Hammond Multiplex

I have always wanted a Hammond, however, always either price or condition was not right. Finally I found one in local ads, and after a longer talk we settled the price to 150 EUR, which is actually a good price for this machine.

From serial number it is made in 1920, the last year Hammond Multiplex was made. It comes with original black hard leather case in good condition, and additional 6 thpe shuttles, plus two on the machine.

It has cyrilic/latin keyboard, so it allows to type, for example, in Russian as well.

What amazes me most about this machine, it is how well it is made - actually it is light years ahead of many much modern typewriters, just look at the festures.

Changing between languages takes a few seconds, just pull up the type disk, and turn it 180 degrees - now you can type in different languages

No typebar jamming - if the machine is clean, you will not have problems with typing text, it just types, nothing can get jammed there.

The print will always be the same, no matter you type hard or light, thanks to two separate typing mechanism - pressing a key releases hammer, which always strikes with the same force, no punctuation marks hit through the page.

No more platen damage during typing - platen is used only for feeding a page

Want to type from right to left - no problem, just use the switch on the machine

Shift state - much lighter than basked shifted machines, you just need to lift up type disk, which is very light.

Overall I find typing on this machine a very pleasant experience, and, comparing to another typewriters of this era, is like comparing first airplane to a spaceship...

Onion skin is an on-shelf item at Staples, Valiant. And contrary to Kat's comment, they have a number of interesting paper types as well. Last time I was there I picked up a few different types of specialty parchment paper, another pad of onion skin, and believe it or not, a package of carbon paper.

Uwe wrote:

retro wrote:

The 105 was also branded Olympia as were some other Erika machines so if you are an Olympia collector you need to be careful it is not an Erika.

That's a first for me. Not only have I never heard of an Erika being badged as an Olympia, but it doesn't even make any sense, even if only considering that Olympia was West German company and Erika was located in East Germany. Olympia did have later mechanical models produced in Japan, but those machines could never be confused with an Erika. You're not confusing Olympia with Optima by any chance?

Do you have any more information about these models? Or the time period this rebadging occurred during? Olympia produced its own portables until the late '70s and immediately after that the first Japanese models appeared.
 

Sorry Uwe for not replying sooner and I see typewriterman has already answered some of your query. When I got the Erika 105 I wanted to find out just what I had bought and I have put the link where I found out that Erika had produced machines for Olympia, Optima and quite a few others including Imperial. It seems that the Olympia Regina was an Erika model 100 and the Regina de luxe the model 105 which I presume is really the model 100 but with a tabulator. Sometimes the top cover is the same on both machines and sometimes the the whole top casing is different. There is also one Erika as typewriterman says is like the carina but I have no idea what Erika model mechanics it uses. That too is pictured on the link and somewhere else it said that the casing is the same as on the Japanese made Olympia and that Erika had supplied the plastic moulding. All very confusing but one thing is for sure, it does not type anything like my Olympia and certainly not as good as my Erika model 10. It is quite a nice machine, just not up to the standard of the the older Erika.
If you look at the link it is at the bottom of the page under anomalies.

http://xoverit.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/post-war-erikas-part-2-1965-1991_11.html
 

Uwe wrote:

Onion skin is an on-shelf item at Staples, Valiant.

Kat: OK I haven't been paper shopping at Staples (retail chain for stationery supplies and office equipment) for a very long time, so that's news to me. That means it's likely readily available in the UK too... Have you done a search?
 

Got this thing on Monday, barely had the time to post a picture but here it is!



She's an Underwood model SS or Rhythm Touch and came to me in a sad state. I bought it off of ebay and the time finally came when I would get a poorly packed typewriter. It arrived without a box but wrapped extremely well in plastic wrap. So needless to say, things got bent and broken. I'm just impressed they didn't shove it in a box because wrapping it so nicely must have taken a lot of effort. But, most things work now and I'll be posting some questions about it later. I love how easy it is to remove the carriage though. Just remove 4 screws and the whole thing comes right off! Makes accessing the escapement sooo easy.

Last edited by ztyper (03-10-2015 17:50:55)