1 - Repartee
- Key Master
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- From: Brooklyn
- Registered: 12-10-2015
- Posts: 683
Typewriter Armorers
Previously I wrote:
I had stumbled across three arms maker / typewriter company connections - the third was Rheinmetall ... and the second escapes me...
LC Smith. If you search for their typewriter serial number database Google suggests LC Smith shotguns. Remington, Rheinmetall and Smith. What other manufacturing houses gave you the ability to shoot people and write about it?
1929 LC Smith No. 8 S/N 907694G : In its improbable functionality and jaunty touch it looks like a museum piece but does not feel like one, and only wants its feed rollers put back in round for some more explosive writing action. Firing pin removed.
"Damn the torpedoes! Four bells, Captain Drayton".
- Javi
- Touch Typist
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- From: Valladolid (Spain)
- Registered: 27-5-2016
- Posts: 182
Re: Typewriter Armorers
M.A.P, If I'm not mistaken. I've seen it somewhere, but I can't remember where exactly.
That French brand made artillery pieces as well as typewriters. Put a typewriter in your office and an 110mm round one in your competitor's!
Here in Spain Patrias (and Amayas and Sedics ans Köningers) were made in Eibar, a city known for the artillery factories. In fact, the local soccer team are nicknamed "los artilleros". (The gunners). I don't think the typewriter company had anything to do with weaponry makers, but I can't tell for sure.
TaktaktataktaktakcluccluctaktaktaktaktakDINGtaktaktaktakCREEEEEEEEECtaktaktak...
(Olivetti Linea 98)
- Uwe
- Moderator
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- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,408
Re: Typewriter Armorers
It's a very long list considering most manufacturers were pressed into producing armaments as part of their countries war production efforts, especially during World War II. Certainly all of your domestic typewriter manufacturers produced weapons during that period; you didn't mention Royal, which I know produced the BAR among other weapons (even during the Korean war), or Underwood and IBM that manufactured the M1 rifle. They probably produced many other weapons and parts too, but those are the two examples that I can immediately recall.
One of my favorite examples though is Zbrojovka Brno (ZB), the manufacturer of Consul typewriters (and a large number of private label brands). Just like several of the German typewriter manufacturers, this Czech company began as a weapons manufacturer and only later produced typewriters to diversify its business. Of interest, the first typewriters that it produced were Remington models under licence (Remington too was an armaments manufacturer before it put its name on less lethal instruments). ZB produced Mauser 98 rifles for the Germans, and later developed a light machine gun that turned into the Bren gun, which I've had a chance to fire, and was being manufactured during the war only a few kilometers from where I now live.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- Repartee
- Key Master
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- From: Brooklyn
- Registered: 12-10-2015
- Posts: 683
Re: Typewriter Armorers
I had intended to exclude companies that produced weapons during WWII and then went back to peaceful office machines, though to get full credit for that exemption I should have mentioned it first. And thanks, i didn't know the details you mention.
"Damn the torpedoes! Four bells, Captain Drayton".
- •
Thread Starter- Rattle Tap
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- Registered: 01-2-2017
- Posts: 91
Re: Typewriter Armorers
HA!
Uwe, I just happen to have a K98K Mauser made at the ZB factory!
No typewriters from them however.
- Uwe
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- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
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Re: Typewriter Armorers
That's hilarious! I'll happily trade you a Consul for the Mauser! 
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- Fleetwing
- Typewriter Talk Vet
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- From: Hartford, CT USA
- Registered: 30-6-2015
- Posts: 1,006
Re: Typewriter Armorers
Rheinmetall, in addition to armaments and typewriters, made for a short while in the '50s the Exa camera -- the work was farmed out to them from Ihagee (IHG) in Dresden, makers of the Exakta and Exa cameras, when Ihagee didn't have sufficient manufacturing capacity.
- Uwe
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- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
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Re: Typewriter Armorers
Are you a camera collector? I like cameras, using them even more, but know nothing about their history. I spent some time surfing the web and reading up on the Exa and those manufactured by Rheinmetall - interesting stuff!
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- Rattle Tap
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- Registered: 01-2-2017
- Posts: 91
Re: Typewriter Armorers
That's hilarious! I'll happily trade you a Consul for the Mauser!
I'm afraid that's a 'No can do' on that offer ,my friend.
That particular rifle and I have been together for quite a while.
And even though it kicks me hard enough to leave subcutaneous blood marks on my shoulder, I would never part with it.
Actually some of the early war models and the civilian contract rifles had the Brno factory emblem right on the receiver. Mine does not but, it is still a great rifle.
HABD!
- Uwe
- Moderator
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- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,408
Re: Typewriter Armorers
I promise you that the Consul won't hurt your shoulder at all... and the ammo for it, which comes in reams, is a fraction of the cost. 
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
