Typing on the Maritsa

Latest machine in the collection.

Selling typewriters (3)

Some more adverts from public domain sources.

Talking another telephone

The latest arrival in the collection of junk retro office equipment is this telephone. Now this may look like the dialphones i have already got but is in fact a GPO 706L! In future posts i will explain the differences between this and my 746s.

Busicom ribbon

My Busicom 1210PD is a fine desktop calculator with a working printer... well it made a noise anyway but because the ribbon was completely spent i couldn't be sure on that score. I have fitted a new ribbon to the calculator, a pretty simple operation to be honest and can happily report that the printer works very well. Black and red ink is available, and it also prints lozenges!

Mysterious keys (11) : More margin-release variants

As we have seen earlier, there are a number of different ways which typewriter manufacturers denoted a key as being for margin-release, to let the margins be overrided. Here are two more variants.

The Triumph-Adler Tippa uses a simple double-ended arrow to show that the margins can be exceeded. A nice solution though perhaps some ambiguity for new users.

The Adsit Graduate though has decided to keep it as simple and straight forward as possible and just mark a key with M-R!

Typing on a Leader II

Typing on a Leader II, this video was recorded before the typewriter received a new ribbon, which will be documented here soon!

Lloytron Accumatic 320

The latest calculator to join the collection is this jolly piece of beige and black. A Lloytron Accumatic 320 to be exact and it seems to work well with it's VFD display. The calculator is pretty feature rich with a few extra mathematical functions such as square roots to go along with the basic four arithmetric functions.

A look at the Maritsa 30

Let's take a look at the latest typewriter to join the collection, a Maritsa 30. It is a late 1980s machine with a plastic body. An unusual feature is that access to the ribbon requires removing two pieces of cover plate not one which is a bit of a faf. The typewriter is a good looking machine though, with a nearly new feel to it. The case is rather nice, making the typewriter look like an old microcomputer!

Operation wise it isn't bad. The keys are a little stiff but this may improve with more usage. The ribbon is nearly completely worn out, just a little bit of red ink remains. We will look to get a new ribbon later in the year.

Desert island typewriters

I was thinking, if i was ever marooned to a desert island and could choose just three typewriters to take with me, what would i pick?

The Brother Deluxe 1350 would of course have to be the first pick. It was the first typewriter i ever bought and is still going strong, indeed it is one of the better machines in the collection.

Next would be my Olympia Olympiette, my favourite typewriter of all. It works pretty well (maybe not quite as good as some others i could choose) but there is no way i would not pick this machine for my exile.

So, those two picks were easy, what about the third? I think it needs to be a solidly built and reliable machine, which means one of the Silver-Reed type portables of which i have quite a few, including re-branded examples. So, the third typewriter i would take on my exile would be my Silver-Reed SEVENTY which is a superb little typewriter that still looks brand new.

So, what would you choose?