Typewriter Talk / Japy Personnelle

**Posted by Uwe** 03-2-2016 20:05:46

Fantastic information, many, many thanks for that, Tom! However, I'm not clear on the actual difference between the ribbon used by Hermes and say, Olympia. Is it the spools that you're referring to, or the actual ribbon itself, because I've used the same ribbon in machines by both manufacturers.

**Posted by thetypewriterman** 04-2-2016 17:18:07

The quick answer is that the Olympia takes Group 1 ribbon and the Hermes takes Group 12 ribbon. That answer is fine for the UK but for the rest of the world........ Yes, both ribbon fabrics are the standard 13mm (half inch). The Olympia fabric has no reversing eyelets. The Hermes fabric has. The Olympia Spool is 54mm diameter with a 5mm centre hole and three drive holes. The Hermes spool is 51mm diameter with a 4mm centre hole and six drive holes. The Hermes spool will also fit an Underwood Five for instance. I know that other countries have different reference numbers for spools than the UK, so I thought it best to describe the spools instead. If you look here : http://thetypewriterman.co.uk/supplies.html you can see some pictures.