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16-10-2017 18:43:21  #1


Super nice Olympia SG1-N followed me home!

Glad to have my hands on another SG1, this time a model SG1-N (does the "N" mean "no injector"?). I totally lucked out finding this one. Beautifully kept, little-used machine, complete with the original Olympia vinyl cover, original manual, paper support (!), and MATCHING S/N's (7-679727) on both the body and 12" carriage, which I think might be rather unusual. The machine types wonderfully, light and snappy, even better than my first SG1, with the only current fly in its ointment being a frighteningly loud "raspy" sound if I return the carriage too quickly, almost like the pinion gear is being partially engaged/dragging, or the tab rack is dragging. The carriage is silent and smooth when when tabbing, though, and all tab functions work fine; I only hear it the rasping when releasing the brake and quickly moving the carriage left or right. I did swap carriages between this one and my other SG1, and this carriage works silently and smoothly on the other SG1 body. I then put the SG1 carriage on this SG1-N's body, and the same problem occurs, so clearly the problem exists somewhere in the main body of the SG1-N. I'm pretty sure it's a (gulp) escapement problem, so might have to enlist some local help on this one, as I'm REALLY in love with this thing, and want to use it for the long term.

I've never heard of an SG1-N model, but I'll bet Uwe has, and he probably has one (or three!), and maybe he'll chime in with some history about this model. The obvious difference compared to my other "regular" SG1, other than the shorter carriage, is the lack of a paper injector. Also, the keys are white instead of black, and there is no "spaced character" key. All in all, this is an absolutely beautiful example that has obviously been well taken care of. I was overjoyed to have found it, and I suspect it will become my mainstay in the shop/office. I will try to include photos, if I can get the procedure down this time. Intended to size these down more, but haven't quite figured out TinyPic yet. Sorry.





 

17-10-2017 14:21:25  #2


Re: Super nice Olympia SG1-N followed me home!

Is the double space key missing? Looks like something should be next to the !/¾ key.

 

17-10-2017 17:51:57  #3


Re: Super nice Olympia SG1-N followed me home!

picker77 wrote:

Glad to have my hands on another SG1, this time a model SG1-N (does the "N" mean "no injector"?).

​The 'N' stands for 'Normalmodell' (normal model) or basic standard.

picker77 wrote:

I totally lucked out finding this one. Beautifully kept, little-used machine ...

​Actually, I think it was refurbished, maybe by Olympia, which would explain why it looks so clean. And I'm fairly certain those are not the original keys, which were probably replaced using the keys from a SG3 (or the SG1 from that time period that had the smooth paint finish, not crinkle painted). Can you take a photo of the underside of the keys?

picker77 wrote:

... MATCHING S/N's (7-679727) on both the body and 12" carriage, which I think might be rather unusual.

​Were did you find the two numbers that match? There should be three: One on the escapement frame, one on the carriage rail, and one on the underside of the carriage. It's common for the first two numbers to match. I've never seen a carriage and frame number that matched before because the frame number should have a '7-' prefix and the carriage a '8-' prefix.

picker77 wrote:

I've never heard of an SG1-N model ...

​I suspect that Olympia sold far more -S models than the -N, which would explain why there seems to be far more of them around, but there are plenty of SG1-Ns out there too. 
 


The pronoun has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
 

17-10-2017 17:59:58  #4


Re: Super nice Olympia SG1-N followed me home!

Fleetwing wrote:

Is the double space key missing? Looks like something should be next to the !/¾ key.

​I think what you're looking at is the top of the key lever for another key. I'd have to double-check to be sure, but I believe the -N model did not have the Spaced Typing Key feature. I'm quite certain on the SG3, for example, that the feature was only available on the -S model.


The pronoun has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
 

17-10-2017 19:00:36  #5


Re: Super nice Olympia SG1-N followed me home!

...and my education continues. There is indeed a third serial number I had not taken into account. Both the frame and the top of the carriage rail are 7-679727, underside of the carriage is 8-701123. Attached is a photo of the underside of the right side of the key banks, note the empty slot where the spaced-typing key would normally reside. I presume this "deluxe" feature was deliberately left out on this one. I'm interested in whether this one has been factory rebuilt as suggested by Uwe, or if it's original - and also interested in how you can tell by looking at the underside of the keys.

