While I'm no longer buying typewriters for myself as I have all that I need, I had agreed to buy this 1960s Imperial Messenger T (tabulator version) months ago already, and I finally received it yesterday.









The original owner had obviously taken good care of the machine. It worked from the get go and there wasn't that much cleaning to be done. It came in a brown faux leather zipper case often seen on ultra-portables of the era; but I'm not sure if I would classify this as a big ultra-portable, or a small portable. Despite the plastic shell, it feels very robust and it's rather heavy as well. The plastic they used for the shell is thick and sturdy, so it's not gonna crack as easily as the plastic used in the third gen Hermes 3000, for example.

It also came with a servicing receipt from 1984, which states that the feed rollers had been cleaned, the operation had taken 30 minutes and the cost was 62,50 Finnish markkas. In today's money that would be about 26-27 €.

It's definitely a rather unique looking design; if the British WW2 era Valentine tank was a typewriter, I think it would look something like this. Not that much can be found about them online, other than what is written here: https://oztypewriter.blogspot.com/2013/04/imperial-portable-typewriters-1908-1978_15.html. I think there is just one video on Youtube featuring this typewriter, and that is just a short clip of someone typing with one.

My Messenger only had two actual problems: A loose shift lock, which was easy enough to fix; and after that there is the loose line space selector. It doesn't render the machine unusable, but at least when using the single line option, it sometimes gives you 1½ lines instead, and this is not acceptable if I actually want to use it for serious writing.

I cannot really tell why it's so loose, and I cannot get to it as I don't know how to remove the platen. There is one set screw on the right side of the platen, and while removing that is easy enough, I'm not 100% sure what to do next. I tried twisting the platen knobs, but they don't seem to come off. They might just be stuck, and I cannot see what other way I would remove them, but I'd rather not start twisting them with full force until I'm absolutely certain that they actually come off like that, lest I crack the plastic knobs. If anyone has some information on how it's done, I would appreciate it.