I've been making a game effort today to catch up with emails. I noticed that one question which keeps cropping up concerns the problem of finding the serial number on old typewriters - particularly Smith Premiers.
By chance, I came across this page from ETCetera No 8, August 1989, which gives the location of numbers on early American typewriters. It came from Typewriter Topics of June 1912, almost 100 years ago, and was supplied by Ed Peters. (You will note the little-known Conover of 1912 is connected to the Chicago and the Munson; the Chicago was also marketed as the Baltimore, Draper [1900], Galesburg, Ohio and Yale [1906].)
Most new collectors pretty quickly find their way to Dirk Schumann's The Typewriter Database to see when their machines were made, but it seems a few have difficulties finding the serial number to check against the dates on Dirk's database. So here is the page from ETCetera, I hope it helps:
By chance, I came across this page from ETCetera No 8, August 1989, which gives the location of numbers on early American typewriters. It came from Typewriter Topics of June 1912, almost 100 years ago, and was supplied by Ed Peters. (You will note the little-known Conover of 1912 is connected to the Chicago and the Munson; the Chicago was also marketed as the Baltimore, Draper [1900], Galesburg, Ohio and Yale [1906].)
Most new collectors pretty quickly find their way to Dirk Schumann's The Typewriter Database to see when their machines were made, but it seems a few have difficulties finding the serial number to check against the dates on Dirk's database. So here is the page from ETCetera, I hope it helps:
Thanks! I now have another (one of many) reference page from your blog.
ReplyDeleteCool!
ReplyDeleteRobert, THANK YOU for this very helpful list!
ReplyDeleteAs Richard P. likes to say (paraphrased) -- and I totally agree with him -- this is the best example of the "Typosphere at Work".