1961 Olympia SM4 #1796814

Status: My Collection
Hunter: Dan Johnson (rdj)
Created: 03-17-2014 at 05:15AM
Last Edit: 06-25-2014 at 08:13AM

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Description:

Beautifully restored by Bert Rosica who I had the pleasure of visiting. He does remarkable work and freely shared his passion and knowledge. (He does some of the restorations for mytypewriter.com.)

This bejeweled beauty is, unsurprisingly, my new favorite machine. (I say "bejeweled" because Bert even polishes the screw heads.) And I love chocolate.

Evidently this machine was manufactured the same year I was!

Edit: thanks to Uwe Wachtendorf and Brian Brumfield for correcting my earlier mis-identification of this as an SM3. The tab controls adjacent to the spacebar and the configuration of the ribbon holder/vibrator assembly are clear differentiators! (See the link below to the detailed "Stroke & Bore" article for many more details.)

Typeface Specimen:

Links:

• A detailed comparison between SM3 and SM4 at "Stroke & Bore"
• Here's a 1957 SM3 De Luxe (math with wide carriage)

Photos:

Some differences between an SM3 and an SM4: (1) addition of tab-clear lever; (2) different ribbon holder/vibrator configuration; (3) full-thickness tab key (SM4); (4) tab set control adjacent to spacebar (SM4) vs. a fixed number of discrete tab settings on rear (SM3).

Hunter: Dan Johnson (rdj)

Dan Johnson's Typewriter Galleries [ My Collection ] [ My Sightings ]

Status: Typewriter Hunter
Points: 948

I have always loved typewriters along with other kinds of well-engineered tools and devices such as slide rules, calculators (particular HP), radios, cameras (particularly Nikons), and microscopes. In addition to appreciating their intrinsic beauty and utility, they represent "things that need to be figured out to be understood". That's how I first learned about computers and programming in the 1970s, by figuring things out for myself. It's activity in which I never seem to tire of engaging.

Although communities have arisen around other collection interests, typewriters have the advantage that those who use them also typically enjoy communicating through words, whether those words are about the machines themselves or their lives, hopes, dreams, or expressions of beauty. There's much to be appreciated here.