- Will Davis
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Re: Underwood 4 backspace lever?
OR.... did the metal rust away there because of continued contact by human fingers, hitting the front plate there where the M-R button is, knowing that most folks' fingers are larger than the button? Hard to say with the rust damage there. We're going to need to find another one of these. Somewhere in boxes I have an Underwood repair manual, and I'll try to find that to see if there's a parts number reference. It covers No. 4 and No. 5 but it's fairly late, and may not have any spare parts listed for this brief variation.
ztyper wrote:
What's weird about the cutout is that it's asymmetric; is the odd shaped upper portion cut that way to clear the margin release button?
Yes, it appears to be cut out like that to make room for the margin release, as it is rather close to it.
Will Davis
Davis Typewriter Works
- ztyper
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Re: Underwood 4 backspace lever?
What's funny is that this thing almost made its way to the landfill and then we'd never even know about it. I'll look around the machine for any other identification numbers incase it will reveal something.
A high schooler with a lot of typewriters. That's pretty much about it.
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Thread Starter- Uwe
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Re: Underwood 4 backspace lever?
I don't mean to sidetrack this thread, but I think this might fall into the same period as the machine being discussed. I'm looking at an Underwood that is local to me and even though the photo is terrible, it seems pretty clear that it has the ribbon colour selector, and a the backspace key, but no margin release button on the left side frame were it should be, which has me a little confused. I thought only earlier models like the No. 1 and 2 lacked the margin release there, but didn't have the other two features this one has. Any ideas about what I'm looking at?
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- mre12ax7
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Re: Underwood 4 backspace lever?
I don't mean to sidetrack this thread, but I think this might fall into the same period as the machine being discussed. I'm looking at an Underwood that is local to me and even though the photo is terrible, it seems pretty clear that it has the ribbon colour selector, and a the backspace key, but no margin release button on the left side frame were it should be, which has me a little confused. I thought only earlier models like the No. 1 and 2 lacked the margin release there, but didn't have the other two features this one has. Any ideas about what I'm looking at?
The margin release may be missing.
I have a Underwood 5 that was missing one.
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- Uwe
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Re: Underwood 4 backspace lever?
That's a good suggestion, but there isn't a hole there for one. I have seen machines that were missing the margin release button (and maybe more, I didn't examine them that closely), but this isn't one of those cases.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- Will Davis
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Re: Underwood 4 backspace lever?
Before the machine stops looking like the No. 4 / No. 5 completely and becomes the No. 6, the margin release becomes a key in the keyboard over on the right side, top, if the manual I'm looking at has it right. Let us know if there's one there!
That's a good suggestion, but there isn't a hole there for one. I have seen machines that were missing the margin release button (and maybe more, I didn't examine them that closely), but this isn't one of those cases.
Will Davis
Davis Typewriter Works
- ztyper
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Re: Underwood 4 backspace lever?
Looks like this whole thing opened a large can of worms about the lineage of the Underwood typewriter... I'll keep an eye out for anything odd I see too
A high schooler with a lot of typewriters. That's pretty much about it.
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Thread Starter- Uwe
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Re: Underwood 4 backspace lever?
Before the machine stops looking like the No. 4 / No. 5 completely and becomes the No. 6, the margin release becomes a key in the keyboard over on the right side, top, if the manual I'm looking at has it right. Let us know if there's one there!
So an early '30s No. 4 or 5? Again, it's hard to tell from the terrible photo, but it appears to just be the tabulator key there. Other details of the machine lead me to believe that it was a much earlier model, but I'll just post the photo I'm looking at, which hopefully will help.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- TypewriterKing
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Re: Underwood 4 backspace lever?
It kind of reminds me of when very old cars actually had a tiller before they had the steering wheel we all know and use. It does the same thing, but this thing seems a bit unwieldy. Oliver three-bankers have something sort of like this too.
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- ztyper
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Re: Underwood 4 backspace lever?
Oliver three-bankers have something sort of like this too.
Yes, I had forgotten about that! It seems like Underwood I still in that awkward phase of typewriter development before most of the features were standardized and they were throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. The lever proved to be functional (as it frees up more from constant use...) but it wasn't quite as good as a button so they switched over to that. I think that's what may have happened, but I don't have any books or logs that would support this theory...
A high schooler with a lot of typewriters. That's pretty much about it.
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