Thank you Uwe for your reply. Yes, I am sure of the serial number, which is viewable on the chassis, when you move the carriage over to the left. It is a carriage shift model (not a basket shift) by the way.

Perhaps it is a newer model (not a model 12) and I am wrong........

I will get organised and try to post some pictures.

Many Thanks

David
 

Thank you for your reply, Repartee. Yes, it is the distraction of being online (and the wanting to constantly edit my work) that prevents me from making progress. I have started writing a 'first draft' on my Olivetti 22. I am really enjoying doing proper typing and plan to continue with it. So far I have managed to complete a few sheets of paper; I am not reading any of it, so far.

I am from the UK originally and spent nine years in the British Navy. I was what you would call a Stoker PO when I left. Fortunately I was able to pick up a job immediately afterwards, doing a delivery job on a Yacht to Vancouver Island. I never returned to the UK, except for holidays. After that I worked on the tow boats (as an engineer) for a few years, running up and down the west coast, towing barges mostly. Eventually I migrated ashore and became interested in computers - this would be around 1978.

That said, I would have loved to work as a professional engineer, on ship design.

Cheers


 

Hi Tracey, glad you could join us. 

What area of Ontario are you in? There are a few here from the GTA and it's always good to meet another local collector.

Hello everyone!
Oops, I should have known that there would be a introductions page.
I am a husband to one wife and father to two fine boys. We live in rural NE Wisconsin, USA.
I have been a skilled machinist and millwright / mechanic for the last thirty years.
I sometimes refer to myself as a ' Practitioner of the Manual Arts ' in that I like to work with my hands and my own brain.
So I enjoy blacksmithing, hand woodworking, weaving and sewing, all things mechanical and I collect mechanical things like sewing machines, hand tools, printing equipment, books, mechanical clocks and, typewriters.
Everything I collect must be able to be used as it was intended and not just sit around to look good or take up space.
I also aspire to write, and so, I have a lot of note books waiting to be transcribed onto typewritten pages and maybe even published and printed from my own presses some day.
Like many of you, I too have found that writing by computer is nearly futile.
I had at one time a nice IBM Selectric III but I ended up salvaging it because someone had used white lithium grease on too many of the moving parts and also a very destructive oil on too many of the plastic parts. All the moving parts ended up stuck fast and the plastic parts disintegrated. The only thing I could save from it was the platen and the drive motor. A tragic loss to be sure but, years later it motivated me to buy my first Underwood #  5
Now I have two of those, a Noiseless Standard and a Noiseless Portable, ( also a Remington Noiseless Standard with an 18 inch carriage ) a Remington #2 portable, a Royal Aristocrat portable, a Royal FP (Grandfathers) S-C Galaxie 12, S-C Sterling (the Art-Deco era ) an Olympia SM9 a few electro-mechanicals, and several electronic typing 'wedges' that I have picked up from the curb for some reason.
I have a line on a Remington Noiseless portable and maybe a Demontable but, other than that I probably have as many typewriters as I can use.  Though, one never does know....
HABD!  (Have A Blessed Day !)

Thank you for the welcome Repartee.
My family(s) have only been here since the 1840's so we're still kind of new to the area but, the climate is agreeable and the terrain reminds us of the old country (Czechoslovakia, Germany, Cornwall)
As for the typewriter pickin's we really only have the more common American stuff from what I can find.
To be sure you'll find Olympia, Olivetti, and Hermes but I don't see much more than that. I also find that most machines are priced by the pound rather than their true value as a typewriter.
All my desk model Underwoods went around $1.45/pound and the portables at about $1.60+/ pound.
I am just beginning to see some of the portable machines asking for outrageous prices when compared to the same model in other stores. But, otherwise I would agree there are a good number of good useable typewriters here in Wisconsin. I am a little surprised we don't see any Sholes and Glidden machines here but, beside the fact that they were made in Milwaukee I don't know where they were distributed and sold.
As for delving into the innards of these machines and giving a public post mortem, I used to do that with sewing machines and I found that one needs the right kind of forum and audience to avoid annoying the entire web site. I guess if there is a place for that kind of on-going conversation here on Type Talk I would be wiling to join in but, I have to tell you that I'm not too good with computer communications or pictures via the same. Not that I won't try just don't expect anything that could be construed as exciting.

HABD!