Salutations Typospherians, Between myself, Darling and a shiny new ribbon, the Oliver No. 3 that I have dubbed 'Gargoyle' now flies again. Here are her first words in who knows how long.
I must admit, I'm really in love with this typer, and it isn't simply her devilishly good looks (Prada, eat your heart out). The type action is actually much lighter than on my Remington, so I don't have to smash the keys into oblivion just to get a little ink on the paper. She's a beast and needs no coaxing to slam straight through two pieces of paper on her own accord. Even with a light touch, she does this, which reminds me I really must do something about that platen. The nice thing about this wickedly snappy action, however, is I need push no harder on her antiquated keys than I do on my new laptop.
I think she must have been dropped on her head at one point, or had something very heavy placed on top of her, as the alignment is all sorts of out of whack, typearms were bent, ribbon covers were bent and the spacebar is broken off on the right side. All but the spacebar are now fixed, and the break isn't affecting the action at all. She's one deliciously spooky looking machine and I feel I'm channeling Igor at his pipe organ when I type on her! Some more artistic edits of photos of Gargoyle to leave you with as I sign off. Enjoy!
Great job getting it up and running. Occasionally, I will bring out my 9 or 2 and have a go with them. Oliver's are great looking machines, and, when working properly, a hell of a typewriter. Yours seems to be in great condition, despite the few things you found wrong with it. The decals look great!
Thank you Ken! It really was all just minor things keeping it from working. The more I play with it, the more I love it. The decals are in really good shape, as is most of the paint. It's really just the rubber bits (platen, feet) that really need any work.
You have a No. 2!? Got any photos? I don't think I've ever even seen a 2! I do love the 9's though; catching a glimpse of one of them is what sparked my Oliver worship.
For all the things wrong with it, it looks good and seems to work quite well! You're quite lucky. I have a piece of crap Oliver 7 I cannot do anything with. In my house right now are a working 9 and a perfect little PrintType 7 that belong to a friend, they even have cases! Eventually I will blunder into one, or perhaps buy the 9 from my friend.
Thanks Mark! Aww, what's wrong with your 7? Would it be worth getting another and combining the two into a working machine? I haven't seen a whole lot of 7's available, so I don't know the feasibility of that.
Wow, they even still have cases, huh!? I have a 5 on its way with an original case...and I'm scared to death. The seller assured me it will be well-packed, but we shall see. It even has correspondence from two previous owners! AND a service manual!
Hopefully you'll decide to buy that 9 from your friend. It was the Oliver 9 that made me fall in love with thease beasties to begin with!
She lives indeed! I need to get a good CD of pipe organ music to play in the background as I type with her!
I thought the poem fitting; something in it really resonated, especially with the fate of so many glorious old machines. For one to come back from oblivion and be able to type a poem like that flies in the face of the typewriter mutilators and those who deem them too defunct to be relevant in the here and now. Additionally, I enjoyed it so much I'm thinking of making it a weekly thing; pick a well-known poem, type it out on one of my [ever growing population of] working machines, and post it.
Thank you very much! Display has been a big part of my job description for the better part of my working life, and display and photograph was part of that for a little over a year. The collages were all done on photobucket; their editing software has evolved by leaps since I last used it. And I do like to waste countless hours, playing with the look of photos. It's great fun and feeds my OCD, hahaha.
*both thumbs up* You and I seem to be on the same wavelength. I've been conjuring poems. Nothing as fantastic as yours, but maybe the poem will see daylight soon. Heh.
I wish I could lay claim to that as my own writing; I can do free verse fine, but rhyme and cadence without fail trip me up. Maybe by typecasting a classic poem a week it'll aid me in creating my own poetry.
Take care and I'm anxious to see what you've been kicking round in your head, poetry-wise!
So happy you finally got your Oliver #3, and am ecstatic she's up and purring for you! When I can't get you on the phone I'll know who has your undivided attention.
