I've just read the wikipedia article about the strike at all of the Remington-Rand plants in 1936-1937. Very interesting story. I am what you might call a supporter of organized labor, with a knowledge of labor history, but I had never heard of this. I went to the TWDB serial number chart for my Noiseless 10 (which I thought was from ('36 until now) and mine was made almost certainly on January 31, 1937-- during the strike. That means my machine was made by scab labor! At first I didn't know how to feel about that, like when I found out my favorite film (Dumbo) was made with scab labor. That's the only movie that makes me cry you know... Its a redemption story, like mine, poor kid had a life not entirely unlike my own. After reading about that strike, the aftermath, the effect it had on labor law, and the DESPICABLE behavior of the Rem-Rand management, I've decided that I like having a tangible piece of American labor history... I've written articles and stories for union rags over the years, I think this would be a good project, to write about this strike, on an actual machine made by men who crossed the picket lines. I'm waiting to hear back from the staff of a newspaper in Middletown, who I have sent an email. The story isn't exactly very clear.  Discrepancies I've found so far are that one source quoted Rem-Rand shutting down the Noiseless plant in Middletown, by 1940, (I know they continued making the Noiseless machines, but at the other plants?) having used the strike as a means to facilitate consolidation of production, but another saying that they continued manufacturing typewriters there? Two sources said the property was purchased by a firm called Andover Kent, one of those sources saying Andover Kent produced the typewriters, the other saying not. I haven't discovered yet what Andover Kent was, I made a modest Google search. I don't have time... I'm only stuck at home doing nothing else right now. I'm trying to fix this machine, its the only one I have in "usable" condition (meaning nothing is fundamentally wrong or broken or missing) so its my only means to type. I better get working on it... It has been great since I bought it, but is progressively and rather quickly starting to not work very very well... I'm having problems with the escapement now, I THINK, because the carriage skips with even slow typing, in 65 spaces its typically 5-8 skipped, and seemed to be in the same places-- I think. I cleaned the escapement wheel which had dried grease that was like rubber, felt around and everything seems free without play, I was sure that old grease was the problem, it was pretty bad, but didn't change anything. I recently had a small problem in the carriage binding up in one spot, it was the spring, and was fixed with a little oil. I was going to take the carriage off because I thought it was a problem in its track or something, but I didn't in the end, the spring being the culprit. So I don't think I messed anything up there... I looked through the repair manuals I have which give very comprehensive instruction for adjustments but I don't just dont have time for surgical stuff right now. And I dont really know what I'm doing; I'm learning how to work on these things as I go, I don't want to screw up my only "useable" (there goes those quotation marks again) machine. I was able to mitigate the skipping by loosening the spring drum tension-- that actually seems to be working. It cannot however pull the carriage all the way without piling. That isn't exactly a problem, it has 12" of platen, a sheet only uses the left 2/3 and it hasn't been piling there. Is that the right word, piling? It was skittering before, but seems to be getting worse. And yes, I had the platen in the carriage when testing for skipping. I think if the type bar goes too far, and the key can be depressed farther, it will want to skip. And when depressing the key completely when typing will do the same thing. I had trouble trying to adjust the spring drum. My repair manuals did not tell how to adjust it, but the Army repair manual covers the Rem. 17 which appears to have the same escapement design. The instruction to release tension was to "work the detent pawl up and down." I tried this, I got it ONE notch. I can see how that would work, working the detent pawl up and down, but nothing moves. The ratchet wheel won't move but only that one notch. I'm obviously doing this wrong... I'll figure it out. So I hooked a bit of wire onto the end of the strap, extending it a few inches. It works-- I am at the same time proud but disgusted for doing this... I'll figure it out eventually. I have an Underwood 3 that has "take me apart" written (typed) all over it. Its ugly... but complete, with viable platen rubber. I think my Royal KMM won't need but a little TLC so I'll keep the Noiseless going until I have the KMM ready and have practiced on the UW to be confident I can take my scab-built Noiseless 10 to pieces without ruining it-- I don't want to destroy such a piece of history! It does speak to the way typewriters were designed and built, one of the aspects that impresses me so much, that after 83 years, even my scab-built example is still (more or less) working. No, I haven't found any wrenches or shoes stuck in the workings...