 

     Thread Starter
 

18-10-2017 10:53:33  #6


Re: Super nice Olympia SG1-N followed me home!

Note that I thought it was refurbished, not rebuilt, whether by Olympia, a typewriter repair shop, or more recently by a collector. Given its age and the professional use that most SG1s would have been subjected to, it's most unusual to see one in 'like-new' condition. And then there are the keys that don't seem to match the machine (I think they've been replaced). The underside of the keys reveals whether they're SG1 or SG3 keys (these are SG1 keys). Take a look at two of the SG1s from my collection below and you'll see what the typical key colours were for each available case finish/colour. Your keys should be the same colour as those on the shift levers.

​Don't get me wrong: You've landed a very nice example that any collector would be happy to have. The keys are just a talking point, and it's not like it effects the value of the machine in any way. I could also be completely wrong about them having been replaced, but I've never come across a '61 model (or any other model year with the dark green paint) with white keys.

​White keys on the 1963 SG1 (note the smooth, lighter green paint):
​And the keys on my 1961 SG1:


The pronoun has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
 

18-10-2017 19:13:09  #7


Re: Super nice Olympia SG1-N followed me home!

Thanks for the info, Uwe. I'm not in the least bothered by the fact it might be a "refurb" or something like that, because if so somebody did a heck of a job. It's so (nearly) perfect to look at and type on I'm thrilled to have it. The bonus for me is I really don't like dark keys with white lettering (like my SG1-S), for some weird reason I much prefer white keys. I have no idea why, it's just a visual preference thing I suppose - and it doubly makes no sense because I'm a touch typist. But like most old timer touch typists who've been computer keyboard converted/indoctrinated over the years, I tend to glance at the keyboard on a manual machine much more often than I should, especially to find the missing "1" key, and the apostrophe. For portables, I actually like the feel of SC Silent-Supers more than anything else, even better than my Hermes 3000, several Royal QDL's, and Oly SM8's and 9's. However, if I can get this carriage return raspy-noise thing taken care of, this SG1-N will be my daily user in the shop, with the SG1-S as a backup. For a machine to keep in the house for general use for cards and letters, etc., I'll probably stick with one of my two SC Silent-Supers, although neither of them have white keys.

As an aside, what happened to Olympia SG production in 1962? Lots of '61's, but the database basically shows a blank for 1962, with production picking up again in '63. Were they relocating the factory, or something like that?

     Thread Starter
 

19-10-2017 10:14:07  #8


Re: Super nice Olympia SG1-N followed me home!

Olympia replaced the SG1 with the SG3 in 1963; what effect that might have had on the previous year's sales would be pure speculation on my part, as would an attempt to explain why the 1962 model isn't represented in the database - yet. 

​I would actually caution against reaching any conclusions at all using any information gleaned from the database. At the moment there are some 8,300 machines listed in it. Given that there are around 3,500 typewriters (including peripheral items) for sale on any given day on eBay, and that there are millions upon millions of typewriters still in existence in the world, the database does more to reflect the interests of a very small group of collectors than it does to represent a cross-section of machines that have survived the typewriter century. 

​To provide some proof of this, lets assume that the Olympia serial numbers are accurate so we can extrapolate the SG1 production numbers for the two years you mentioned. In 1961 Olympia produced 152,119 SG1s. In 1962 the number fell a little to 128,486 units, but that's still a lot of typewriters and there should be plenty of '62 models still kicking around, which is why I maintain that you shouldn't read too much into what you see when looking at the database. Providing additional support to my point, I actually have a '62 SG1, but it isn't listed in the database. In fact, a good number of my machines aren't in the database, nor are any of those from a few collectors that I know of in my area that have 60+ typewriters in their own collections.

​This to me is symptomatic of the internet in general; I'm always shocked when I talk to someone who concludes that something must not exist or it must be extremely rare, and only because they couldn't find anything about that item by performing a Google search. There are far too many assumptions made withing the typewriter collecting community in general, but that discussion would veer this thread off topic.


The pronoun has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
 

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