Hahaha, thank you! I do still have a couple bugs to work out with it, like setting the margins and training it to not eat the paper! I had to retype this three times before I figured out how to get it to stop tearing the paper up. I can certainly see why these were the machine of choice for manifolding (creating multiple copies at once with carbon paper) because the action of the typebars is heavier than any machine I've ever used. You know you're having fun when things keep 'walking' off of your desk while your typing...because the action on your typer is so heavy that it bounces stuff off!
Great job getting it up and running. Occasionally, I will bring out my 9 or 2 and have a go with them. Oliver's are great looking machines, and, when working properly, a hell of a typewriter.
ReplyDeleteYours seems to be in great condition, despite the few things you found wrong with it. The decals look great!
Thank you Ken! It really was all just minor things keeping it from working. The more I play with it, the more I love it. The decals are in really good shape, as is most of the paint. It's really just the rubber bits (platen, feet) that really need any work.
DeleteYou have a No. 2!? Got any photos? I don't think I've ever even seen a 2! I do love the 9's though; catching a glimpse of one of them is what sparked my Oliver worship.
They really are built like battleships!
Thanks again!
For all the things wrong with it, it looks good and seems to work quite well! You're quite lucky. I have a piece of crap Oliver 7 I cannot do anything with. In my house right now are a working 9 and a perfect little PrintType 7 that belong to a friend, they even have cases! Eventually I will blunder into one, or perhaps buy the 9 from my friend.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mark! Aww, what's wrong with your 7? Would it be worth getting another and combining the two into a working machine? I haven't seen a whole lot of 7's available, so I don't know the feasibility of that.
DeleteWow, they even still have cases, huh!? I have a 5 on its way with an original case...and I'm scared to death. The seller assured me it will be well-packed, but we shall see. It even has correspondence from two previous owners! AND a service manual!
Hopefully you'll decide to buy that 9 from your friend. It was the Oliver 9 that made me fall in love with thease beasties to begin with!
She lives! What a perfect poem for her to type.
ReplyDeleteI like your artistic photo arrangements.
She lives indeed! I need to get a good CD of pipe organ music to play in the background as I type with her!
DeleteI thought the poem fitting; something in it really resonated, especially with the fate of so many glorious old machines. For one to come back from oblivion and be able to type a poem like that flies in the face of the typewriter mutilators and those who deem them too defunct to be relevant in the here and now. Additionally, I enjoyed it so much I'm thinking of making it a weekly thing; pick a well-known poem, type it out on one of my [ever growing population of] working machines, and post it.
Thank you very much! Display has been a big part of my job description for the better part of my working life, and display and photograph was part of that for a little over a year. The collages were all done on photobucket; their editing software has evolved by leaps since I last used it. And I do like to waste countless hours, playing with the look of photos. It's great fun and feeds my OCD, hahaha.
*both thumbs up*
ReplyDeleteYou and I seem to be on the same wavelength.
I've been conjuring poems. Nothing as fantastic as yours, but maybe the poem will see daylight soon. Heh.
Thanks Nat!
DeleteI wish I could lay claim to that as my own writing; I can do free verse fine, but rhyme and cadence without fail trip me up. Maybe by typecasting a classic poem a week it'll aid me in creating my own poetry.
Take care and I'm anxious to see what you've been kicking round in your head, poetry-wise!
So happy you finally got your Oliver #3, and am ecstatic she's up and purring for you! When I can't get you on the phone I'll know who has your undivided attention.
ReplyDeleteG.W.
Hahaha, thank you! I do still have a couple bugs to work out with it, like setting the margins and training it to not eat the paper! I had to retype this three times before I figured out how to get it to stop tearing the paper up. I can certainly see why these were the machine of choice for manifolding (creating multiple copies at once with carbon paper) because the action of the typebars is heavier than any machine I've ever used. You know you're having fun when things keep 'walking' off of your desk while your typing...because the action on your typer is so heavy that it bounces stuff off!
DeleteYep, I'm hooked!