- TypewriterGuy
- Typewriter Talk Vet
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- From: United States
- Registered: 24-4-2015
- Posts: 1,250
Re: Whats the strangest thing you have found in a typewriter?
Found a small glass bottle with a cork and a label that says 53 on it.... Inside of the remington portable I just got. It was wedjed in between some typebars.
Back from a long break.
Starting fresh with my favorite typer. A Royal Futura!
- Fleetwing
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- From: Hartford, CT USA
- Registered: 30-6-2015
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Re: Whats the strangest thing you have found in a typewriter?
Maybe not so unusual, but it did take me by surprise -- in working on the KMM I got recently, I removed the vertical rear sheet metal cover for the tab set/clear assembly and the bell, and out came the carcass of a beetle, at least 1 inch long, from the bell. I think this typewriter was stored somewhere subject to the elements, if not actually outside.
- KatLondon
- Key Master
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- From: London
- Registered: 11-10-2014
- Posts: 995
Re: Whats the strangest thing you have found in a typewriter?
Oops, typewriterman, panel beating - that was the case of my old Baby, wasn't it...& a massive improvement it is!
TypewriterGuy, very mysterious! Just as long as it didn't say DRNK ME...
Last edited by KatLondon (09-10-2015 06:32:18)
- TypewriterGuy
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- Registered: 24-4-2015
- Posts: 1,250
Re: Whats the strangest thing you have found in a typewriter?
Found a (What looks to be) Remington portable bakelite key. It has the leter V on it. It was in the mechanics of my 1911 Remington standard...
Back from a long break.
Starting fresh with my favorite typer. A Royal Futura!
- •
Thread Starter- thetypewriterman
- Key Master
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- From: Leiston, England
- Registered: 29-5-2013
- Posts: 900
Re: Whats the strangest thing you have found in a typewriter?
Yes Kat, that WAS your Hermes Baby carry case that I was panel-beating ! I did find several links of a gold chain inside an Imperial 66 last year. I handed them back to the typewriter's owner, but she had no idea that they were there. She had bought the machine from her employer, the National Health Service, for a peppercorn amount when they were disposing of their manual typewriters many years ago. Perhaps she sold the gold links for scrap to get a discount on my servicing !
- ztyper
- Key Master
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- From: Somewhere in New Jersey
- Registered: 01-10-2014
- Posts: 773
Re: Whats the strangest thing you have found in a typewriter?
Fleetwing wrote:
and out came the carcass of a beetle, at least 1 inch long, from the bell.
When working on my IBM Selectric one day, I put my thumb under some of the foam to remove it, and when I lifted it up, there were at least five dead centipede carcasses all curled up. I freaked out and almost screamed because I thought for a moment they were alive. 
They must have died because they got stuck to the foam...
A high schooler with a lot of typewriters. That's pretty much about it.
- Spazmelda
- Key Master
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- From: Ohio
- Registered: 25-2-2015
- Posts: 830
Re: Whats the strangest thing you have found in a typewriter?
I haven't found much of anything interesting. In the Hermes 3000 I found several 'nice' roach cases. They were on the table and my daughter came in a picked one up and started looking at it curiously. "What are these?" she asked. I told her they were roach cases. "What the heck is a roach case?" bringing it up closer to her face for a better look.
"You know... where baby roaches come from."
She squealed, threw it down, and ran from the room.
Last edited by Spazmelda (09-10-2015 19:49:23)
- Richard Polt
- Novice Typer
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- Registered: 22-9-2013
- Posts: 39
Re: Whats the strangest thing you have found in a typewriter?
A mud wasps' nest.
- TypewriterGuy
- Typewriter Talk Vet
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- From: United States
- Registered: 24-4-2015
- Posts: 1,250
Re: Whats the strangest thing you have found in a typewriter?
@Richard Same! ALthough not just one... Or two.... Not even small ones...
Oh, and I found an acorn wdged UNDEERNEATH the typebars
Back from a long break.
Starting fresh with my favorite typer. A Royal Futura!
- •
Thread Starter- Gabby Johnson
- Platen Punisher
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- Registered: 21-2-2015
- Posts: 77
Re: Whats the strangest thing you have found in a typewriter?
While cleaning a Selectric II that I found in a thrift store I found in the bottom pan a dried mushroom, which resembled the psilocybin variety I came to know in college three decades ago. The machine had a label identifying it as property of the local county government, so I theorized it came from the police department and perhaps some suspect had disposed of some incriminating evidence during booking by dropping it inside.
And no, I didn't perform an experiment to prove my hypothesis.
