1933 Olympia 7 #187899
Status: My Collection
Hunter: Mark Schrad (MLSchrad)
Created: 01-02-2021 at 06:01PM
Last Edit: 01-02-2021 at 06:01PM
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Description:
This 1933 Olympia 7 sat around on Craigslist in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania area for a LONG time, because it was in really rough shape, and the pictures in the listing gave little hint as to what it actually was. As best I can piece together, this was a war trophy brought home from Germany after WWII. Stateside, the typewriter was professionally "anglicized," switching from German QWERTZ to English QWERTY. But instead of changing the key legends, they just placed rubber or plastic keytop cushions on top. Those cushions somehow melted over time, making the entire thing look atrocious. So I bought it in September 2019 in Ephrata, PA, and immediately got to work cleaning it, inside and out. And beneath the crusty, melty keytops were the original glass-topped German keys! The only problem now, after cleaning up the machine, is that the German key legends don't match the English key slugs. But I'm kind of okay with that.
Typeface Specimen:
Photos:
Hunter: Mark Schrad (MLSchrad)
Mark Schrad's Typewriter Galleries [ My Collection ] [ My Sightings ]
Status: Typewriter Hunter
Points: 33659
Professor of Political Science and Director of Russian Area Studies at Villanova University. Writes about alcohol politics, Russia, and international law when not refurbishing old typewriters.
RESEARCH NOTE: When researching the Olympia 7 on a computer with lots of screen real estate, you may find that launching the Olympia Serial Number page and the Olympia 7 By Model/Year/Serial page in new browser windows can give you interesting perspectives on changes throughout the model series.
