Remington Travel-Riter and Den Bosch, Holland

This nice, compact typewriter arrived a couple of days ago, with so little cushioning around the case that I feared the worst. But not only was it unscathed by the USPS, the machine that I lifted from the carton appeared as if it had somehow just emerged via a time warp from the 1950's Remington factory in Den Bosch, The Netherlands. It is that pristine.

Mid-1950's Remington Travel-Riter. The lever above the keys on the left reverses the ribbon. The lever on the far right locks the carriage. And that's it - no touch control, no bi-color ribbon.

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I'm holding the ribbon core, onto which I hooked the new ribbon, slid the core over the cylindrical fitting on the ribbon platform, and hand-wound from the plastic spool.

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Ribbon in place, and spool covers snapped on.

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Oooo! Shiny!

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Flint hard, but otherwise unscathed platten.

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Voluptuously curvaceous

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Comparative case sizes, left to right: Skywriter, Royal Futura, Olympia SM3, Remington Travel-Writer.
Travel typewriter? Not!

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Case swag included the unused guarantee card, manual, and touch-typing workbook

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Made in Holland, you say? So we go to our go-to source for pretty much all things typospheric, and find that, indeed, Remington in 1951 built a factory in the ancient fortified city of Den Bosch (The Forest) in the Netherlands. That information gave me the excuse i needed to play with one of my favorite toys. I can get lost in Google Maps and Google Earth for hours. This morning it provided me a pleasant coffee-time journey to Holland.

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Around and about in Den Bosch, The Netherlands. The wall next to the boats is part of the original fortifications of the city.

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Clearly-marked cylcing lanes are physically separated from those for motorized traffic.

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And how odd - in Holland it appears to be unnecessary when cycling to look as though one had walked through the Lycra clothing racks in a bike shop and everything stuck 

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Here in the golden, rollin', hills of California, we think "old" is something built in the 1850's. But this brick building, called De Moriaan (The Moor), was built in the 1200's

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The building was centuries old when it was included in this 1530 painting of a textile market. See the tower in the far upper right? 

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Here's a hint.

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Dat is alles voor nu!

Sacramento's Secret

It's hidden away in the industrial heart of the Sacramento metropolitan area behind chain link fences, beneath looming grain elevators and under towering seaport cranes. Yes, Sacramento, 80 miles inland from the coast has a deepwater port. But the secret is the oasis of calm in a backwater of the port's turning basin shared by two rowing clubs and a sailing club.

Lake Washington Sailing Club

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Rowers depart as the sailors arrive.

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A thistle on the hoist, and a Lido in the water

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I've heard it said that when in a power boat you are going somewhere; when in a sailboat you're already there. 

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Not the America's Cup, but nearly as intensely fought, and so much more real

Sharlet Gets Shipshape

Leaves and spiders banished and all her bits and
pieces found and cleaned, sanded, varnished,
polished, and rubbed, she is ready to create a splash.

I wrote about our 16-foot daggerboard racing sloop in a previous post. A few weeks ago she was rescued at the last minute from being replaced by a larger sailboat. With that decision made I'd resolved to spiff her up and get her back into the water. Now her beat up daggerboard has been sanded and varnished, revealing the lovely grain of the Spanish cedar. Her rub rail has been rubbed with teak oil, and a gleaming new-to-her rudder has been fitted.

So now comes the time when resolve gets tested. A final flurry of shining, fitting, screwing, and lashing has been going on the last few days in preparation for the University of California at Davis Sailing Team Benefit Regatta to be held tomorrow. The event will take place at Lake Washington in West Sacramento, about an hour's drive out into the Sacramento Valley. With a skippers meeting set at 10 am, the alarm is set for 5:15 (shudder). Will the skipper just wisely roll over conserving energy for dealing with a stack of typewriter letter writing, or spend the day comfortably sprawled on the couch catching up on the PGA Tour? Or will he roll down the driveway in the dark, coffee in hand and sailboat in tow, to spend a day on the water?
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Sails still hold their crisp newness. At least her third set. We bought Sharlet in
about 1975

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The automatically self-stowing, multi-position and fully adjustable daggerboard keeper, re-purposed from a resin spreader, is appropriately low tech.

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Nothing but the best

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Boom vang AKA kicking strap

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Harken ratchet blocks on the main and jib sheets

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A gift from sailing friend Dave Neilsen, this lightweight fixed rudder can replace the heavy and clumsy kickup rudder
when not sailing from beaches

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Good spars, still like new after 40 years.

