I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest it might be a mechanism for mounting and using a carbon ribbon as an alternate to the fabric one. This was a nice feature on higher-end office typewriters of this era. Is there a similar mechanism on the other side? (It won't be identical, since carbon ribbons only go through one way and are discarded after traveling to the take-up spool.)

Also, check out this exposé for more info:
<http://typewriterdatabase.com/1984-facit-1740-nos.2636.typewriter>
and you might corresond with the owner.

HTH and Have Fun!

Uwe wrote:

I have an 1820, and as Michael suggested, it's for the carbon ribbon system. The lever, when moved to the right, places tension on the driver roller in the ribbon feed mechanism. If you don't have any carbon ribbon for the machine then it's nothing that you have to worry about. 

My 1820:


An overview of the carbon ribbon system. You can see the lever you're asking about on the left and the carbon ribbon/film that passes through the feed mechanism behind it:


Here's the take up spool for the carbon ribbon, which is missing from your machine:


A little difficult to see, but the ribbon path showing the lever can be seen in the top yellow sticker:

Great info, thanks.

I've just picked up a Facit 1820. I think it's excellent, as electrics go. I don't like the motor noise, and the tabulation doesn't work, but apart from that it's fairly incredible. The platen is soft, it prints very nicely even with the ink ribbon, and even better with the carbon ribbon, and, by far, I can type faster on this than any other typewriter.

In spite of it taking up more room than my other typewriters, I can't imagine ever getting rid of it unless the motor dies or something similarly terminal.

How do you like yours, e.g. do you have other electrics that you prefer?
 

Uwe wrote:

I have around thirty electric models, and since I love using all of them I don't have any real model preferences with respect to their performance. However, when judged using a more subjective standard such as a machine's aesthetics, there are definite favorites. 

I'm a bit surprised to find myself saying that I think this one is really pleasing to the eye as well as very satisfying to use. I'm even tempted to give it a paint job, as it's a bit rough around the edges, and it's more the size and shape that's growing on me rather than the colours.

I've also just realised tonight that the tab bar isn't broken - it's got a sort of half-press mode. So long as you half-press it, it will reliably stop at the next tab stop. Press it in all the way and it will skip past any stops while it's pressed in. Press it in all the way very briefly, and it will keep going until the next tab stop. Quite clever really and I've now got a feel for how to reliably get a half-press.

I've also realised how to use the two type bar force adjusters (no idea what the proper name is?) on the right - so I can get a good range of light to dark type. I guess the idea is they can be used to compensate for a fading ribbon, plus perhaps more likely different thicknesses of sheets, and number of carbon copies?

Anyway can I ask if yours makes a heck of a crashing sound each time the carriage reaches the end of its return? I think this may be normal - I found a video on YouTube where someone with the same/similar model was using his and it seemed to be similarly harsh. I'm sort of tempted to open it up and see if I can cushion the stopping a bit, but if it's like that by design then I'll leave it. It's certainly nice having an extremely fast return, it complements its ability to type very fast indeed. I can really fly with this thing.

I too have become a fan of the Facits, but finding much in the way of information on these typewriters can be difficult at best.

Uwe obviously provides a great contrast to the above statement.