1 - mazg
- New Member
Offline - From: Kelowna, British Columbia
- Registered: 26-12-2020
- Posts: 4
Seeking serial number on Adler Tippa portable
I'd really like to date this typewriter. It was my first given to me by my aunt in the late 70s or early 80s. She had it a few years before me (probably from new).
I've looked inside and out. It is not next to the carriage on either the right or left side (I've tried setting margins all the way to the edge). Unfortunately with a solid bottom, I'm not sure it's even visible?
Photos are here:
- Laurenz van Gaalen
- Speed Champion
Offline
- From: The Netherlands
- Registered: 20-7-2019
- Posts: 389
Re: Seeking serial number on Adler Tippa portable
Hi mazg,
Some Tippa's have the serial below the keyboard, on the right side, see:
Lau
- mazg
- New Member
Offline
- From: Kelowna, British Columbia
- Registered: 26-12-2020
- Posts: 4
Re: Seeking serial number on Adler Tippa portable
Amazing! You've solved the mystery. Sure enough it's under the keyboard in the area of the P key.
- •
Thread Starter- skywatcher
- Moderator
Offline
- From: The Prairies of Alberta
- Registered: 14-3-2013
- Posts: 712
Re: Seeking serial number on Adler Tippa portable
Greetings Mazg and welcome to the forum
To own a typewriter that has a family history like that is always something special. Please let us know what year your typewriter is. The next thought you'll have is; Is it older or younger than you? From my perspective, it's fun to find a typewriter that's the same age as me. Take care and all the best,
Sky
We humans go through many computers in our lives, but in their lives, typewriters go through many of us.
In that way, they’re like violins, like ancestral swords. So I use mine with honor and treat them with respect.
I try to leave them in better condition than I met them. I am not their first user, nor will I be their last.
Frederic S. Durbin. (Typewriter mania and the modern writer)
- mazg
- New Member
Offline
- From: Kelowna, British Columbia
- Registered: 26-12-2020
- Posts: 4
Re: Seeking serial number on Adler Tippa portable
Hi Sky
Its a 1972 (which I had guessed largely because of the style). It is older than me, but only just! My other two typewriters are older than me ;)
Maz
skywatcher wrote:
Greetings Mazg and welcome to the forum
To own a typewriter that has a family history like that is always something special. Please let us know what year your typewriter is. The next thought you'll have is; Is it older or younger than you? From my perspective, it's fun to find a typewriter that's the same age as me. Take care and all the best,
Sky
- •
Thread Starter- Uwe
- Moderator
Offline
- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,408
Re: Seeking serial number on Adler Tippa portable
Maz, you have a keeper there - take good care of it. Can you confirm where it was made? There should be a sticker on the back of the machine with that information.
The reason I ask is because the location of the serial number might have something to do with where it was manufactured: Dutch-made Tippas could have the number under the keyboard while German-made models located serial numbers under the carriage on the right side.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- Laurenz van Gaalen
- Speed Champion
Offline
- From: The Netherlands
- Registered: 20-7-2019
- Posts: 389
Re: Seeking serial number on Adler Tippa portable
For what it is worth, I had two Dutch-made Tippa's.
The one with the serial below the carriage was from 1971.
The one with the serial below the keyboard was from 1973.
- Uwe
- Moderator
Offline
- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,408
Re: Seeking serial number on Adler Tippa portable
Well, I guess that puts that theory to rest. The next logical thing might be it having something to do with its year of manufacture - or perhaps even a change in sub-contracted parts?
I have a pair of '64 Tippas, one from Adler, one from Triumph, and both have the serial number under the carriage.
Using the year theory, it looks like - based on a ridiculously small sample size - that the serial number is under the carriage up to 1971, and under the keyboard from '72 onward.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- Laurenz van Gaalen
- Speed Champion
Offline
- From: The Netherlands
- Registered: 20-7-2019
- Posts: 389
Re: Seeking serial number on Adler Tippa portable
I was thinking the same, but the question is, why did they change the serial location? The Tippa's I mentioned needed a lot of work, so I spent many hours on them. Because of the different serial locations I checked for other differences. There were none, the machines were identical, even the materials used.
Assuming the serial is applied during production, a change in the tooling/production process might explain the change of the serial location.
Assuming the serial is applied after casting the frame, a new batch might be the explanation.
Olympia Travellers frames were casted in batches large enough to support multiple years of typewriter production. If the same goes for the Tippa's, this mignt explain why a new batch was casted as late as 1972.
- Uwe
- Moderator
Offline
- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,408
Re: Seeking serial number on Adler Tippa portable
I don't have an answer, but it could also have been something as simple as a decision to locate it to a more visible or convenient location for those in either the manufacturing or supply chain. I should check - when I can get around to it - my other Adler and Triumph models to see if there's a pattern; maybe it was moved to provide model-wide consistency in T-A serial number locations?
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
