The Collecting Bug
One day you think, for whatever reason, I'd like to get myself an "X". The object in question could be almost anything, although some things seem to be more collectable that others. Spoons? Sure, why not. In my case I've gone through this list of things : folding knives, watches, pocket watches, locks (to pick). Anyway, you've decided to buy this object, and you get one. Are you "one-and-done"? Does this satisfy? For many, yes. But for the collector, often the answer is no. So then the question changes, as you get more of these things - how many is too many? Gulp.
Random Beginnings
In my case, at least two of my hobbies have started by other people and what were random events, more or less. I started pocket watch collecting due to a mis-delivery of a mysterious package, and I could not make out who it was for so I opened it. The pocket watch inside was fascinating, and when I returned it to its rightful owner I decided to get one for myself. I have one on me now, it is part of my daily wear. It brings me a lot of pleasure.
Similarly, one day my daughter came back from school with junk/treasure (it depends on your perspective) from the side of the road - an old typewriter that was no longer working. She put it in the garage, and after a few months of not looking at it I threw it out in an effort to reclaim some space - a constant battle I'm fighting in the garage and attic. Before doing so I did go to ebay and I could see that I could replace it with a working one for about $25 (at the time), so it didn't seem like I was throwing away a lot of money. After all it didn't work, or at least, it didn't work well. In hindsight, I probably could have got it working with what I know now. Anyway, I did have a little moment when I had thrown it in the trash and I looked down at it - I felt sad, like it was a great shame to dispose of such a mechanical beauty, working or not. I do like old mechanical things a lot of the time, such as my pocket watches. Still, it was the right thing to do at the time so sighed and I moved on with my life.
...and then one day
We were selling some household nick-nacks and paintings in an online auction. Something we have never done before. To find all our items and set them as "favorites" I had to go through the entire catalogue. It was then that I came across an Olivetti Lettera 32 DL and I remembered the typewriter in the bin, like some ghost calling me. We were having some success with selling our other items, so, on a whim, I put in the minimum bet on this typewriter. In the end I won it without anyone else bidding, ie at the minimum bid. I found myself to be surprisingly excited about this.
Waiting is a curse
The problem is, while I was waiting on the auction to complete, I started checking out other typewriters. What if I got outbid? It seemed that if I really wanted one, I should just buy one somewhere else. But which one? Notice that I have overcome the "one-and-done" issue by buying two before I even had one in my hands, if you see what I mean. And once you have more than one, well, the sky is the limit then, right? What if the one I got is faulty and I can't repair it? I do want a working one, I don't want to be disappointed. I had already gone down the Olivetti path, so I looked at the other models and liked the look of the standard green Lettera 32 with black keys. It is fairly common and often reasonably priced, and didn't look overly complicated. I bid on one that was going cheap but looked very old and moldy, not a lot of info in the listing though. Not long after bidding I got impatient with all this uncertainty and did a "buy it now" on a similar, fairly expensive one that claimed to be in pristine condition, with a good looking type sample. There, done.
For those keeping count at home, that is now three typewriters. One for sure, and two possibilities. Inevitably, the two I were bidding on I won, but in my defense I didn't know that was going to be the outcome at the time.
Just my type?
By now, the typewriter bug had bitten me fairly hard. I was really interested in everything about them, but particularly on repairs/maintenance. The collector in me also appreciated the other manufacturers designs and the natural question comes up - which one is the best? Here I discovered the wider "typosphere", a community of diverse enthusiast. Tom Hanks being one of them, who has a personal collection of several hundred machines and has even in a documentary about typewriters called "California Typewriter". Recently I watched this with my wife and I think it has helped her understand where my enthusiasm for these devices comes from... partly.
Anyway, the day came and I picked up the auction-won Olivetti DL, a trip across Sydney to the dusty warehouse where they sell and dispose of the goods in physical form. I was pointed to a fairly compact and unassuming grey case with a black stripe and black handle and was left to take it away. I took it back to the car, carefully unzipped the case (the Olivetti cases are notorious for having broken zippers, I later found out, and I can see why) and looked at the machine, the first of mine, for the first time. I gingerly pressed a few keys and they did, in fact, seem to work. The joy of that was significant, the auction listing was fairly vague on if it fully worked or not, so any signs of life were positive. When I got it home I found that it more-or-less worked fully, with the only issue being that the keys were all quite heavy and a bit slow to return. I didn't really know that at the time as I had nothing to compare it to. I was discovering what all the levers did, and how it all worked. It was great. Oh, and the bell didn't work.
