I know there have been some “issues” with NaNoWriMo over the past year(s), but I’ve just gotten my novel writing machine (a 1950 Royal KMG) ready to race just in time for the starting flag.

I’ve heard rumors about a mysterious Typewriter Brigade and NaNo Rhino before, so I’m wondering where it’s hiding this year?

That’s a nice looking 1960 blue Royal Safari they’ve got as the hero image on their homepage btw…

Hero image from the NaNoWriMo homepage featuring a view down onto a writing desk which has a blue 1960s Royal Safari typewriter, a coffee mug, and a red plate with a seeded bagel.

Restoring a 1950 Royal KMG Typewriter

I spent some time this past week and over the weekend beginning restoration on my 1950 Royal KMG (Keyset Magic Grey) and getting it back “on [its] feet”.

  • fixed the grinding carriage
  • formed the bent rear tabulator enclosure
  • stripped down the body and did a full flush/cleaning on interior
  • light oiling
  • repaired disconnected typebars Q and @ by shifting the fulcrum pivot wire
  • repaired issues with the shift keys
  • formed the bar on shift assembly to improve the shift response which was abominably slow even after cleaning
  • fixed tab set/clear issues
  • tightened the loose mainspring for better typing tension/response
  • got the type “on feet” and made an adjustment to the motion
  • replaced ribbon
  • adjusted the typing line
  • scrubbed and shined the exterior
  • light polish and cleaning of typebars
  • polished the brights and the glass tombstone keys (wish I had keyring pliers for doing a full job on this)
  • removed the keyrings on two keys which desperately needed cleaning and adjustment
  • ordered new rubber feet and rubber compression fittings which should arrive later this week

I’ve definitely torn this machine down much further than any other I’ve worked on before, in some part because it required some extensive work, but also just for fun. I think after this I’m ready to completely disassemble an entire machine and rebuild it from scratch. Maybe on a Royal KMM or Royal X?

I’ve done enough work on this now that I can put it into my regular daily rotation. It’s sure to reveal a few additional small adjustments as I use it and there are one or two niggling things to tinker on while I wait for the new rubber parts to show up. I’ll also need to find an original metal pair of Royal standard ribbon spools. I suspect as the budget allows I’ll be replacing the platen on this shortly as well.

I’ve dubbed this machine “Slattery” in homage to John Slattery’s performance of the character “Roger Sterling” in Mad Men (AMC, 2007-2015). I’m sampling Scotches and bourbons to find an apropos pairing

This typewriter (29 pounds) is the much bigger brother to my Henry Dreyfuss designed 1949 Royal Quiet De Luxe (16.8 pounds with the case, not pictured). 

A hulking gray 1950 Royal KMG standard typewriter next to it's much smaller relative, the 1949 Royal Quiet De Luxe as they sit on an oak library card catalog.

The Royal KMG, manufactured from 1949-1952, was known to have been used by writers including Saul Bellow, Edward Abbey, Joan Didion, Eliz Kazan, Arthur Miller, Fred Rogers, Rod Sterling, Carl Reiner, Grace Metalious, Wallace Stenger, John Ashbery, and George Sheehan. 

If you’re restoring or repairing a Royal standard typewriter, I’ve started a YouTube playlist of videos, but it’s only got three videos with several more to come.

Photos from the restoration

View into the dusty bottom of a 1950 Royal KMG typewriter featuring the shift post with the springs and nuts for the on feet and motion adjustments as well as the shift spring assembly. Above these are the type rods and springs which attach to the keys and typebars, which are unseen here.

Close up of the dirty, hairy inside of a 1950 Royal KMG typewriter with a close up of the black, cracked and heavily compressed rubber foot. This will definitely require cleaning and replacement

A blue plastic air gun at a car wash is being pointed at a 1950 Royal KMG typewriter in the back seat of a car before the typewriter is "blown out".

A wooden dining table with a partially disassembled 1950 Royal KMG typewriter on it surrounded with a variety of typewriter tools, screwdrivers, and the pieces from the typewriter.

A variety of parts removed from a 1950 Royal KMG typewriter including the cover, the side panels, the platen, ribbon, feet assembly and a variety of wrenches.

Close up of the left side of a 1950 Royal KMG typewriter featuring the paper table, the roller release lever and the right margin set lever. On the rear we can see the row of hundreds of tab clips used for the tabulator functionality.

Close up of a naked 1950 Royal KMG typewriter which fills the photo.

Close up of the typing point, naked carriage and part of the segment of a 1950 Royal KMG typewriter

The four feet from the typewriter featuring four shoulder bolts, black metal brackets, and crushed, aged, and disintegrating black rubber.

