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1 - HermesCorona3000
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Offline - Registered: 07-5-2023
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Is The Empire Aristocrat The Same As The Hermes Rocket?
Hello, I have recently bought an Empire Aristocrat typewriter and I notice it looks very similar to a Hermes Rocket/Baby and it feels like it too. Is the just a coincidence or is it a different thing.
- thetypewriterman
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- From: Leiston, England
- Registered: 29-5-2013
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Re: Is The Empire Aristocrat The Same As The Hermes Rocket?
Not a coincidence at all ! The Empire Aristocrat is the British licence-built version of the Hermes Baby/Rocket and is identical in every respect except the name. The factory in West Bromwich followed the Hermes design faithfully and every time Hermes updated the design, followed within a month or two. This continued until about 1960, when Smith-Corona bought the factory to use as an assembly plant for the Corsair. Thus the factory went from making the best featherweight portable in the world to the worst 
- HermesCorona3000
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Re: Is The Empire Aristocrat The Same As The Hermes Rocket?
Thats good to know! I am thinking of buying one for about £30.
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Thread Starter- HermesCorona3000
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Re: Is The Empire Aristocrat The Same As The Hermes Rocket?
Another one of course! A later design of it that is.
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Thread Starter- thetypewriterman
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Re: Is The Empire Aristocrat The Same As The Hermes Rocket?
The only thing with all of these - whether branded as Hermes or Empire - is that they left the factory with a relatively hard platen from new. 60 or more years down the line, those platens are usually rock-hard resulting in the typeface cutting through the paper (and the ribbon too). So budget for re-rubbered platen, which will cost four times as much as the £30 you would be paying for the machine. This advice, incidentally, applies to nearly all Hermes models, including the 3000 and Ambassador.
- Uwe
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- Registered: 12-3-2013
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Re: Is The Empire Aristocrat The Same As The Hermes Rocket?
thetypewriterman wrote:
... This continued until about 1960, when Smith-Corona bought the factory to use as an assembly plant for the Corsair.
It's worth noting that the Smith-Corona Skyriter was produced by British Typewriter in the Bromwich factory prior to the 6Y Corsair. In my records I've recorded this 4Y example as a 1962 Empire Corona, but I believe the first year for this model was 1960. I don't think the Corsair reared its ugly head until 1964.
I've always considered the Empire Corona to be a transition example of the Smith-Corona take-over period; however, was the Corona initially produced under licence too by Empire (British Typewriter), or had Smith-Corona's take-over been completed by then and it was just considering the idea of continuing to market typewriters with the Empire name? 
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- thetypewriterman
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Re: Is The Empire Aristocrat The Same As The Hermes Rocket?
As far as I know, Smith-Corona bought the Empire factory in 1960. For the first few months, they built out the last of the Hermes-based models, marketing them as Empire Corona with a blue-grey hammered enamel finish. Then they went to the Skywriter exactly as you say. These were also marketed as Empire Corona. Finally over the the Corsair-style machines, also marketed as Empire Corona for a few years until the word Empire was dropped and they were subsequently sold as Smith-Corona - secondary labelling SCM (for Smith Corona Marchant since by then they had taken over the Marchant adding machine firm) Having worked on a very few Skywriters, I can say that they were slightly better quality than the awful Corsair and its' variants. Still not exactly German quality though 
- Uwe
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Re: Is The Empire Aristocrat The Same As The Hermes Rocket?
And to think that the Corsair was Smith-Corona's response to what was being exported from Japan at the time. I can't think of a more dramatic typewriter comparison than the juxtaposition of a JP-1 with a Corsair.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- robmck
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Re: Is The Empire Aristocrat The Same As The Hermes Rocket?
So, any thoughts on the English-made 4Y Skyriter vs the US-made 3Y and earlier?
- thetypewriterman
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Re: Is The Empire Aristocrat The Same As The Hermes Rocket?
Uwe - I couldn't agree more. Although also a 'cheap' machine, the Brother is streets ahead, also Silver-Reed and Nakajima. Word has it that Smith-Corona were selling a lot of Corsairs to the British Woolworths (long ago separated from the American parent firm), and they kept driving the price down until SCM were only making £1 on each machine. One of the factors that drove SCM to the wall.
Robmck - Since I haven't seen any USA made 3Y Skywriters, I cannot comment other than to say that following the pattern of each succeeding model getting worse, the 3Y was likely to be slightly better.
