Super, indeed. Found this week at the local Salvation Army Thrift Shop, this typer is among the smoothest-functioning and quirk-free machines in my growing collection, and all I've done is replace the ribbon.
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| Smith Corona Silent-Super, circa 1958-59 |
The color is attractive, as is the fine sandy texture. And it retains the vestigial art deco Smith Corona stripes.
It has a nifty system to anchor it within the case:
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| The lever on the left withdraws a tab from the front of the typewriter, which can then be removed from the case. |
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| Set the typewriter back in the case and it snaps into place. |
This model was re-branded and sold by Sears as the Tower Quiet Tabulator:
These are great. I have one with the same color scheme and an extraordinary Yes/No typeslug.
ReplyDeletehttp://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/scsilentsuper.jpg
What do you mean about retaining a memory of the tab setting after it has been cleared? How does that work?
Oops - after just fruitlessly looking for the non-existent Corona manual to answer your question I finally realized that I had confused the Smith Corona with a Facit 1620 that arrived the same day I brought home the Smith Corona. According to the Facit manual, it has two full sets of tabulators. Exactly how that works I've not fully checked out because the Facit has been consigned to the "dungeon" waiting attention to a non-advance-on-key-strike-issue. Otherwise the Facit is a lovely thing, looks like new.
DeleteYou might be dealing with a Frozen Facit. http://phlsphthght.blogspot.com/2013/06/mystery-solved-frozen-facit-starring.html
DeleteI've successfully fixed two this way. :)
I'm looking forward to giving this a go. Thanks Nick.
DeleteThis is the exact color scheme of my Tower Commander. Mine doesn't have the tab toggle switch thingy on the right, but is otherwise identical. My case is almost exactly the same, as well.
ReplyDeleteI should actually provide a photo:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/intron/8421406804/
I used to have one nearly identical to that; a pleasant, dependable typer.
ReplyDeleteYour S-C Silent-Super is so beautiful! They are such good typewriters. I have four of these Super 5. Enjoy
ReplyDeleteHa ha - sounds like you are obsessed with these like I am with Olympias of this vintage. I've got a couple of older Coronas and Smith Coronas, but was unaware of the S-Cs of this vintage. This lovely late 50's machine was a serendipitous discovery in the full sense of that word. Now I am hooked, and as with other machines I've taken a liking to, will be on the lookout for the same model in different color schemes or typefaces.
DeleteVery nice! The general design reminds me also of the Smith-Corona 5TE electric of the same vintage. Pretty much the same mask, but the frontispiece has two round knobs: the on-off switch and another one that seems to control how hard the types hit the platen (for manifolding).
ReplyDeleteThat is one very nice typewriter. Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteFacits, if yours is like mine, have a set of preset tabs that are set when the tab set is pressed one way or they can all be cleared and you set your own where you like by pressing the tab set the other way.
I always have loved the look of these machines. They aren't bad to type on, either. Nice machine!
ReplyDeleteOne of the best typewriters I have. Very snappy, it feels like a newer machine than it is. Nice one, Tony!
ReplyDeleteI like the look of this typewriter - it has sort of Flintstone-esque chunkiness in my view. I haven't laid my hands on one yet though.
ReplyDeleteHi, I just found your article while searching for information about the S-C Silent-Super I just bought today. It's an early model (crinkly gray finish, no 1 or + keys, serial number indicates 1953-4) but it still works flawlessly. I'm really pleased with it, though the omission of the + and = symbols is kind of bizarre considering they provided less-useful symbols like @. But it's a neat machine and it has some features I don't remember ever seeing on the typewriters I used when I was younger, such as the page-end gauge at the left end of the platen.
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