1 - KatLondon
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- Registered: 11-10-2014
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Rather interesting Royal HH
So I've collected this beat-up Royal machine that's been slowly going down in price for the past three weeks or so... I finally succumbed last night with 13 minutes to go, changed my mind, & got it for £12. The keys are all completely white, it's filthy; there's a dead daddy-longlegs inside the ribbon cover. The keys and carriage don't exactly work QUITE as well as he said they did... It's been in the garage for 15-20 years. The seller said he'd been hoping to get more for it and kept assuring me that it USED to work!
I just explained that it's an equation with these machines - big and heavy - need lots of attention, frankly it's a bit of a punt - & eg I've spent a good 2 hours going to collect it... I could barely lift the suitcase onto the bus! (Fortunately the buss I'm now on goes to the end of my road. It's just the four flights up I'm slightly dreading.)
Anyway, I got down the road and stopped in a little park, and opened my suitcase to have a look. Took a bit of coddling to coax the carriage to move enough to get to the serial number - and when it did, I found that it was made in 1954. Okay. But I was puzzled by the prefix: not HHP, or pica, which I'd been expecting to see, but HHS.
I was puzzling over this while I got out my piece of paper; there was just enough ink in the ribbon to do a faint type sample; and blow me down.
Well - obviously - it's S for SCRIPT. But not cursive: it does italic CAPS. Large caps and small caps, all italic.
Nearly home now. I'll get it cleaned up and see if I can't post up a type sample.
Last edited by KatLondon (25-5-2015 15:31:20)
- Spazmelda
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Re: Rather interesting Royal HH
Very cool and nice luck! Can't wait to see it!
- Uwe
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Re: Rather interesting Royal HH
KatLondon wrote:
I was puzzled by the prefix: not HHP, or pica, which I'd been expecting to see, but HHS.
Well - obviously - it's SCRIPT. But not cursive. It does italic CAPS: large caps and small caps, all italic.
The 'S' doesn't stand for script. My guess is it stands for special, or something similar to denote that the machine is equipped with a typeset that is neither elite nor pica.
My HH is a HHE, and has elite size type. The HHP you mentioned would be stamped on a machine with pica size type. I've seen a number of HHS and FPS models over the years, and they all had different typesets from one another, so the 'S' doesn't represent one specific typeface. Based on your description it sounds like the machine you just bought has a double gothic italic typeface.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- KatLondon
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Re: Rather interesting Royal HH
Ah, interesting abot the different S'es. 'Special' sounds about right. I was thinking about this on the bus home, because it's actually not a script... And I knew it wouldn't be an 'e', because I could see on the picture that the numbering looked pica-sized.
As for 'Double gothic italic', this is very much a serif typeface, so just 'double italic' - unless the word 'gothic' is being used in some specialised way here - and in fact it doesn't really look like a proper italic, either - it's more like just oblique caps.
At the moment the carriage return lever is completely gunged up, well everything is - not surprising consideing the seller was telling me: 'It just needs some oil'. I said it needs CLEANING and he reiterated that it just needed some oil! Now I've poked around I can definitively say that what it needs is something to CUT the oil. 
But a little surprised, if he had used the machine etc, that he never thought to mention this typeface.
Any ideas what it was used for? Headers, &/or announcements, I'm thinking...
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Thread Starter- Uwe
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Re: Rather interesting Royal HH
Royal had been using that typeface (pending confirmation of an actual type sample of course) for a few decades by the time the HH was introduced. Apparently, and this is solely based on the opinions of others because I'm not a typographer, it offered superior legibility. I doubt that it was meant for such specific uses as headers or announcement cards; who would have bought an expensive standard for such a limited use?
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- dukedford
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Re: Rather interesting Royal HH
The S in HHS dose mean special if you look in the center of the type face there will be a number or letters and that will give type face. If you type about 20 characters then mesure an inch and count the number of characters in the inch that will give you the pitch.
Last edited by dukedford (29-5-2015 17:24:51)
- KatLondon
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Re: Rather interesting Royal HH
Hi Duke, you can also tell the pitch by measuring the number of spaces er inch on the paper bail.
Uwe, the machine is still not quite playing ball - I've got deadlines the next couple of days and will then pull it out for another go... I'm going to have to try to revive the ribbon, too - I don't yet feel like giving it an all-new one! It's an awful lot of winding and unwinding for something that may not work too well.
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Thread Starter- Uwe
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Re: Rather interesting Royal HH
the machine is still not quite playing ball
Stick with it. I'm sure you'll bring it around. Some machines stumble into the light after their long hibernation and just need a little help to find their former rhythm.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- KatLondon
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Re: Rather interesting Royal HH
I did just revive the ribbon with some 3-in-1, at least temporarily. Tried it out. It does need more TLC, everything is stiff, but I've just remembered what the main thing was that I discovered the other day - the ribbon isn't turning. Neither spool seems to turn. I think there's a massive job of trying to get the sides off to get access to the spool mechanism...
So the type sample may take a bit of time!
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Thread Starter- Fleetwing
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Re: Rather interesting Royal HH
Just catching up to this thread. I'm very interested to see an example of the typeface -- hope the spool mechanical issues are not proving insurmountable!
(I had not heard of 3-in-1 Oil as a way to rejuvenate a ribbon; may have to give that a try.)
