Typewriter Ephemera: Remington Junior/ No. 3 User Manual (German)

 

It is not often that I censor myself for the blog. Anything I think up and type is immediately scanned and posted - after all, typing is hard (and occasionally deafening!) work. Other than the letters I send to fellow typospherians who kindly write to me, pretty much everything I compose on a typewriter ends up here as a typecast. 

This weekend, though, after having spent several hours composing a lengthy essay about my thoughts on copyright infringement and fair use, especially as pertains to a recent incident involving this blog, I re-read my work and thought better of it. Too long, largely unnecessary, and not as positive in spirit as I would like to keep this space. 

So I shall keep that to myself for now and share with you a partial scan of the manual that came with my Remington Junior (hopefully, this qualifies as fair use!). 

 

This manual is actually intended for a Remington Portable No. 3, which my Remington Junior is a variant of, only with fewer features. Although I don't speak German and understand little of it, I absolutely love the old-timey illustration style, which for some reason call to mind the old Home Economics textbooks I looked through as a child.  

 

My own Remington Junior has the decal on the paper table, and the keys are black with white lettering. This No. 3 is exactly like the one I left behind at the flea market a couple of weeks ago (she says, with a twinge of regret). 

 

I did briefly consider getting the No. 3, if only to make up for "deficiencies" in my Junior like the lack of a right-hand carriage release lever, but it hardly seemed worth the trouble of keeping a virtually duplicate machine just for that.  

 

I find the Remington Portables in general to be quite well-made and very nice to write with. I have a No. 1 I have been neglecting for a while, ever since Georg gave it to me last summer, but that is only because I am considering a paint job for it and would like to finish that before showing it off.  

 

Most of these pictures depict a Swiss-German keyboard, a remarkable level of personalization for a machine that was bought in Zurich. 

 

The shop where this was purchased, Anton Waltisbühl & Co. in Zurich, seems to have been a major distributor for Remington Portables in Switzerland. Eight out of ten - that I have seen, including the flea market find - bear the label.

 

I like that even for the German manual, they retain their original English motto for the typing sample: "To save time is to lengthen life", it reads. 

Post(Card)-A-Day 27: A Yost No. 20 Sighting; and Others

 

The Yost, in all its unrestored glory. This is a pretty rare and special machine, and Will Davis featured the one owned by Angie Jimenez on his site a few years ago. Looking at the pictures of that one, you get some sense of the potential for restoration here, but it would take a far stronger (wo)man than I.

 

100 years old, and not afraid to show her age. Just 50 francs! Any takers? Although if recent history is any indication, it will not be there when I return next week. Some new collectors in the region, perhaps.

 

Remington Standard No. 12.

 

"Built to last", Alan Seaver says. I can certainly believe it!

 

Hermes Baby, with the right platen knob sadly broken. Although not beyond repair, I would think.

 

Swissa Junior - pica typeface.

 

Oho! What have we here, lurking between a couple of refrigerators?

 

A Hermes Media 3, just like the one I found a few weeks ago.

 

And an accompanying Hermes 3000 from the same era. Both with pica typeface.

 

I don't know if I've seen grimier typewriters - perhaps these two were moonlighting as chimney sweeps?

Post(Card)-A-Day 22: Typewriter Market Resurgence

Flea market typewriter sightings:

The No. 3 has a ribbon color selector and a few other features not on the Junior, but other than those and the white keys, it is virtually identical, wouldn't you say? In fact, both typewriters were distributed by the same shop in Zurich.

The Remington Travel-Riter.

Here, the Burroughs adding machine that was our first sighting of the day.

 

One I had almost forgotten about, a large standard-size Triumph (from the Gabriele era) labeled Special.

Update: Remington Re-Shod

This lacks the glamor of the previous post, but I just wanted to re-assure my readers, and especially Rob, that I had found a solution to the squished feet previously in evidence on the Remington. Now to fix that decal...

Typosphere Must-Have?: Remington Noiseless Model Seven

A good look at how the typebars flatten out in the middle and taper at either end of the arc. I should also add that I like the typeface; it might be regular pica-sized, but it's got a little something - the numbers are rather elegant, for example. I also fitted a purple and red ribbon, not that it shows up all that well in the typecast...

 

Good thing I left this decal alone - it is well-preserved, wouldn't you say? Those feet, though... I have some potential replacements knocking about in a drawer around here; I'll give it a try soon and let you all know how it goes.

There is no bad angle to photograph this Remington Noiseless 7! Here it is right side up...

...and here, upside down. Looks pretty good to me :-). 

Ideally I would locate some car wax to really clean and polish it, but we're not doing too badly with just a bit of elbow grease.

Swiss Type-In Souvenir: Remington Junior (c. 1936)

 

I never thought I'd be drawn to these gleaming black metal typewriters, but here we are. Far cry from the candy-colored Annabellas and ABCs of yore, but very attractive in their own right.

Type-bar macro shows that some cleaning is order (maybe even overdue!), but it hasn't gotten bad enough to affect the quality of the text produced... yet.

Sticker from dealer in top of case, and a couple of pages from the user manual.

A careful eye will spot a few of the mechanical "shortcomings" I listed as peculiar to this Remington Junior: no right-hand margin stop and no right-hand carriage release lever.

I was quite happy that the handle of the case had survived intact all these years, a good indication that the typewriter had been quite well-preserved.

Gratuitous typewriter pr0n :-)