Plastic typewriter spools with black ribbon which is so heavily worn you can almost read the imprinted type on them. Another round of use and we'll be able to see holes in the ribbon.

The clean front panel of a 1950 Royal KMG in gray frieze paint contrasted with the dust covers one of which is covered in 70 years of dust, dirt, tar, and hair and the other cleaned and sparkling after a treatment with WD-40.

Small globs of drying carnuba paste wax on the glass tombstone keys of a 1950 Royal KMG typewriter

Side angle of a 1950 Royal KMG typewriter with a bookshelf and a chair with another typewriter on it in the background. This feels very warm and homey.

Hero 1950 Royal KMG typewriter on a library card catalog next to a small orange decorative pie pumpkin and a kindergarten-made black toilet paper roll black bat with googly eyes, wings, and silver decorations drawn on it.

Learning Typewriter Maintenance and Repair

So you want to be a typewriter mechanic? 

As some typewriter collectors have realized there is a typewriter revolution going on out there. This means that there’s a growing need for people who can clean, maintain, repair, and restore typewriters. If this sounds like something you’re interested in doing, there are a huge number of resources out there that you can tap into to figure out how to do all of this work on your own. 

I’ve been wrenching on my own typewriters for several years and gotten deeper into the hobby over the past six months, so I thought I’d do a brain dump and outline some of the basic resources for those who are interested either in fixing up their own machines or potentially considering starting a repair shop.

Crash course on typewriter maintenance and repair

A list of resources and references for the budding typewriter repair person. There is a lot here that I’ve compiled and consumed, so don’t be overwhelmed. Half the battle is figuring out where to find all these things, so if nothing else, this should shave off a month or two of reading and researching.

Basic Introductory Material

Get a notebook and be ready to take some notes so you’ll remember where you found the random information you’re bound to pick up over time and are able to occasionally review it.

Work your way through Sarah Everett’s excellent Typewriter 101 videos (at least the first five).

Read Richard Polt’s book which is a great overview to the general space:  

Polt, Richard. The Typewriter Revolution: A Typist’s Companion for the 21st Century. 1st ed. Woodstock, VT: Countryman Press, 2015.

Next watch the documentary California Typewriter (Gravitas Pictures, 2016). It has some interesting subtle material hiding within it, but it will give you a good idea of where you’re headed off to. [YouTube copy; Archive.org copy]

Get a machine (or four) you can practice on. Get a flat head screwdriver and maybe a small adjustable wrench. Buy some mineral spirits and a small headed toothbrush and clean out your first machine. Buy some light sewing machine oil and try oiling it. Search YouTube for videos about how to repair anything that may be wrong with it. Usually 98% of the issues with most typewriters these days is that they need to be cleaned out.

Repair Manuals

Create an account on The Typewriter Database which will give you some additional access to catalogs, manuals, and dealer catalogs beyond what is available without an account.

If you intend to buy a bunch of these, you can get a discount by being a member of Ted Munk’s Patreon site. His personal website also has a plethora of ephemera that is often useful.

Richard Polt’s list of free service manuals and books also includes some correspondence course typewriter repair classes which are meant for the self-taught. Most typewriters are very similar so picking a good generic text that covers the basics is the best place to start before branching out to specific repair manuals for particular models.

Tools

In rough order of increasing complexity:

Tools can be expensive, so start out small with just a few things and expand as you need them. You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish with a single thin bladed flathead screwdriver, an adjustable wrench, a rag, a bottle of Simple Green cleaning solution, and a bottle of isopropyl alcohol. Most people probably already have these tools at home.

Videos

Subscribe to and become acquainted with YouTube channels like the following:

While watching a variety of videos is great, as you’re doing specific repairs search YouTube and you’re likely to find full demos of the repairs you’re doing yourself. This is where having a solid knowledge of typewriter parts and terminology can be useful. Almost every typewriter manual ever written has a diagram with the parts labeled. Hints for a Happy Typewriter has a pretty good set of typewriter terms to get you started.

I’ve compiled a playlist of videos for repair of an Olympia SM3 which, while specific to the SM3, is a an excellent outline/overview of how to disassemble a portable typewriter, where many of the adjustment points are as well as an outline of the order to do them in.

If you’re not a good typist or don’t have experience in the area, try out some of the following short films which will also provide some useful historical perspective:

The good news is that historically very few typewriter mechanics were also touch typists, but you should still be able to hunt and peck and understand the needs of your customers.