I was doing some typing test when I discovered something that I should have probably noticed sooner - the DL was a sans-serif typeface. I'm not sure if they are all like this, but I think it suits the "retro-futuristic" angle the machine has. If I ever want to write a science fiction story, I think this would suit well. So, I'm very happy with this, but it doesn't really show the typical typewriter experience. Never mind, the other two Olivetti's had arrived in quick succession from eBay and they did have the more typical Serif fonts.
The two green Olivetti were at the polar ends of the spectrum in terms of price, and also in terms of functionality - but not how you would expect. The cheap device I call "old moldy" came to me with a fair bit of black mold on the case, but this easily wiped off with a little soapy water, dried off immediately. It worked flawlessly otherwise, with a very light touch.
The other, more expensive, Olivetti Lettera was immediately more visually appealing but turned out to have a slew of issues, some of which I am yet to resolve. Firstly, the leading edge of the paper when it feeds in sometimes, and more often than not, gets jammed under the paper guides to the side of the vibrator. Then, when you do manage to finagle the paper into place, it does type away. Not quite as light a touch as "old moldy", but OK. The type is quite tightly packed, and if I was trying to get the most words on a page this is the machine I would use of the three.
Not long into the test I noticed another problem though, the type was fading in front of my eyes, each letter getting progressively paler. Scratching my head a bit I soon realized that the ribbon was not advancing. A lot of fiddling around later, and experimenting, showed that I could get it to advance, but only reliably when going in the other direction. Then the platen knob broke off in my hand, a fair old chunk falling on the table. Oh lord, what now!? Seems that during shipping, or just as a matter of circumstance, it chose now to break. Fortunately it was a very clean break, and when the part was put back you could almost not see it was broken, only if you were looking for it really. So I super-glued it in place, and a bit shaken and afraid that something else would go wrong, called it a night.
Hyper-Collecting
By now though, I was looking further afield than the Olivetti garden I started in. There were other brands and models that intrigued me - either by their reputation or by physical appearance. I was looking at Gumtree and eBay, but also took a trip to some local Op-shops on a Saturday morning on the hopes of finding a cheap machine that way. I didn't have luck in the Op shops, the only machine I found was, funnily enough, another Olivetti machine that was truly in appalling and irreparable state.
Having gone through a few experiences of collecting things, I think I have managed to escape some of the common pitfalls and quickly narrow my focus down to certain models and brands that are the ones that appeal to me most. I have quite a strong and instinctive opinion on what is attractive, and while I can appreciate some machines technically, if they look god-awful to my eye I'm not going to get one.
The next machine I got was one that stopped me in my tracks as soon as I scrolled to it. It was pretty much love at first sight. I mean, and it might just be me, but to my eyes this thing is gorgeous! Look at the curves. Click it for a larger image to truly drink it in.
It was a "buy it now" on eBay, fairly $$$, and I hit the button first and justified it second. My justification came easily, not only did I really like the design, but it also somehow reminds me of my mother and I wanted to get something to do this. It is an all metal case Royal "Royalite 110" model. I have it now and everything works nicely on it. It has an black only ribbon installed, but can take a two color ribbon - the switch to do this is not in the keyboard area like most, but tucked back near the platen neatly on the right. You can just see it in the photo there as a chrome tab. I like too the semi-rounded keys and the protected sides of the space bar. So elegant.
Quirky keyboard layouts
A oddity of these old typewriters is that they do not have the identical layout of keys to the modern computer keyboards. The letters are the same, although you even have to watch out for that as some are not. Mostly the differences are with the numbers and symbols, a lot is missing and some of them are a bit surprising. I noticed this as soon as I tried to type my first ever word actually, because I wanted to simply type this ... "Hello!". The problem came at the end, the exclamation mark. Ummmmmm. Looking, looking, looking,... nope. It doesn't have one, what the hell!? Further examination shows that they were quite thorough with representing fractions, a lot of keys are dedicated to those - 1/2, 1/3, 2/3, 1/8, 3/8, 5/8. Yeah, I doubt I will ever use them, but I suppose in the Imperial measurement system world it was important for those feet and inches. Missing are the ! and usually also * = { } [ ] < > | ~ ^ The big surprise too is that the numbers start with 2 and end with 9, so the 1 and 0 are missing sometimes also. What gives?
