.) Who knows, it may even help you later when you can’t remember where you found it yourself? Changes in serial number location within series can also be a useful indicator of factory retooling or factory moves over time.
Cases, cases, cases. Did your portable or ultra portable come with a case? Don’t forget to take photos of those as well. Cases definitely changed over time and having photos of the original case and its condition can be helpful for those attempting to replace theirs. They can also be helpful when damaged ones need repair or restoration work. What does the connecting hardware look like inside them? Did they come with manuals, or additional tools? Add those in too! Did you restore your case? Leave before and after photos.
Ribbon threading photos! Where are those?! While we have a wide variety of typewriter manuals available, it can be illustrative to have a close up photo of how your machine’s ribbon was properly threaded. Users of forums everywhere can more quickly and easily answer ribbon questions of others in the community if you’ve added good photos of the spools and how the ribbon was threaded.
Have you done research on the machine in its natural environment? Maybe you’ve researched newspaper or magazine advertisements from when the typewriter was released which tout its features and have original sales prices listed? Why not include photos of these important historical data points?
What other photos are we missing or forgetting that would be nice to have in the database? Drop a note in the comments.
Serial Number: 7-3855889
Elite, 12 pitch, 6 lines/inch
The one glaring issue is a needed tweak to the spacebar to trip the escapement properly. The platen is pretty solid, needs new ribbon, screws on carriage tightened, a ring and cylinder adjustment, right carriage release is sticky, and tabs need some minor attention. Beyond this it is pure butter. What a lovely experience to type on. Who’d have thought such a thing possible in 1977?
Standard (or office or desktop) typewriters were designed and meant for use in a stationary location, most often an office where they would be used for 8 hours a day (or more), every day of the work week. These typewriters, often tipping the scales at 25-40 pounds each, were made to take the heavy abuse of a daily typing and could be “pounded out” for 3-4 years before they were often given overhauls or remanufactured.
Portable typewriters were designed for greater portability and began appearing in the 1920s and in much greater numbers into the 1970s and early 1980s. Their sales were geared toward people who needed greater portability or who didn’t need a machine out on a daily basis the way in which businesses did. They were most often sold in small rectangular cases to aid in their portability as well as storability in cars, trains, airplanes, or even one’s closet when they weren’t in use. They often ranged from 15-25 pounds including their case. Most of these machines were sold to individual users for occasional rather than daily typing, and they often had a broader range of styling and colors throughout the years to appeal to the individual buyers.
Ultraportable typewriters were designed for the typist or writer constantly on the go. They typically had a low profile, were lightweight (under 15 pounds with their cases), and obviously easy to carry around on a regular basis. These machines generally didn’t have all of the frills or features of their larger counterparts but obviously got the job done well enough. Traveling journalists were originally one of the primary audiences here.
The “best” typewriter is going to be a highly personal choice. It will be based in part on a wide variety of factors and variables including:
Beyond these variables the three broad categories of typewriters will differentiate themselves along the lines of size, portability, and design, and manufacturing quality, functionality, and durability.
Obviously the smaller and lighter a machine is, the easier it is to carry. The ultraportables and portables will win out here. They’re designed to be moved around easily: pop it out, write, put it away when you’re done. Collectors love them because you can store or display them easily on shelves or stack them up in closets or other storage spaces. You can keep several dozen machines on a shelving unit or tuck them away under a bed or behind a couch.
Standard machines are moveable, but require some additional reasonable effort. It’s more bothersome to pick up a Royal HH, especially with a wide carriage, and move it across the house from your office to your living room or out onto the porch. It’s equally as bothersome to swap one standard from a display shelf with another so you can use it. This doesn’t mean that it can’t be done, but you’re not as likely to want to do it every day. With standards you plan to actively use on a regular basis, you’re going to want a permanent desk or typewriter stand to keep it on. If you’re storing or displaying standards, they require dusting maintenance or covers and take up much more space as they aren’t easily stackable. Standards tend to be deeper and require a larger shelf if you’re going to display them that way. (Be sure to measure as most standard bookshelves aren’t deep enough for most typewriters if that’s how you intend to display them.)