Internships & Apprenticeships

If you have the time and flexibility try arranging an internship or apprenticeship with a local typewriter repair shop. Meet your local repair people even if you can’t spend the time on an internship. You’ll learn a lot and create relationships with businesses who will more easily swap/supply you with machines they’re parting out or access to tools which may otherwise be difficult to source.

If you’re all-in, maybe you might try the Philly Typewriter Trade School?

Visiting type-ins can be a great way to meet people and discuss typewriter repair as well as see tools and other machines on your journey.

Podcasts

Some useful Bibliography

Good luck on your journey!

Photos of Typewriters for the Typewriter Database

In addition to the ton of resources (serial numbers, manuals, repair manuals, manufacturing data, typefaces, patents, etc.) provided by TypewriterDatabase.com, one of the primary features provided are the wonderful photos users upload of their typewriters. 

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.

A 4 column by 3 row grid of typewriter photos mostly featuring a hodgepodge of angles and mostly just keys. The bottom right corner features a nice full view of a Royal Quiet De Luxe. It definitely stands out from the rest.
Which of these photos is not like the others?

 

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.

3 x 3 grid drawn onto a white index card. In the center square is a pencil sketch of a typewriter. In the rectangle just to the left of it is an overlay of where the TWdB overlays one's avatar and typewriter information.

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 

An oak library card catalog with a cream and black Remington 666 typewriter featured in the middle and flanked by two stuffed Halloween characters. At the back of the catalog is a magnum of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky and a crystal old fashioned glass with ice and whisky. The bottle of Fireball features a black label with a red flaming devil on it coordinating with the bright red ribbon in the typewriter which is emblazoned with the model number "666" in red across its front.

becomes this thumbnail grid photo

A thumbnail grid photo of a Remington 666 typewriter which fills the frame of the photo

and this TPV photo

A wide shot of a well-framed Remington 666 typewriter flanked by two small quirky, kawaii stuffed animals (one a white ghost and the other a black cat). On the far left is an overlay with details about the typewriter and an avatar of the collector.

Would you rather see this:

A grouping of three Typewriter Porn Views of three different typewriters which look well displayed and sexy.

Or this:

A landscape photo of a cheap plastic Petite Ultra 400 typewriter, but the typewriter is horribly framed and we're given a close up of the label ad the typebasket and a small portion of the top row of keys. It's generally an unappealing photo.

 

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.

Other photos to consider

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. 

Close up of the typeslugs on the lefthand side of the basket on a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe with a Vogue typeface. The keys feature the letters and symbols from Q through X including the distinctive overlap of the center crossing lines of the capital W. Between characters on each the slugs are stamped with a small letter "v".
This close up allows one to see the “V” on the typeface indicating that it’s an uncommon Royal Vogue machine.

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. 

Close up of the Magic Margin springs on a naked 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter
The threading of the Magic Margin spring on a Royal QDL

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.

Close up of a naked 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter seen from an oblique view.

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.

Smith-Corona typewriter ribbon thread sample with ribbon coming out of a spool on the left, through a black ribbon guide next to the spool cup (which actuates the autoswitch when the eyelet at the end of a spool gets stuck between it and the spool), and then into the two metal guides at the typing point.
Having trouble threading your 5 Series Smith-Corona? Here’s what it ought to look like for the Clipper, Sterling, Silent, and Silent Supers.

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.

Acquisition: 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe Portable Typewriter with Royal Vogue Typeface

On Sunday September 22, 2024, I picked up what appeared to be a boring-looking, run-of-the-mill, ubiquitous, mid-1950s Royal Quiet De Luxe in brown frieze crinkle paint from ShopGoodWill.com. These typewriters pop up everywhere and regularly sell in the $10-25 range. Of the 3163 typewriter models in the Typewriter Database, the Royal QDL is easily the most collected machine in the typosphere by a margin of 1.5:1 to the next closest model (the Smith-Corona Sterling) on the long list.

I present my 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe portable typewriter with a special hidden feature.

Angled down on the front of a brown Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter next to a crystal old fashioned glass with a shot of Scotch.

The online auction listing for this particular typewriter happened to have a photo of the type basket which included a telltale W, whose sans serif centerlines crisscrossed, which piqued my interest beyond my collector’s desire for a late ’51/’52 QDL variation to pair with my ’48 and ’49 versions and my trusty 1955 model. It was listed for $10.99 when I first saw it, so I waited ever-so-patiently for 4 days with half a dozen alarms set to see if I could snag it for a dramatically below-marketplace valuation. There was one other bid for the minimum, so I put in two last minute bids, one for $20 and another for $1,000 just in case the other bidder had observed what I had noticed and intended to snipe it away. The typewriter collecting gods smiled warmly on me that day.

