Matt129 wrote:

My fox model 3 (I incorrectly called it a 4 in a different post) has a rather odd bell placement. Unlike literally every Fox I’ve found online, the bell is mounted on the front underneath the lever for the ribbon control??? This is very odd from what I can tell. I can’t find another Fox with the bell mounted in this spot, is always in the back. Is this normal???

I’ve done some digging, and it would seem that since they moved the bell placement to the back in 1902 according to old advertisements, and since the model 3 wasn’t manufactured until 1901, it is a super early 1901 Fox 3. Probably one of the first 1000 ever made if not 100, I’ll nail down exactly which one at some point but I need to do some more digging lol. It is so early in fact, that it bears more similarities to the Fox model 2 than the 3 in its design and feature set. Does being this early of a machine make it much more valuable than a typical No. 3 Fox? I mean this version must be rare, I can’t find a single picture of an actual machine online, and spare for a few advertisements from the time of production there is no record it even existed. Heck, this machine is older than The Fox No. 3 the Smithsonian has 🤣

robmck wrote:

Side note: Since you've got some early machines, are you aware of this: ETCetera Online - The Early Typewriter Collectors' Association (etconline.org)? A few issues back, Tony Casillo wrote about starting up a monthly-ish virtual meeting of early typewriter collectors. I've never joined in, so I'm not sure if it's still going on.

I’ll have to look into that! Sounds interesting.