All Set For The Traverse City Type-In and Typewriter Day

Just noticed the typo after posting.

Sears Tower Attache, Type-In Preparation, and June Typing Test

This Classic 12 was going to Read & Write Kalamazoo, but they have yet to claim it.

It's a keeper.  After using it I decided it will stay in the collection.

The Attache case.  Looks upside down. The typewriter sits on the lid.

I kept the typewriter on the pad. It can be removed and the pad becomes a writing surface.

Celebrating One Year in Michigan and A Four Color Ribbon

A very special thanks to the Right Reverend Ted Munk for his comment on my last post about the Sears Forecast 12, and the link to his manual, and also to Richard Polt for the posting his manual about this type of ribbon.  Both manuals convinced me to take a cartridge apart.

Both had posted manuals for a similar typewriter that used a four color ribbon. I could only get mine to unspool the black/red.  I gave up on the ribbon and made the post. I replied that mine only had the black/red half of the ribbon. Over the next few days I kept thinking of the 4 colors. Finally I decided to take the Blue/Green cartridge apart.  I found a bunched up twisted blue/green that could not get pulled through the exit slot.  Viola! I have a working 4 color ribbon.

The spools before I opened one.

This is an open spool. I do not have any images of when I opened the blue/green. I did that one morning before work.

After carefully removing the chrome winding disk the spool cover can be removed.

The bottom of the cartridge is the same as a bottom flange of a regular spool.

This shows the slots that feed/spool the ribbon. Notice how large the space is between the cover and bottom of the cartridge.  I think that is how the blue/green got tangled.

The splice is covered with silver paint. Notice the crinkling of the left part that is the lead to the blue black half. This was all bunched up inside the slot in the cartridge and some of the ribbon was actually wound reversed.  I'm thinking it came out from between the flange and cover and was not put back in correctly by a former owner of this typewriter.  The silver paint is to indicate the end of the color and to prevent getting ink on one's fingers when changing from one bi-color to the other.  The eyelet will trip the ribbon reverse mechanism like a normal ribbon so the chosen half keeps working.

Regular spools work fine. 

Any guess as to the date of manufacture?

Sears Forecast 12.  A bit of stand-up garage typing to create the typecast.

I chose the first typewriter I got after moving to Michigan.  This is an Olivetti Lettera 22 with Victoria Elite Typeface.  The typewriter was made in the 50's.  The Serial Number matches 1950 and 1954.

Hope to see some of our friends, and make some new ones on Typewriter Day.

And the Michigan Typochondriacs have a new web site:

Michigan Typochondriacs

Another Thrift Store Find

Michigan has typewriters.  Maybe not in abundance or at $5.00, but this is the 5th one I found since moving here a year ago.  In the 15 years I lived in Florida I found an electric and 2 or 3 wedges in the wild. Go back to Virginia when I was not collecting typewriters (about 20 years ago) I would see at least one typewriter at every yard or garage sale and several each time I visited Happy's Flea Market in Roanoke.

Inside, a very nice SCM.  This typewriter is quite clean.

Oh!  Look what is in the left corneer.

Looks unused.  The key tops look a bit scuffed by the slugs.

Even has automatic 5 space paragraph indentation, and a tab set/clear rocker.

Under the tiny plastic box is a diagram for the way to store the Change-A-Type set.  It shows the box in this orientation.

This machine is quite clean. Looks like it was hardly used.

Notice the key tops on this Classic 12.  They are not all the same height.  I have seen this on many Classic 12, Galaxie 12, and Sterling typewriters of the 70s

Notice the key tops on the Forecast 12?  They are all the same height.

This book arrived in the mail today.

The images were made using my cell phone and I did very little editing other than cropping and attempting to get them all the same size. The typecast and book images are from my scanner and should be the width of the blog, but they are loading either too small or two large even though the pixel width is the same as the blog pixel width. 

Seems like I am back in electronics school when I learned ground is ground is ground except....  So just as a grounded conductor may not be the same ground potential I guess Google pixels, monitor pixels, and scanner pixels are not the same.

One day I'll get around to calibrating my monitor to my printer to the scanner, and maybe even my Olympus digital imaging devices. I'll need to if I decide to do post processing of the RAW files.

Can You Pass The Typing Test?