Close up of the typeslugs on the lefthand side of the basket on a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe with a Vogue typeface. The keys feature the letters and symbols from Q through X including the distinctive overlap of the center crossing lines of the capital W. Between characters on each the slugs are stamped with a small letter "v".

Eagle eyes, patience, and careful bidding won the day! Knowing the perils of typewriter shipping, especially from Goodwill, I followed up the bidding win and spoke to the GoodWill shipping manager and made an increased donation to their shop to ensure the machine was properly packaged for shipping to prevent possible damage to the uncommon machine. All-in I scored a Royal Vogue for the bargain basement price of under $100. It’s the biggest win I’ve experienced in my short typewriter collecting career. Unless I trip over a mint condition Sholes & Glidden sitting next to a garbage bin, I may be unlikely to surpass this level of luck again.

Given that I’ve seen machines, usually Royal model Ps, with a Vogue typeface go for $950-1,200 in unknown working shape on the open market, I suspect that cleaned up and in restored condition, this could easily sell for $1,500-2,500. Of course, I’ve fallen in love with the typeface, so I’m unlikely to let it go any time soon. 

Design

This 1952 machine follows the QDL redesign by Henry Dreyfuss from August 2, 1945 which was put into production in 1948 and changed a bit in 1949. It maintained some of Dreyfuss’ angular shape as well as the tombstone shaped keys, though they changed from the older glass keys of the 40s to the green plastic of the beginning of the plastic onslaught which was to change typewriter manufacture for the next decades. 

The front of the this iteration of the machine features a chromed Royal badging flanked on both sides with chrome wing features which have cutouts for the ribbon reversal and ribbon color selector switches. Later versions in subsequent years would lose the wings in lieu of a hood latch button and and a simpler ribbon color switch selector.

table level view of the front of a brown Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter with scant chrome finishes

The Fall/Winter Sears catalog in 1952 listed this new variation of the Quiet De Luxe for $103.58 in both pica and elite options. The Vogue typeface would have been an available custom order option for a few dollars at the time, but it apparently wasn’t an often ordered one. Of the 522 Royal QDLs in the Typewriter Database at the moment, I’ve only found 5 (including this one) which have a Vogue typeface which makes it less than 1% of the total. Given collectors’ affinity for them, I could easily imagine the actual manufacture rate may have been even smaller.

Though the catalog indicates that the model was 17 pounds for both the machine and the case, my typewriter is 15.7 pounds by itself and 20.1 pounds in the case.

Overall condition

This machine has the appearance of having been at least moderately used. There are a couple bits of paint knocked off some edges (common with portables of this size) and the machine internals were relatively clean. 

While the machine was in very solid workable and immediately usable condition when I received it, it definitely deserved some care and attention. In particular, someone had ill-advisedly used a black/correction ribbon on it, so the interior around and below the typing point was covered with white correction tape sludge.

Close up of the ribbon vibrator and a portion of the segment of a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter. The platen and the cylinder scale are flecked with lots of dots of white correction material

On Saturday, October 19th, I spent several hours in the afternoon and then again in the evening pulling the machine apart, cleaning all the external and internal parts and flushing it out with lacquer thinner. Simple Green did an excellent job on the exterior, and I scrubbed some flecks of Correction Fluid off the body. A quick and very light oiling has the machine purring now. I also did a rubdown on the crinkle paint with some WD-40 to make the exterior truly sparkle. I’m now the proud owner of a scintillating wonder of engineering and typeface design.

Close up of the brown frieze crinkle paint on the hood of the typewriter which has a nice sparkle effect to it.

Thought it had the appearance of being reasonably maintained, I couldn’t find any clues that it had had a major overhaul or serious cleaning aside from general maintenance. A few of the linkages had some old, brownish/black grease on them which I would take to indicate that it probably hadn’t been serviced since the 1960s. I’ll have to look up historical dates for the black/white correction tape release, but given the dryness of the black portion of the ribbon I’m guessing the ribbon may have been from the late 1970s. 

A naked Royal Quiet De Luxe sitting on a towel on a wooden table surrounded with typewriter tools, cleaning supplies, and the disassembled portions of the typewriter body and carriage.

Of particular note, the platen still has a small amount of “give” left to it and isn’t as rock hard as I might have suspected for its age. This means I may wait a bit and replace the platen(s) on other machines before I need to get to this one. The rubber rollers still work well and the rubber feet are in reasonable shape too.

