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Saturday 8 December 2012

Fancy a Typewriter Teaser? It's As Easy As ...

I know Will Davis will get this in nanoseconds. He's quite familiar with these machines, and one can see them at the Davis Typewriter Works.
Here are the clues:
*These two typewriters were made by the same company in West Germany.
*The one with the red casing is a later model, the result of a factory re-design in 1960. The re-design concentrated mainly on the plastic casing, which is quite different in shape to that of the earlier model, and on making the machine that much less expensive to produce.
*Mechanically they are almost identical, except for a few minor changes, such as the carriage lever, extra ties screwed to the top and each side of the segment on the earlier model, the right-hand platen knob, a colour selector on the front right of the later model (which might throw Will for a just split second), and plastic capstans and a simpler design for the margin setters on the later model. The later model also has a "dejammer", which operates through the margin release key.
*The studs at the front on each side of the earlier model's frame are a dead giveaway.
*They were both marketed in the US and Europe under entirely different names, although the later model may not have been all that common in the US under either name. (The earlier model is well known in that country under its US brand name.)
*None of the four names we are looking for are the same. And none of the four names incorporates the name of the manufacturer.
1. What were they called in Europe?
2. And what were they called in the US?
All will be revealed in a coming post.
FIRST-HALF WINNER: Adwoa has won the first half for Switzerland! Europe 1, US 0. I thought Adwoa would be a strong chance if she saw the post, and I reckon she will soon get the second half as well. Anyway, another piece of typewriter apparel will be winging its way to her in Geneva.

7 comments:

maschinengeschrieben said...

Princess!

Robert Messenger said...

Sorry Florian, nice try. I do have a lovely old Princess to post on soon, but this is not it.

Adwoa said...

ABC and Cole Steel!

Robert Messenger said...

Well done, Adwoa! You're halfway there! With your Kolibri variations, you should get the next half. I know it's a pain in the Neck (hint, hint).

Richard P said...

I'm guessing Neckermann is the third name. No clue about the fourth!

Robert Messenger said...

Good guess, Richard, it's a Neckermann ... The fourth name is Collegiate.

Robert Messenger said...

A Neckermann Brilliant S.