1946 Royal Quiet De Luxe #A-1253345

Status: My Collection
Hunter: Dan Johnson (rdj)
Created: 03-15-2014 at 04:19PM
Last Edit: 03-17-2014 at 07:14AM

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Description:

This is in beautiful cosmetic shape with crisp, fluid movements. You can see from the typeface example that there seems to be an issue with alignment of the type bars. I don't yet know whether or how that can be adjusted or whether it is due to some other defect*.

At first, typing was unusually noisy with an extra "clang" sound with each keystroke. I quickly figured out that the type bar damper (if that's what you call it, or resting tray) was missing from its metal tray beneath the hammers. I fixed this easily with a properly-cut strip from a sheet of dense foam rubber that I had picked up at some point from Michaels – a craft supply that comes in many earthy colors and has found many uses. A large rubber band around the open bonnet kept all the type bars out of the way during the operation.

Also, the bell does not ring when typing near the end of the line, though it does ring when I release the carriage and move it back and forth. That should be straightforward to diagnose and fix.

I got this fairly inexpensively off eBay but without seeing a typing sample. I was hoping it would be Elite like my favorite QD, but it's not. Still, I am quite attracted to the "classic Royal" presentation that this one has. It's a beauty!

* 3/17/2014: Bert Rosica showed me (on another QD that he has) the particular adjustment inside the typewriter that may correct the type alignment issue!

Typeface Specimen:

Hunter: Dan Johnson (rdj)

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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.