Typewriter Talk / Adler Special

**Posted by KatLondon** 26-3-2015 06:20:02

I just got this wonderful 1962 Adler standard for a song! Really excited about it. It has rather loud clicky keys but I like that. It's looking gorgeous and imposing in the living room right now...

There are several controls on it that I can't figure out, & some cryptic sets of initials on the side buttons. The nearest-looking machine seems to be the Adler Universal, but as Richard Polt has pointed out, I think the Special is a sort of Universal-lite... He has a great post where he talks about the workings, but suffice to say that I can't get the margins or tabs to do anything at all. Not only is there no manual online, there isn't even an example on the Typewriter Database - it seems not to be a very common machine! Does anybody have any experience of this one?

There's more; I'll add a type sample later.

Last edited by KatLondon (26-3-2015 08:24:45)

**Posted by beak** 26-3-2015 07:49:19

But I just read the page you linked to, and it seems to explain the functions - am I missing something? - I often do!

Nice machine! I have an Adler big office job on my wish-list too.

Last edited by beak (26-3-2015 07:52:56)

**Posted by KatLondon** 26-3-2015 08:24:11

Hi, yeah it does - and it isn't working! So annoying. So if anyone has any lore or tips I'll beall ears.

By the way, when my other half came in last night he looked at that machine sitting there and said: 'That's rather special'. HA.

**Posted by Uwe** 26-3-2015 13:42:20

Fantastic looking standard!

I really do like Adler machines. It's a shame that the paper injector handle is missing (at least it looks to be missing), but I'm sure that doesn't effect its function. More photos please!

**Posted by WIWriter** 26-3-2015 18:12:21

Lovely looking machine. Very modern to my eye, despite being, well, a typewriter

I have yet to get hands on any Adler, but I've got a Tippa on the way!

**Posted by KatLondon** 26-3-2015 19:14:34

WI, I have a little 1972 orange Tippa and it is completely different form this one! The body is plastic - it is really cute but plastic. And the action is completely different; the keys are nice to use, but feel sort of spongy, instead of crisp and definite; there is a lot of give, whereas with this one it is very clean and a bit clacky. In a good way, but I can see how if you had a headache you might not like it so much...

Uwe, more tomorrow!

Last edited by KatLondon (29-3-2015 08:59:57)

**Posted by KatLondon** 29-3-2015 07:53:21

Hi Uwe, okay it's not tomorrow any more but I have cleaned the Adler properly now and taken some pictures for you... Can I just say one thing I really hate is how all these machines are just coated in nicotine. It's disgusting. The keys on this one were foul, and even after I thought I'd got them clean with loads of Q tips I discovered that the BACKS of them were yellow-black with the stuff. Ugh.

Anyway, this first picture demonstrates that there's no automatic paper feed on this model. It's like a sort of Universal-Lite, I think. On the right side of the carriage we have the little lever that sets margins and tabs, and a fat plastic carriage return lever. (I have got the margin set working now, on PART of the run - Basically, lashings of meths to the metal teeth or bars that act as margin stops - I can't get right in under the middle, though, except lightly with a brush; that might be what's happening. And I've not yet managed to get the tabs to do anything. But I have margins which is a relief!)

Other than that it all seems pretty straightforward. I'm really struck by how this machine seems sort of like a normal typewriter but on something like a 1:1.5 scale. It's all just kind of the same as others but BIG. I love it. Even the SG3 which is a lot bigger than this doesn't seem like that - it's hard to explain... Anyway, here are some more pictures.

You can see the Hermes 2000 in the background there... here's the keyboard.

And the basket.

I have to say, I bought this one for its looks, and I am in love with it. It was so cheap I practically bought it without even thinking; it was just a question of how to lug it and where to put it. I never expected to like it THIS much!

To avoid duplication I'm putting the type sample over on Beak's type samples thread.

Last edited by KatLondon (29-3-2015 08:02:12)

**Posted by ztyper** 29-3-2015 08:23:07

Agh... I'm so jealous! My collection lately has sorta plateaued, and even reduced since I sold the Underwood Touch-Master 5. And you have an Adler, which I have always wanted. But Americans only like to buy American made things, so there's only a bunch of Remingtons, Royals, and Smith-Coronas (and Olympias. It's weird). But I have a feeling that I'll find something like your Adler soon...

P.S. Very nice machine! How does it type? Like an Olympia? Or something totally different? I'd love to know what another German machine feel like

**Posted by beak** 29-3-2015 08:46:10

Nice thread. I really must get one of these big Adlers!

**Posted by KatLondon** 29-3-2015 09:11:47

WI, here is a picture of my Tippa...

It's a kind of lifestyle shot that I did for Facebook, since it was a friend of mine who gave it to me - it was hers in college - and I wanted her to know I was using it!

And ztyper, well the Special doesn't feel the same as an Olympia - and the Tippa is nothing like - but it is just as fast and nippy. I think I still love the Olympias more, across the line, but this one is wonderful. I had a chance to bid on a portable version of this - bigger than a Tippa, maybe SM3-sized - that was starting at £10 with no other bids, but I was so busy the day it ended that I couldn't do it at the right time, and the guy has relisted it (quite rightly, fair enugh) for £35. They would have made such a gorgeous pair! And I think that one would have had the same sort of action as this, unloike the Tippa that is ten years later and a much different machine (& made for a much different market & in a different climate).

Funnily enough, over here it's the Royals and the Underwoods that you can;t so easily get... but bizarrely, Hermes seem cheaper and more available over in the US too. Get that...

Beak, even from what I know of you I know you would LOVE a big AdlerI