A Closer Look

The slow-motion collection diaspora continues, as the Silver-Reed travel machine is rehomed to Cynthia, one of the attendees of the recent Bay Area type-in, and keeper of the super-sparkly Smith Corona...



Here's the Silver-Reed, back in the day:



The adoption process resulted in me pulling out the travel machines in advance, as well as the three portables I still have around. In the end, only the Silver-Reed walked out the door, but I'm always pleased to pass on a machine to a new home, especially locally, since it takes out the stress of shipping.

While I had the machines out, I remembered that the Signature 100 travel machine (yet another Japanese-made model) was ribbon advance issues. Specifically, the advance wasn't -- the plastic cogs that lie underneath the ribbon spools were not advancing, though there were some suspiciously flappy-looking springs in their vicinity that may simply have come detached. It's a condition I first noticed during NaNoWriMo "auditions" back in 2012.

Here's the 100:



After I said good-bye to Cynthia and before I packed up the machines, I vowed to give the 100 a closer look. Some fiddling around with a magnifying lens and a dental pick, a little squinting, and the luck of finding a similar spring hookup nearby meant that this annoying issue was fixable in all of ten minutes. I'm not sure how permanent my "repair" may be; it may turn out that I need to bend a hook into the end of the springs to hold them in place better. But now suddenly I'm blessed with a new/old machine, back off the "injury" pile and into the "worth a second look" stack.

Space is tight in Bay Area domiciles, a fact that Cynthia and I both bemoaned. Tighter still if you have a tendency to accumulate machinery (or phones, kitchen appliances, etc.). A travel-size machine is pretty small, considering. No thicker than a dictionary, really. (This is called justification.) Maybe... maybe it's worth a second look around the house, too, to see if there's somewhere this machine could be stowed?

Remarkable

My sweet ride for setup and cleanup of the track meet: turned out to be more reliable than my own car.





Unremarkable low-light cell-phone snap of Reggie, post-cleaning.



Typed on "Reggie," a late model Silver-Seiko (or is it Silver Reed?) built Royal Mercury.

Now They've Gone Too Far

What's wrong with this photo?


Typed, with tongue in cheek, on the re-felted Silver-Reed 750

Noise Reduction

I'm not sure which engineer it was, but someone thought that paper was a suitable soundproofing medium. It is, in fact, not.



I've swapped in the Silver-Reed "Fast-Spacer 750" (by Silver-Seiko, but made by Brother) and used it for a letter. It's entirely metal-bodied, so not as boomy as the Remington, but still rather jangly, as typers of this era tend to be. It also has -- or had -- a piece of black paperish material epoxied to the bottom inside panel. At one point in its life it had something dumped on it. I'm thinking instant oatmeal, from the color and texture. It was not pleasant to look at, peeping out from under the keys, and it certainly did nothing by way of much-needed soundproofing.



Today, while waiting for an operating system update to go horribly wrong, I shelled the typer, and ripped off as much of the nasty paper as I could. A piece of Kelly green polyester felt* and a tube of superglue later, and there's a fresh layer of sort-of-soundproofing inside.



The pictures don't do it justice: the green is subtle, but is a nice contrast to the red special-function keys, and the overall grey and silver color scheme of the typewriter. It still won't win any awards for silence, but I think it's better. At least, I tell myself it's better. It's certainly more attractive, and doesn't look like something chunky got sloshed through the works.



Speaking of quiet, I'm due for a little blog-cation myself. I'll be unplugging from the Series of Typewritten Tubes for about a week. I need to find a little peace, before I'm tempted to dump oatmeal over my own head. Keep the typosphere running, everybody, and I'll see you in a few days.


* It's nothing like felt at all, however, being made of recycled soda bottles. It's fairly stiff, and comes in a sheet large enough to cover the entire bottom of the machine with slight trimming. Those of you of the feminine persuasion would be wise to note that it also comes in a variety of patterns and prints, which would look pretty outstanding under the keys of the right machine. I've used regular "craft felt" for another typewriter re-lining project, and the improvement in looks is significant, and at least all my fumbling around didn't make it louder. The recycled stuff is a little easier to work with, though: it cuts a cleaner edge, and is rigid enough not to flop around as you're trying to stick it down. And this footnote has gone on way too long, which is another sign I need a break. I ramble.

Silver Streak