If you’re a day-to-day typist with only one or two typewriters, these problems aren’t terribly bad. If you’re a collector with 5-10 machines these considerations start to become more bothersome. Once you’ve got more than 25 machines in your collection, you’re going to want to start making different choices and plans about storage and display versus use.
When it comes to design, there are a lot more choices of body styles, colors, materials, and variety in the portable and ultraportable space. Even if the internals of a portable were relatively stable, the body styles and shapes changed every year or two. By comparison, the standard typewriters meant for office use tended to have more limited color palates (if you could call industrial blacks, grays, and browns a palate) and body stylings.
As an example, in the Royal line of standard typewriters, almost nothing changed functionality-wise from the Royal Ten through the H (and related KH, KHM, and KHT variants), KMM, KMG, HH, FP, Empress, and 440. This covers from about 1912 to 1968 with the same internal mechanics. It was just small changes in the body styles which moved very slowly and were generally only offered in one or two colors until the more colorful options on the Royal FP were introduced in the very late 1950s.
The level of manufacturing and quality when it comes to typewriter categories is a much more subtle subject as it’s not as immediately seen as the size and portability factors.
Because of their use cases, standard machines were built with more solid materials using higher manufacturing tolerances and usually better quality steel (or other materials). They were designed to be pounded on every day for 8 or more hours a day for years at a time. While some portables may have been used this way, most weren’t and surely almost no ultraportables were. Most of the serious abuse that smaller and lighter machines took was generally to their cases in being moved around as well as to the various body panels from being put into and out of their cases. (Smith-Corona portables are notorious for scratches on the rear panels from the rear metal cleat in their cases and some of the Remingtons’ front “chins” from the late 40s case designs.)
Standards use in business also meant that the alignments and visual outputs were held to higher standards than their lighter counterparts which were more often used for personal correspondence or draft quality work. This required better tolerances to allow for the abuse versus the expected type quality and alignment. The quality differences are less apparent on some of the 1950 American made Smith-Corona 5 series or the incredibly well engineered German Olympias and Swiss Hermes portables of the 1950s and 1960s.
The quality issue becomes rapidly more apparent into the 1970s and 1980s when cheaper materials and plastic were being used in portable typewriter manufacture as machines were being mass produced by only a few companies and primarily only out of Japan. These quality issues are now at their zenith in the new millennium with cheap typewriters made by the Shanghai Weilv Mechanism Company in China. Their new typewriter offerings under a variety of brand names including Rover, Royal Epoch, We R Memory Keepers, Royal Classic, and The Oliver Typewriter Company are widely known in the typewriter community for their dreadful quality control, cheap plastic, and both poor and unserviceable type alignment issues.
Because they had additional interior space and engineering capacity, standards also have better adjustment points for accommodating a variety of touch needs for the end user. At the time, most standards were generally serviced in-house by travelling repair people who had the ability to help typists adjust the machines to their particular touch needs. I’ve yet to run across a portable Smith-Corona whose primary touch control actually effectuated any difference at all, though they do have a variety of other more subtle/hidden touch controls which require advanced knowledge of the machines.
From a functionality perspective also differentiated across their use cases, most standard typewriters came with the full component of features offered in typewriters of their respective times. As an example, standards almost always came with tabulators and easier exchangeability of platens. Portable models often used tabulators as an additional mark up feature that cost more if you wanted them and platens were not easily swapped except on the highest end models and generally not until later into the 1950s. Here the range of subtle feature differences seen on the Smith-Corona 5 series portables is illustrative with the Clipper at the low end followed by the Sterling, the Silent, and the Silent Super at the highest end with the most features. On the German Olympias, the primary differentiating feature between the SM2, SM3, and SM4 is tabulator functionality and how easy it is to use if it’s available. Other features like bichrome ribbon, sturdier paper bales, paper table alignment features were considered optional on some portables and wholly missing on ultraportables which may have left them out completely. If you’re looking for a machine that has everything, usually a standard typewriter is your go-to choice. One of the few options on standard machines was a decimal tabulator for aligning accounting-based work.
