I've been so busy picking-up and otherwise receiving donated typewriters, and servicing them, I've hardly had time to scratch myself these past few days, let alone post on this blog.
These are some of the typewriters which have arrived here since the weekend and which I will be posting about in the coming week:
Journalist Alex McGregor drove down from Sydney today to give me the typewriters he had collected but wasn't able to display at his Bondi home. They are the Remington Noiseless above, a Royal KHM (below) and a shiny black Royal Model 2 portable.
I have also been working on this Smith-Corona Coronet electric portable and a Vendex (Brother) portable, not to mention one or two other interesting machines. More on all these anon.
These are some of the typewriters which have arrived here since the weekend and which I will be posting about in the coming week:
added "Vendex" as yet another marque of Bother in the Typewriter Database. (:
ReplyDeleteThose are some great looking typewriters.
ReplyDeleteI learned a new one Vendex.
Rob, do you know if, when it says "Built in the British Empire" on the KHM, it was actually fabricated outside the USA or just assembled from parts?
ReplyDeleteRob, I read something just the other day which strongly indicated that Royals were built, not just assembled, in Toronto. I'll try and track it down and let you know.
ReplyDeleteMy very first typewriter was a Canadian-built 1939 Remington Portable Model 5 which my uncle Colin sourced for my dad in, erm, the 1960s it must have been. Since then, I have an "assembled in UK" 1929 Remington Home, a 1935 Canadian Corona Silent (a truly impressive machine to type on) and more recently Scottish and South African built Olivettis. I suppose, just like Brother in the USA, it was all to get around trading barriers or possibly to exploit cheaper labour costs. I even hear of a Corona typewriter factory in North Wales! It is funny how, when you read the provenance on the back of a machine, you start to wonder about the immense task of 'tooling-up' in a foreign land and the degree of parts vs fabrication used in their manufacture. I'd imagine that all the type casting was done in USA and Europe but who knows?
ReplyDelete"Australian Built" Remingtons were assembled in Sydney 1930-1939. It helped Remington beat tariffs-import duties and underprice competitors. After the war Glasgow-made Rems did it for them. "British Empire" (Canadian) Royals similar story. Coronoa had no agent here 1926-1939 after Underwood took over Stott and brought out its four-bank. I have Scottish, Mexican, Brazilian Olivettis, but none from South Africa. Yes, you will find on my blog a quote from Peter Tytell about Corona in North Wales - they took over the Olivetti plant in Glasgow after moving from West Brom.
ReplyDeletewonderfull old typewriter
ReplyDelete