I've seen a few of those before, but those were pre-war. I'd say this is 1950s. If it was after that, surely the keys would be more square and 'blocky'? 

Sidel & Naumann were a big manufacturer. They made typewriters, sewing-machines, and I think, bicycles as well. So I'd reckon that, provided it works, you've got a very good-quality machine there. 

I wouldn't mind owning that myself... 

I can tell you what the Scheidegger is !  It's actually an Adler Gabrielle 35.  Scheidegger were a Swiss correspondence-based touch-typing and office practice school.  If you enrolled for one of their courses, you got  a Scheidegger branded machine to practice on.  These came with colour-coded slip-over  key covers, to hide the characters on the keytops.  Scheidegger were a reputable organisation and would only supply the best machines to their students.  At first (early 1960's) they supplied the Princess 300.  When that source dried up, they supplied Adler Gabrielles.  When Adler finished, they went to Olivetti for a Lettera variant.  Then Scheidegger went bust !  Because the casing is mainly plastic (Adler were an early adopter of plastic casings) it won't take paint very well, so maybe best to leave it as it is !

The knownledge of it's past certainly makes me appreciate the machine more. It got me thinking about the typewriting class I took about ten years ago, we didn't have anything fancy, just some electric typewriters I'm assuming to have been Brothers.

The piano hinge tip sounds great, I'll look into it and post results if I try it. Thanks!

EDIT// I opened the Facit, and it was like a scene from a horror movie. Could this be the result of wrong lubrication? Nasty! http://talvilintu.org/misc/type/facitdamage.jpg

Last edited by tatte (12-4-2014 01:41:47)

I'm soaking that plate with gear in gasoline, as the gear is stuck just like in my previous Facit. Six hours of soaking didn't do any good to that damage on the plate itself, let's hope it's a different story tomorrow.

You're correct, the case is double skinned, and fairly thick in total. I haven't seen long enough pop-rivets to reach through both layers, but I suppose they have to exist. Thanks for the further advice, my initial though would have been to attach the rivets in just the outer layer, so you might just have saved the case from unnecessary damages (and me from some trouble).

I picked up two $20 typers today, one definitely more exciting than the other for me.

The first was this 1983 Olympia Electric CE-R12. It's one of those made in Japan Olympia models that were produced during the final dark hours of typewriter dominated desks. I keep saying that I'm not into electric typewriters and yet this is the sixth one in my collection. More of a curiousity purchase than anything else, it needed a bit of work to get it going. The automatic line advance, which works in conjunction with the power carriage return, was completely seized, and the upper and lower case type was completely out of alignment.





The other machine, and the one I'm far more excited about, is a Royal Empress (sorry, only one photo so far). I've been looking to complete my collection of Royal standards and was happy to see this Empress turn up locally. Unfortunately, it's in really rough shape - mostly cosmetically - but despite looking like it was dragged to hell and back this big Royal still types like a dream. I've already fixed most of the little mechanical issues it had and just have to replace three missing screws for the line advance lever (the previous owner had used self-tapping screws to hold it in place!). I'm really looking forward to spending some quality time with the Empress and can't wait to give the grand old lady a new set of clothes.

Given that David Letterman is soon to retire, I can't think of a better image to give those unfamiliar with the Empress an idea of what it looks like:



The more I study the lines of the Empress, the more I'm convinced that its design drew inspiration from the hull of a cargo ship. I just noticed a half-circle shaped cut-out in the back of its case and immediately realized that it was probably meant for a power cord. There was an electric version of the Empress called the Electress.