The 1952 Quiet De Luxe came with an original period case as well as a key and the original typewriter manual, a digital copy of which can be found on Richard Polt’s Typewriter Site. (At the rate things are going, I’m finding extant keys are almost as rare with portables as finding a Vogue typeface.)

There is what appears to be a Social Security number scratched into the brown paint on the bottom of the machine. I won’t comment further other than to say its a California area SSN, which is where I purchased it, so there’s a reasonable chance that this was a single owner machine.

Keys

The keyboard has a typical mid-century Royal layout. The keys are in a traditional dark green plastic double shot with white plastic. They’re all in exceptional condition aside from the letter “C” which has a small surface flaw that I ought to be able to buff out pretty easily. There are 42 keys and slugs giving 84 typeable characters for a standard United States English keyset along with six additional keys for backspace, shift, shift lock on the left and tab, margin release, and a shift key on the right. The bottom of the 4 bank keyboard features a more standard inset  brown spacebar than its 1948 and 1949 predecessors which had a blocky black design element that made the spacebar more integral to  the front frame of those machines.

View of the keyboard of a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe featuring green keys and a brown spacebar.

Other functionality

Manufactured roughly at the peak of typewriter functionality, this medium sized portable machine has almost everything a typist could want in terms of functionality. 

There is a rear rabbit-ear style paper support, double sided Royal Magic Margins, touch control (inside the hood), a manually accessible ribbon switch and bichrome/stencil setting switch on the front, and five manually adjustable tabulator sets accessible from the back which are viewable when looking down with the paper table folded back. It has left and right carriage release levers, both temporary and permanent platen adjustment mechanisms, and a single card finger on the right side of the typing line. This QDL has the usual 1, 2, and 3 line spacing mechanism.

Close up view of the hood, typebasket hole, carriage, and paper table of a brown 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter.

Case

The case certainly has seen some heavy signs of travel, but seems to be holding together well despite the wear. The inside is in excellent shape and none of the fabric on the exterior is coming off despite the heavy wear.

A worn, but functional yellow fabric covered hard case for a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe portable typewriter.

Burgundy red interior of a typewriter case for a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe portable.

A typewriter manual boasting "You own the World's No. 1 Portable" next to a small, black Royal typewriter brush and the key for its case.
Disaster Girl all grown up and ready to put out some serious samizdat.

Typeface Sample

The typeface on my Royal QDL is the previously mentioned highly prized and much-sought-after Royal Vogue. It types 10 characters per inch and 6 vertical lines per inch. A type sample from my machine with blue and green ribbon appears below. If you need an extended sample, for fun I typed out a large portion of the lyrics to Madonna’s 1990 hit Vogue.

Typeface sample of 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe with a distinctive san serif art-deco inspired Vogue face.

Sound

Here’s a sound sample of inserting a sheet of paper, aligning it, writing a sentence, the bell, and a return with more typing on my 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe: 

Photo Gallery of Cleaning

Photo Gallery of Finished Machine

Hero shot of a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter on a library card catalog next to a green bottle of Laphroaig with a white label behind a crystal old fashioned glass of Scotch. Angled down on the front of a brown Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter next to a crystal old fashioned glass with a shot of Scotch. table level view of the front of a brown Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter with scant chrome finishes View of a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe in brown frieze paint and green plastic keys sitting on a wooden library card catalogue. An old fashioned glass of bourbon sits in the background. Table level view of the left side of a brown crinkle painted 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter View from behind 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter down onto the rabbit ear paper supports and into the typebasket of the typewriter View into the hood of a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter showing the typebasket with cleaned slugs. Oblique angle of the left rear corner of a brown 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter Table level view of the back of a brown 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter featuring the somewhat faded but still very clear Royal decal and company information. Table level view of the right side of a brown 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter. View of the keyboard of a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe featuring green keys and a brown spacebar. Angle down onto the right side of a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter Close up view of the hood, typebasket hole, carriage, and paper table of a brown 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter. View of a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter from the top two rows of keys to the back with the hood open so that we can see the ribbon in the cups and the typebars sitting on a black rubber rest. Left rear corner of a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter with the carriage moved to the right to reveal the window onto the frame with the typewriter's serial number 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter sitting on its rear panel so we can see the bottom of the machine and all of it's internals

“I’m always trying to get back to the 20s a little bit.”
—John Dickerson, in Field Notes interview (2016) 

Perhaps lamenting too much technology, Dickerson says he’s got two screens on the computer in his office as well as an iPad and a phone. But he’s also got “a notebook [that] does only one thing”. He’s also got an old black lacquer Underwood standard typewriter (No. 4, 5, or 6?) on his office desk. Typewriters only do one thing too.

