- SoucekFan
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- Registered: 27-12-2015
- Posts: 489
Re: Missing springs on newer Royal KMM?
Interesting. I have not seen that on a KMM. I hope I didn't lead you astray. I am not sure why they would have a different setup with the springs. Maybe someone else can explain, as I am curious.
- Fleetwing
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Re: Missing springs on newer Royal KMM?
There used to be on here a guy who worked at Royal. His insight would be very helpful here.
- SquireDante
- Touch Typist
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- From: South Carolina
- Registered: 26-1-2017
- Posts: 106
Re: Missing springs on newer Royal KMM?
Thanks for the help SoucekFan. I probably wouldn't have bothered looking into it if you hadn't been so informative; and we both learned something new because of it.
And a guy who worked at Royal? I bet he'd have some good tales to tell.
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Thread Starter- SoucekFan
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Re: Missing springs on newer Royal KMM?
No problem. I am happy that your machine appears to just be different, and not missing anything.
So does this variation have the same touch control knob, and if so, does it adjust the set of springs in your last photo?
- SquireDante
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Re: Missing springs on newer Royal KMM?
Yes on both counts. My '40 has the same type of thing that goes to adjust the springs in the back.
Here's the '48:
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Thread Starter- SoucekFan
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Re: Missing springs on newer Royal KMM?
That is really interesting. Thank you for the picture. I am wondering why they had this different setup, since their standards both before and after used the usual Universal Bar Springs. I am wondering if this was a special design for a specific purpose, if it was a design change that they tried for a brief period of time, or some other thing I am missing.
- SquireDante
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Re: Missing springs on newer Royal KMM?
I'm cleaning the '48 for a friend and she said it was her grandfather's, who was a journalist. Perhaps this different design was made with journalists in mind? Maybe they wanted it to withstand travel better and yet be sturdier than a typical portable. The next time I see her I'll ask if she knows anything else about the typewriter's history.
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Thread Starter- SquireDante
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Re: Missing springs on newer Royal KMM?
Oooo! I think I might have the answer. Here's a snippet from the Wikipedia page on Royal's history:
"World War II brought tremendous change to Royal. In order to aid the war effort, Royal converted its manufacturing to war work exclusively. Royal would manufacture machine guns, rifles, bullets, propellers, and spare parts for airplane engines. It wouldn't be until September 1945 that Royal would start typewriter production full-time again and not until December 1948 that Royal would catch up on its pre-war backlog."
So, my theory is that this design was quicker to make and helped them meet the demands. I'm guessing that based on the serial number, the '48 would've come in the last quarter of the year, before they caught up. What do you think? There are some other interesting tidbits about Royal if you want to read them here:
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Thread Starter- Fleetwing
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Re: Missing springs on newer Royal KMM?
Tom Furrier might know -- he keeps David McCullough's KMM tuned up!
- SoucekFan
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Re: Missing springs on newer Royal KMM?
SquireDante wrote:
So, my theory is that this design was quicker to make and helped them meet the demands. I'm guessing that based on the serial number, the '48 would've come in the last quarter of the year, before they caught up. What do you think? There are some other interesting tidbits about Royal if you want to read them here:
I don't know the exact years of all the post-war KMMs I have seen, but they typically have U-Bar springs. Both of my '48's have them.