Well, if you are into typewriters you will know this - but otherwise you probably won't - there are some tricks to typing some of the "missing" keys. The 1 is a lowercase L, so you use that. The 0 is similarly an uppercase letter o. The ! actually takes three key presses to make...are you ready for this? You press the single quote ' (ie shift-8), then the Back key to allow you to overtype the quote, then the full stop. This gives you the two parts, top and bottom of the ! which is ingenious, if not a little laborious. I think of the exclamation mark as being one of the primary keys on the keyboard, so for a serious typing experience I do prefer a dedicated key for it. The other keys though, well, those are simply missing.
And the rest (3 more!)
So, I had a small collection going by now, four machines, and quite honestly I was on a roll and having fun and nobody was there to stop me other than my own self-restraint and that was MIA, so I bought more machines. All bargains and with the clear reasoning of completing the now "collection" as quickly as possible to a satisfactory level (to me!).
I wanted to next get a machine for me specifically, for more serious typing. One that was considered to be a good if not great machine by those in the know. I wanted my exclamation mark also. So, I was reading various opinions and the Hermes 3000 kept coming up as the one a lot admired. Unfortunately these go for a king's ransom and bargains are really not to be found with this model. It is too much of a superstar to fly under the radar. However, I did find a similar older model Hermes, a Hermes 2000 on eBay. It works (apparently), with the only two visible issues being the top half of the letters being faded and one of the metal clips on the case being broken. I am yet to receive this machine because Australia post are being painfully slow at the moment, but hope to have it in a few days or so. I'm really looking forward to receiving this. It is different to the others in that it is a desktop model and in fairly original condition, from what I can tell. Amazingly enough I got it on the minimum bid too, nobody else showed up, and I had even put in a higher bid buffer in case they did but it didn't get used. It has the ! and * key too, which is a bonus.
Then, after watching the movie "California Typewriter" I mentioned to my wife that one of the models in the film was an Olympia SM-3, and I really liked how it looked and it has a reputation for being a nice typer. Again, like the Hermes 3000, these are not easy to find cheaply. However, I did find one I liked in grey on Gumtree and I contacted the seller. It was their grandmothers old typewriter that had been sitting idle for over 40 years and they were going to throw it out. It does type, but they report that sometimes it doesn't advance when you press the letter "o". Also, there is some paint on the case and it looks a bit scruffy. However, with my experience with "old moldy" I know that sometimes these machines come good with very little effort, and I hope this is one of them. It was on the upper end of my price range, but we agreed on a price. I am awaiting this one to arrive too, and it will be re-packed and put under the x-mas tree for me. The seller has been very nice about this transaction, somewhat restored my faith in humanity and made me think that "typewriter people are good people". I have discovered that Knitting people are also good people, by the way. There may be others too.
Finally, the last one was a bit of an ebay bargain impulse buy, that again I surprisingly won without any competition. Another Hermes, but this time their highly regarded portable "Baby" model (which is the same as the Rocket and other re-brandings like the Aristocrat). It has the iconic "sea foam green" keyboard and is otherwise in need of a good clean too but who knows what issues await. Perhaps none, perhaps a ton, it is all part of the adventure. It was a bit of a take-it or leave-it purchase, but I'm glad I won it.
So that is it, right? You are done?
Well, I feel done. When these other machines turn up I will know for sure. The collection will have a nice array of brands and models I really like. There *might* be one more machine in me though. I do feel the call of the Smith Corona Super "Silent". It is the one machine Tom Hanks said he would take over all the others, and I trust his judgement. However, I want to give the Hermes 2000 and Olympia SM-3 a good crack before I go looking further. These are also top machines and I want to really use them. If I'm happy with the typing action on those, I'm good to stop here honestly. I have more than enough to play with. I mean, how many typewriters is too many again? Seven, eight? Some people have hundreds of them! I don't have the room, finances or desire for that, my figure is much lower and I think I'm more or less at it now. These machines seem to have personalities and character, and if you have too many you can't appreciate them fully. At least, that is how I see it now. I want them all to be special to me.
In fact, I was already thinking of perhaps giving one of the Olivetti's away to a family member, if they want it, as part of the Christmas festivities this year. Share the good vibes, if you like. We shall see how the story unfolds from here...
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