Wonder if he still uses it? 

Mr. Typewriter, a Royal 660 Electric Typewriter, as inspiration for Stanley Kubrick’s HAL 9000?

Before we were introduced to the ominous HAL 9000, some knew his older, creepy, sexist cousin Mr. Typewriter, personified by a Royal 660 which appears in the 1966 short film/advertisement Successful Secretary presented by Royal Office Typewriters and directed by Carl A. Carbone. 

While there is some heavily gendered blather juxtaposed with some entertaining and atmosphere filling late-1960s jazz, the star of the short film is Mr. Typewriter who incessantly “sells” him self to a contemporaneous mannequin secretary. 

This commercial for a 1966 Royal 660 electric typewriter predates Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey by two years. But based on the scripting, pacing, composition, and even some of the character, it seems like Kubrick was heavily inspired by this short film.

HAL 9000’s tone in 2001 seems to have come straight from Mr. Typewriter and even some of the typewriter/computer personification particularly in the camera angles on the machines seems stark and heavily familiar. One can’t help but notice how Mr. Typewriter looms over the viewer at the 7 minute mark as it delivers it’s “helpful” advice. 

“I think you’ll like the half sheet better. It is faster.” —Mr. Typewriter, [timestamp 6:59]

Angle up a the name plate on the sharp rectangular hood of a Royal 660 with the carriage in the background. In the background is a seeming black abyss. The overall effect is one giving monumental dominance to the typewriter.

Litton Business Systems, Inc. was a subsidiary of Litton Industries, Inc., an American defense contractor that specialized in shipbuilding, aerospace, electronic components, and information technology. They had bought out Royal Typewriters and had created the electric Royal 660 (released in 1966) specifically to compete with the IBM Selectric (introduced July 1961). Given the time period Litton would have been a potentially more ominous corporate parent than IBM.

Movie buffs have often speculated that the letters of H.A.L.’s name were a one letter increment from I.B.M. Kubrick was known to have corresponded with IBM in relation to the film, but perhaps this was a macguffin to cover up the inspiration from Royal and Litton?

Stanley Kubrick was known to have used an IBM Model C electric typewriter which was manufactured between 1958 and 1967. 

Here, Mr. Typewriter in a calm voice makes suggestions to a secretary about his usefulness while  HAL does it for a male astronaut (a heroic figure of the space race in that time period). Suddenly the populace feels the more mysterious computer might be a bad actor compared to the typewriter which was slowly being supplanted. 

With any luck, Mr. Typewriter wasn’t sexually harassing anyone in the office, but it’s highly unlikely any of the audience at the time was dwelling on such issues until Colin Higgins’ 9 to 5 (Twentieth Century Fox, 1980) which uncoincidentally featured a row of Royal electric typewriters in it’s trailer. 

Intriguingly it bears mentioning that the voice over on the 9 to 5 trailer sounds like William Schallert, who portrayed the avuncular Professor Quigley in The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (Walt Disney Productions, 1969), another film of the period which has something to say about personifying information systems and the coming era of artificial intelligence, though this time as embedded into the brain of a young Kurt Russell.

While the gendered roles portrayed at the time are atrocious (a male machine represented by a male voice is now directing the woman’s work in the office instead of her too-busy, jet-setting male boss), you have to love the techno-utopianism engendered by Successful Secretary:

“We’re living in an electric world, more speed and less effort.”—Mr. Typewriter

Acquisition: 1958 Olympia SM3 Portable Typewriter

The Purchase

On Saturday, August 3rd, after a patience-trying wait, I picked up this lovely green 1958 Olympia SM3. It’s the first typewriter in my collection with both an exotic character set as well as a typeface that veers outside of the standard pica and elite typefaces.

It was a Facebook Marketplace purchase for a better-than-reasonable price. I had made a middling offer to someone out in Rancho Cucamonga not knowing what sort of condition the machine was in. I should have headed out the next day to pick it up from the seller, but with our respective schedules and the 45+ minute drive out, I opted to suggest a Saturday pickup. In the erstwhile, someone sniped it away from me with a significantly larger offer. And of course a day later, they’re on r/typewriters asking about what the typewriter was not realizing that it included some math and Greek characters. I watched and waited and stayed in contact with the seller for more than two weeks. As it turned out the bigger offer never materialized, so the seller told me to come out and pick it up for my original offer. 

The seller was in her early 30’s with a relatively young family. She’d inherited the machine from her parents or in-laws who used it, but had kept it in an attic in Newport Beach for the past few decades. Apparently the original owner was a pharmacist, which may account in part for the custom Greek letters on the keyboard. Despite the intermediate inheritor, this has broadly been a one owner machine.

