Post(Card)-A-Day 28: Puzzled

I haven't used this in a while and just discovered it seems to have developed skipping problems - particularly on the letters "w" and "a". Pity.

This will come in handy for a rainy Sunday - the weather has been too pleasant to stay indoors for the past couple of weekends, not that I'm complaining!

I like the IKEA spoof instruction manual.

The map will come in handy even outside of the puzzle, I'm sure! I can't wait to get started and I'll post an update in a few months when we've had time to assemble it.

Post(Card)-A-Day 9: Of Sewing Machines and Typewriters

The famous Elna Grasshopper.

A Helvetia portable sewing machine, Swiss-made.

A rather ornate older model spotted at the Aarberg market - anyone know what it is?

Post(Card)-A-Day 2: Snowy Umbrellas

Visual Catalogs and Underappreciated Typewriters

Triumph Contessa, with chipped plastic well-hidden under ribbon cover.

Triumph Gabriele 10, gaily festooned with beach-themed stickers. Not sure it's helping.

Adler Tippa Script/ Cursive Portable Typewriter (1960s)

 

Strikethru's current hankering after an ultra-portable cursive typewriter got me to thinking I never did get around to introducing this one properly, so here goes:

The occasional bursts of red text in the typecast happened because I flouted this ribbon's bi-color rule and used a purple/ red ribbon. It works, mostly, but obviously the descenders on the letters print red. The typewriter was quite well-used when I received it, with some spots of rust on the bottom plate (which is metal), but other than the occasional sticky 1 key, it works nicely.

Here's my very first cursive typewriter, purchased in my eagerness to have at least one. It's a Triumph Gabriele 10, all plastic, and huge (the stickers are a last ditch attempt to relieve the drabness, but it didn't work too well). The typeface is exactly the same as its diminutive cousin, and apart from a basket shift and of course a deeper type bar arc, I don't know that there is all that much difference in how it feels mechanically. Really, which would you rather have?

My favorite shot on any machine - type slug macro.

Here it is in profile: ultra-flat. Cursive typewriters are usually hard to find in the wild, especially when no indication of typeface is made on the auctions, but if it only takes blue ribbon it's a pretty good sign. Finally, here it is in the case:

Typewriter Ephemera: Tippa Manual

One of my goals for 2011 was to post up scans of the manuals I acquired with various typewriters last year. They are mainly in French and German, but I shall put them up anyway just in case the images are helpful and educational, or for my occasional German-speaking visitors. I shall start off with the manual from our earliest Triumph Tippa, which, to refresh your memory, is this one dating from the 50s:

Triumph/Adler (and Hermes as well) produced rather elaborate pamphlet-style manuals for its typewriters, unlike the one page foldouts that other companies like Olivetti favored. At the time this manual was printed, the company was in the habit of using a cartoon bellhop to illustrate the directions. Here is the front and back page:

Werner Leipold, I would imagine, is the original owner of this Tippa, and he must have typed his name on the front page. Note the image of the just-married couple on the back page. I suppose this is meant to emphasize the ubiquity of a typewriter for every household. Or something.

The bellhop makes his first appearance here, bringing you your neatly-cased typewriter with a smart salute. He is standing next to a table of contents that tells you where each subject is addressed in the booklet - keyboard (tastatur), ribbon (farbband), etc. On the next page, he shows you how to release the carriage lock and lifts up the plastic protector in the type basket (keeps the type bars from moving during transport).

Page 4 and 5 illustrate the paper release lever as well as the line spacing mechanism and margin settings.

On pages 6 and 7, Bellhop points out the margin release key and explains backspacing, shifting, and using the shift lock and spacebar.

 Pages 8 and 9 (the middle pages, note the staple) present a full picture of the machine and illustrate the paper support and the ribbon color selector (this model takes a single color ribbon, so the only other option is stencil mode).

Here is a veritable bellhop party on pages 10 and 11, showing you how to get the paper into the machine and line it up properly.

Now, here is how you want to insert the ribbon...

And finally, this large lever here moves up the paper as you type.

I believe this last page is warranty information.


That is it for the Triumph Tippa manual. As the model changed over the years, the Tippa manual retained its pamphlet structure, but the content was modified somewhat, including instructions in multiple languages. I shall show the later ones in due course as well.

Typecast: Buy Nothing Christmas

 

 

Nice, isn't it? Completely untouched - not even so much as an initial of the original owner. This is probably what will happen to my own inadvertent agenda collection a few years hence!

 

The clerk at the thrift store was amazed that I found this and wanted to purchase it (before he did, I suppose). "Magnificent!", he said. And I wholeheartedly agree, it really is quite a cool find.

 

The pages are easy to take out because the whole book is made up of smaller leaflets stapled together, so I can take out a whole folio sheet without too much trouble. I plan to use these for typecasting.

 

The back pages have space to list one's budget and expenses, take notes, and preview the calendar for 1968. None of that address book stuff. 

Script typecast courtesy of Adler Tippa, purchased in the UK about six weeks ago: 

Adler Tippa S Black Typewriter/ Discursions on Writing

There are times when a great deal arises out of nowhere (misspelled words in the auction and blurry pictures, anyone?), and even though you really shouldn't because you have no space/ it's a plastic machine/ what is the point, you imagine the seller throwing up his hands after the auction ends and tossing the hapless typewriter out with the trash as he mutters to himself, "What the heck, no one wants this anyway."

I couldn't let that happen to her - just look how she gleams! We got this back in June, from a cheerful seller in the Italian part of Switzerland. It's your run of the mill Adler/ Triumph Tippa S, but compared to the other one I have (in white, blogged here) this one is significantly slimmer and carriage-shifted. I am not sure whether the two were made at the same time - they seem similar enough in appearance, but this doesn't have a tab feature.

 

I'm always amused by just how long the paper fingers on Adler/Triumph machines are. Just take a look. 

Anyway, we also received a special surprise with the machine: blue ribbon! Blue/ red, actually, and happily there was still quite a bit of ink left in it, which I have been enjoying using up. Otherwise, the run-of-the-mill typeface (continental elite, 11 characters per inch) would be much less entertaining.

A closer look at the blue ribbon.

For a writing sample from this Tippa S, find below the beginning of a response I wrote to Deek's question, "Why do you write?". Click here to read the rest of my post over on Type Clack.