Meet Ollie, the Oliver

Me 'n Ollie

That thingy that looks like a tiny pitchfork, or a saguaro cactus,
serves to indicate where the impression will be made. Although
it looks determined to commit suicide by type slug impact,
it nimbly jumps out of the way every time one heads its way.
An introduction to the many ingenious mechanisms of the Oliver.

I thought my experience of the last two days, during which I was able to bring an Oliver No. 9 to life, would be interesting to those unacquainted with this fascinating machine, and would provide amusement to those who are. That I was able to accomplish this in two days instead of two months is thanks to the fact that the machine was in pretty decent condition on arrival, to helpful YouTube videos made by Martin Rice, and to a well-made reproduction of the Oliver No. 9 operation and maintenance manual obtained from eBay. Actually, Ollie would have been typing much sooner had I not laid aside and lost track of a small bit of metal found among the packing material in the shipping box that looked more like a heavy duty staple than anything that might be part of a typewriter. "My bad", as we say these days.

But let's start at the beginning.

Compressed air took care of the dust bunnies

A quick tour

The fascinating ribbon vibrator

The carriage is easily removable and replaceable. The small knob is actually a pushbutton that releases the carriage. 

.

Two of the four bearings, more like railcar wheels, that the carriage rides on are in this photo. One is at upper left, the other lower center.

.

Here we are looking at the bottom of the carriage. In the center is the slot that the draw string hooks on to. More about that later.

.

The spring drum that provides the force to pull the carriage along its tracks. The former user had attempted to get it going with a hemp drawstring. But to no avail, as something was awry with the spring. Here i am beginning to disassemble the drum to see what's up. I soon learn that the rear carriage track must first be removed to get the drum off.

.

Aha - the inside end of the spring that should be anchored by slipping over a slot in the spindle has broken off. An easy fix.

.

And when the spring drum is back together, this screw can fine-tune the tension.

.

OK - here's where we get into the ingenious mechanism that allows the carriage to be removed without an issue with the drawstring. Remember that "staple" I set aside and lost? That is the hook on the end of the draw cord. It is captured and held by that fork as the carriage is removed. A part "sine qua non". 

.

Not finding the draw cord hook i fashioned one from some brass stock.

.

Here's my draw cord hook in its place on the end of the carriage.

.

And here it is, captured by that fork as the carriage was removed by sliding it to the right in this view. I use picture-hanging cable as a draw cord. See that pigtail the cable passes through? A kind thought by the designers that would capture the cord keeping it from flying around should things go wrong and the hook get unseated from that fork while the carriage is off. When the carriage is replaced, the tab on the top of the hook slides into its place on the end of the carriage and you are good to go. Ingenious!

.

The odd bump on the rear of the machine houses the stops for the CAP and FIG positions.

.

Here it is in neutral, i.e., lowercase, position.

.

CAPs position

.

FIG position. Amazingly solid. As is the rest of the machine. But the basic design limited typing speed, and was doomed.

.