I tried to not show any shock at the non-standard typeface when I picked it up for what is assuredly below market value. I could easily have seen this going for $180-200 as a standard SM3 in unknown condition, but somewhere in the neighborhood of $300-400 with the non-standard typeset and the Congress typeface.

Overall condition

The machine had seen some reasonable use followed by neglect. The first thing I noticed was the damaged paint job on the case, which I’ll go into detail on below.

The usual bushings problem in Olympia SM3s was definitely present, but fortunately the seller hadn’t spent much time testing or tinkering with it to damage the paint job. I quickly swapped the compressed bushings out the day I brought it home.

The ribbon was mostly dried out and worn, but potentially serviceable, though I’ve opted to replace it entirely. One of the spools was an original metal and the other was a plastic replacement. 

In addition to a carriage lock that wasn’t engaging properly, there were some issues with five of the custom keycaps.

Beyond this, the machine was generally in good condition. Despite some reasonable use, the paint finish is in great shape and only shows light wear on the front corners and the front edge of the hood. It definitely needed a good cleaning, oiling, and adjusting.

Richard Polt has posted a manual for the Olympia SM3 for those who’d like to see what originally came with the machine as well as its features.

Clean, Oil, and Adjust

I started the process of disassembling and cleaning the machine on Saturday, August 31st. I spent a portion of the day on Sunday finishing the cleaning and reassembling and adjusting the machine. Oiling the necessary parts as I reassembled made it far easier to limit the amount of oil I used for future maintenance.

I took some photos as work proceeded for those interested in that portion of the process.

My notes from mid-July were tremendously helpful in speeding this process along.

One of the most bothersome issues I encountered while cleaning it was that it was put up “wet” and stored  for too long. The original owner had the all-too-common bad habit of erasing directly into the typewriter rather than moving the carriage to the side. This means that it had a fair amount of eraser crumbs stuck to the over-oiled carriage rails and other internals. Over decades of storage, this has heavily tarnished the carriage rails and required not only aggressive cleaning on some parts, but several rounds of metal polish to remove some of the tarnish. There are still some light stains on the internal “brights” which I’ve given up on after half a dozen attempts to minimize them. They’re now in much better condition, but not as perfect as I wish they might be.

Keys

The keyboard on this Olympia is a fairly standard U.S. based QWERTY keyboard meant for sale in America through The Inter-Continental Trading Corporation which originally imported Olympias into the Americas.

View down onto the typebasket and keyboard of an Olympia SM3.

Of particular note on this machine, some of the standard keys have been swapped out with some custom math and Greek letter keys.  These are the )/0, !/3/4, 1/4, 1/2, ,/, ./. which have been replaced respectively by )/ϒ, Ω/π, λ/∫, Δ/, , μ/. 

A close up view of the right side of a green 1958 Olympia SM3 typewriter that has some custom Greek and mathematical symbols

I’ve already accidentally typed an upsilon instead of a zero at least once. It may take some work at the muscle memory to remember to use the capital “O” to make it as reflexive as doing an apostrophe-backspace-period to effect an exclamation point which this machine lacks in lieu of other glyphs.

 While most of the keys have the appearance of being doubleshot plastic, the custom keys seem to have been manufactured differently. Perhaps they were etched out and then filled? In any case, the symbols on the custom keys were etched out and missing most of their original color making it difficult, but not impossible to know what they were. To quickly and easily restore them, I spent a couple of minutes with a Crayola crayon and the small gaps on the keys were filled in and looking nice and white again. This solution also has the benefit of being easily reversible from a restoration perspective.

Side by side photos of several keycaps on a typewriter. The left has some characters which are etched in but have no colors. The right has those filled in with white crayoe so that they are a good match with all the rest of the keys

Other functionality

Manufactured at the peak of typewriter functionality, this SM3 has just about all the niceties one could wish for. Compared to typewriters made since mid-century there isn’t anything really extraordinary about any of the features aside from their incredibly well designed and manufactured tolerances.

It does bear mentioning that while most other machines of this era were segment shift machines, this one is a carriage shift which can make using it for very long periods a bit more tiring. There are two manually adjustable spring mechanisms inside the machine to help alleviate some of this effect.

