Umm, not surewhether to thank you, or fu...

I did mention I never had any lessons, and apprecitate the reply. I couldn't find any reference to the bell anywhere, but now it makes sense if I'm correct in assuming that the exact purpose for the bell; is for those 'touch typists' and secreataries who are looking aside at the source, rather than at the machine? 

As for the Bell, I am making small ajustments, to be easy on 120 year old wire and welds. Also not sure how loud it was supposed to be. Similar to the sad fact we will never experience that 'new car 'smell and ever feel the machine when it was factory new.  They must've typed so beautifully.  

The bell was, and is, supposed to be loud enough that the typist notices it in the work environment. Yes, a touch typist does not depend on watching the paper. As Uwe notes, a typist would be familiar with her or his particular machine and know the  character count between the bell and the hard margin stop (which could still be overridden with the Margin Release. These things were very well designed and as you note, beautiful to type on, even today when they are in good condition.).

I don't get the "fu..." reference, though. Thanks would be enough and not even required.

I've had a number of typewriters with feeble bells. The most common cause (for me) was a stem which left the clapper (striker) touching the bell after the strike, which damps the vibration.  As M. Hohne says, inspection normally reveals the cause, particularly on older typewriters with open frames. I've dealt with several I was not able to fix. For pages and pages it's a deal killer, but if you just want to write a letter you can cock a weather eye at the page and get a peripheral feel for how close you are. When the bell works I've learned to overcome the temptation to squeeze in just one more word -- as if the paper were platinum or something. Now I return as soon as possible to avoid time wasted with margin release. Typewriter bells never seem to get louder with age - must be some facet of the second law of thermodynamics - they always get feebler or stop working altogether. 

 

Thank you all for your input and advice. Frankly I don't ever see myself getting the skills of a touch typist. I use random fingers on keys and very much need to see them to type. Not a big deal in what is admittedly a dying, or more accurately a lost art with no real marketable value, and I can type fairly quickly on an ealry machine, so it's fine as it's a quaint hobby. Typing is something most people don't even think of or if they do, get. Those of us who discover or redsicover them, get the allure, but most people, not so much.