While it may not have been as obvious in the midcentury, there are very subtle functionalities that standard typewriters offer to modern users who are looking for distraction-free writing affordances. While all typewriters have a greater level of distraction-free affordances in comparison to computers, standards offer two additional ones which may be wholly overlooked. As they’re less portable, they usually require a dedicated space for use which tends to call out to (or alternately guilt) the writer to sit down and concentrate on writing. The other is that the standard’s significantly larger size takes up a larger amount of area in your field of view while sitting at it. This tends to cut down on other visual distractions to the writer while sitting at the machine and working. Less distraction helps the concentration and, ideally, your ultimate output.
Finally, it bears a moment to look at typewriter serviceability. This is especially important now as the once ubiquitous typewriter repair shop doesn’t exist and aficionados and hobbyists do a lot of home repair. Since standard office machines saw near-constant use, their size made them much easier to get into and service, particularly by traveling repair technicians. Portables and ultraportables are much smaller and far more compact which requires more work and effort to open up and service when things go wrong or need repair. This size difference also means requiring a lot more patience and care as well as possibly smaller and/or different tools when doing service work on portables and ultraportables.
Hopefully this covers most of the finer points in choosing between the three broad types of typewriters for both the novice typist as well as the more practiced hands. If you’ve got questions or have noticed other subtleties in the differences between the three, I’d love to hear them.
So mark your calendars, limber your fingers, and start tuning up your favorite typewriter(s)! More details and specifics to come shortly.
If you’re nearby and can spare some time to help volunteer, drop me a line.
03/11/25 11:54am: Deputies are in the field notifying residents of local mud/debris flow risk from EATON FIRE burn scar. The areas near the San Gabriel Foothills in Altadena are under EVACUATION WARNING until at least 3/13/25 6pm due to risk of losing access. PREPARE NOW. More info at alertla.org.
Fortunately (?) I’m still evacuated from January 7th about 6 miles south.
Serial number: 335207
A 3 bank typewriter that folds in half for portability.
The case is in reasonably good shape considering its age, but some of the fabric is coming off and a previous owner has chosen to tape portions of it together. I’ll likely do some serious restoration work to the case at some point.
The machine itself is in pretty solid shape considering the age. Someone kept the slugs clean. Things are a bit sluggish, so it’s going to need a solid cleaning which I’m hoping will bring most of the functionality back to snuff. The ribbon vibrator seems a tad slow, particularly for keys struck on the left side of the keyboard. The platen and carriage area are going to need a good scrub as there’s some dirt and grime stuck in it. I suspect that I won’t be using the manual’s suggestion of gasoline to clean things out however.
The machine came with a cleaning brush and an original instruction manual, which is somewhat useful as some of the mechanisms aren’t as straightforward as on later models as well as things unique to this particular folding machine.
This has an even smaller return/line advance mechanism than my Orga Privat 5 and is bordering on almost not existing. It’s just the tiniest little nub actuated with the forefinger and thumb to advance the line while pushing the carriage to the right. There really isn’t a carriage return lever to speak of, but the mechanism is quite clever.
This is my first machine with a “figure” key, which allows for the use of the third row of characters on the slugs. It’ll take some getting used to for using it, particularly as the keyboard seems shifted over with respect to the home row of keys which means that there isn’t a key for one’s pinky to rest on or use. As a result it’s going to be difficult doing traditional touch typing at speed.
The machine only came with a monochrome ribbon though it does have bichrome capability using a switch on the ribbon vibrator assembly which is found on the left side in an odd configuration.
I was able to eke out a typesample without too much trouble, but I’ll wait until the machine is cleaned up and back in proper order before attempting to use it for more than a minute or two. I suspect it’ll need some tensioning on the miniscule mainspring assembly.
Overall, it’s compact and clever in so many interesting ways.
Serial number: D3P08521
While I wouldn’t call these rare, I don’t see them pop up very frequently, and even less frequently do I see them in the non-traditional black enamel. I’m definitely thrilled to have one with the DuPont DUCO light maroon with the contrasting panels in crackle finish rose gold. I’m hoping it’ll be a stunning workable machine when I’m done with the cleaning and restoration work.
Preparation of a typeface sample is going to require some repair work.
