Acquired 1920 Corona 3 Ultra-portable Typewriter (Corona Typewriter Company)

Serial number: 335207
A 3 bank typewriter that folds in half for portability.

Received on Saturday 03-10 and unpacked this morning. This is now the oldest machine in my collection and the first true antique as it’s now 105 years old. The first thing I’m struck by is the tiny size and scant weight of the entire machine and the case. I’m curious to compare the weight to that of my Zephyr and Skyriter.

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.

Condition

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.

Accessories

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.

Functionality

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.