Of interest, in comparing this machine with my other 1958 SM3 which has a lower serial number, I noticed that the older SM3 has an additional scale on the back near the tab stops, but this one doesn’t. It’s likely a reasonable cost savings to have removed it which also frees the assembly line from needing to do another alignment procedure on them. From a functionality standpoint, it’s not a big loss as I tend to set my tabs from the front of the machine and can easily look down on the scale at the back of the paper table and align the tab stops with that scale anyway. The additional scale on the back would only have been useful for those who turned their machines around and set them from the back, but this would also need the scale to have been appropriately aligned to provide the precision in setting the correct stops.

Case

This SM3 came with one of the traditional curved, space-aged wooden cases painted in silver that most SM3s shipped with. The inside was in relatively nice condition and only needed a quick vacuuming and some brushing to clean it out. It also came with the original key on a small keychain.

A 1958 Olympia SM3 typewriter case with sinuous curves, pitted silver paint. and a few splotches of white out. It has a very space age feel, but isn't the sort of square or modular case that one would want to stack up like other typewriter cases of the period.

Apparently the environment it had been stored in was less than ideal, so the exterior paint has reacted and has a terribly rough texture now compared with its traditional smooth surface. I’m going to have to strip and repaint it I think. I’ve seen some hammered metal paint finishes which might come close to matching the original, but I might opt for something completely out of the ordinary as well. 

The metal on the case fittings has rusted significantly.  I should be able to clean up and polish most of the metal fittings fairly easily, though I probably won’t be able to get them back completely without replacing them altogether.

Silver Olympia SM3 typewriter case standing up on it's end. The metal fittings holding the green plastic handle are thoroughly rusted and the key latch is heavily tarnished. The feet on the top side are dried out and wrinkled and the bottom feet are only slightly better. There is a brown tag with the typewriter's name and serial number tied around the handle with a piece of brown twine.

Based on the condition of the case’s feet, I’m guessing the owner used the typewriter inside the case for most of their work. I’m debating whether or not to replace the feet, but I’m leaning towards doing it because they’re in functional, but marginal condition.

A view of the inside bottom portion of the Olympia SM3 typewriter case. Fairly clean there are four metal fittings for clamping the machine into the case. Sitting in the middle of the case is the key.

My Last Typewriter?

I suppose if you were going to quit collecting Olympia SM3s after getting a particular machine, this would be pretty close to the perfect one. This shirt I got on the same day as the typewriter is obviously about Olympia SM3s, as who could ever quit collecting? or perhaps as Richard Polt is fond of saying, “investing”?

Sitting on a desk are a green Olympia SM3 typewriter in its case next to a gray t-shirt with a black and white image of the same typewriter surrounded with the text: "My Last One. Maybe"

Full transparency, I’ve acquired five machines since I picked up this typewriter, but I’ve also washed that t-shirt 3 times since then. With the washings you almost can’t seen any of the original screen print, so I suppose the universe has spoken on that account in my favor.

Typeface Sample

The typeface on this SM3 is a somewhat uncommon (though not rare as some might contend) Congress Elite No. 84 at 11 pitch or 2.3m/m. (I’d suspect it’s probably rarer in the U.S. compared to Germany or the rest of Europe, but have no data beyond my limited colloquial experience to support this.)

A type sample from my machine with its custom typeset and a new ribbon appears below.

1958 Serial Number: 1279338 Olympia SM3 Congress Elite No. 84 typeface, 11 CPI, 2.3m/m, portable w/ case, bichrome, carriage shift, tabulator, U.S. keyboare 4 bank, 51 keys, green crinkle paint, dark green plastic keys =234567897-π qwertyuiop asdfghjkl;e zxcvbnm,./ +"#$%&'()*2 QWERTYUIOPA ASDFGHJKL: @ ZXCVBNMAU? the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog SPHINX OF BLACK QUARTZ JUDGE MY VOW

Close up of the typebasket and Congress Elite typeface on a 1958 Olympia SM3 typewriter. The typeface is gleamingly clean.
Though upside down, you can see the faint Upsilon and end parenthesis characters next to the “9” key which needed some restoration.

Sound

Here’s a sound sample of inserting a sheet of paper, aligning it writing a sentence, the bell, and a return with more typing on my 1958 Olympia SM3:

Future

While I do like the difference in typeface, I’m not sure how much use this machine will get with my finely tuned and very similar 1958 SM3 which has an elite typeface I really love. There are still a few paces I want to put this typewriter through and one or two fine tuning adjustments I’ll likely make, but perhaps I may consider selling this? 

It’s now in excellent condition and I may recover the original platen and rubber to enhance it even further. The issue may become how much to list it for as a potential sale? It has several uncommon features which may appeal to a serious collector who doesn’t clean and service their own machines, but who wants one of the most collectible machines out there with a few exotic features that is ready to type on from day one.

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