Skywriter Tinkering

Bombarded with my typewritten letters, my older relatives (that is to say, my age) eventually start poking around for their old typewriters. And so a few weeks ago when an aunt and uncle arrived for a visit they had brought along their Smith-Corona Skywriter. I liked its compact and solid heft, and even more its typing feel. The clean sound and secure feel of the keys was impressive to me for a travel typewriter. So now I've added a couple of Skywriters to my shelf full of the little guys accumulated during my continuing search for the "just right" RV trip typer.

So you can play the "Guess-What's-In-The-Case" game I'll name them below.

A 1958 version (3Y196399) was the most fun to get back on its feet. I've always loved bringing a fine old whatsit back to life, especially if it was mechanical. This goes back to my teens when I would get first dibs at clocks collected by my mom's group for an annual charity rummage sale (Marin County's Sunny Hills Guild Rummage Sale).

As you can see, I strive for tidiness and organization. I always clear sufficient space on the workbench for the item being worked on, and never have more that four or five other projects on the bench at the same time, with their associated tools, etc.

The Skywriter comes out of its shell (mask, if you will) in tidy fashion after removing just two screws. I'd decided to do this after seeing the deep accumulation of dust bunnies and eraser crumbs. So I also removed the platten and gave the works a bath after first blasting it with compressed air. I'm wondering, though, if the blasting is a good practice - I've dislodged small springs doing this. I then sprayed it with 409 (a fairly potent household degreaser), scrubbed the crannies with a smallish stiffish brush, rinsed it in the kitchen sink filled with warm water, and dried it completely with a hair dryer. 

Although the typewriter was as pleased with itself after this treatment as a high school girl ready for a prom, a couple of the keys were still sticky. One was jamming in the gate until I reformed the typebar, the other freed up after an application of solvent to the segment. In addition, it must have suffered in transit, exhibiting characteristics of a mild concussion. The seller's eBay listing photo showed clear text, but on arrival the upper halves of the letters were absent as a result of the slugs hitting the platten too high. There was insufficient adjustment available on the lower case limit screw, but by trading it with the longer upper case limit screw I was then able to get the lower case letters to hit the platten squarely. I was able to get the upper case lined up after a bit of metal reforming - I'm guessing the machine must have taken a whack in shipment and the carriage had not been secured. 

Once back together the type looked fine. Hurray! Very satisfying. But that pleasure diminished when I discovered the absence of the bell sound. So out of its shell once again to discover that the back plate had been bent in so slightly as to be nearly unnoticeable, but enough to mess with the bell ringer. A bit more careful metal reforming, reassembly, and the result is a clean machine with very few nicks given its age, and a very pleasant looking faux leather soft carry case. Even the zipper runs smoothly once again, after the application of some car wax. 

Now typing pica cleanly and well-aligned with a fancy blue ribbon, 1958 Smith-Corona Skywriter; $59.95 including shipping from eBay

Arriving about the same time, a 1954 Skywriter (2Y258009, below) needed nothing but external cleaning and a new ribbon. No tinkering fun, but a very nice elite typeface, and that wonderful solid feel.

This 1954 elite Smith-Corona Skywriter was purchased on eBay for $54.94 including shipping. This one has the stubby return lever, like the Hermes Baby/Rocket, and a metal case. 

The green and gray color combination and the elite font make me happy. That and the nice overall solid feel and action make this one a keeper. And it might just be the top contender for our next RV excursion.

A typing sample from the 1954 Skywriter:

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OK, those typers on the shelf, left to right and top to bottom: Left pile; Royal Royalite, Lettera 32, and Triumph Tippa. Center pile; 1958 Smith-Corona Skywriter on top of two Hermes Rockets. Right hand pile, 1954 Skywriter and Olympia SF.

Oops - forgot at least one. To be revealed soon.

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Royal Futura 800

Really, I wasn't purposely out shopping for another typewriter. But my feet just sort of carried me to this shop, and how can one resist a gleaming machine for $20? Once home in its equally well-preserved faux leather case, internet research revealed that the Royal Futura 800 was a top-of-the-line machine designed for household use by Laird Covey and manufactured by Royal in 1958. A more detailed post on this machine will be found here. This machine exemplifies a period when manufacturers in general took pride in the appearance and quality of their products, and it is a pleasure to own and to use.

Among other gleaming plastic and metal bits, the bright red "Magic Margin" button reminds even the dullest of how to set the margins.

Simple, clean, and stylish

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The first time I'd met one of these - quite a classy machine

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Also the first time I'd seen a cloth ribbon in cartridges

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The keyboard-mounted auto tab button - a first. And the secret ribbon cover release.

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All and all, a decent-looking and usable machine.

The case is decent as well, other than the missing handle