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1947 Smith Corona Silent Serial # 4S 177818X 1947 Smith Corona Silent typewriter, Serial # 4S 177818X Mark Schrad's 1947 Smith Corona Silent typewriter. 2023-05-16 From the Virtual Typewriter Collection of Mark Schrad: 1947 Smith Corona Silent Serial # 4S 177818X Here is a polyglot 1947 Smith-Corona Silent X, which I picked up in Manhattan in late April, 2023 after many months of delay and negotiation.

At first blush, it is no different than the thousands and thousands of Smith-Corona portables from the late ‘40s. But then you look closer at the two-tone (“ska!”) keys—44 of them, rather than the usual 42. This is a polyglot machine: Russian/Cyrillic on the lower case, shift up to write in English/Latin letters, complete with diacritics for most European languages.

Imperial German manufacturers—Ideal and Adler—both occasionally made polyglot standard typewriters. Erika, Triumph and Mercedes made a few portables in the interwar years, but I had never seen or even heard of an American polyglot typewriter. Having shared it with some of the most experienced experts in this field, we could find no mention of this polyglot offering in the Smith-Corona dealer catalogs and typeface catalogs from the 1940s. Yet with the X suffix, added keys and wider segment, this clearly came from the factory this way.
So when this Silent X popped-up online in Manhattan, I jumped at the opportunity to get it. The seller was an elderly Russian-American man, whose daughter received it as a gift from a Turkish friend, but never used it. We played “tag” for five months, trying to work out a time that the seller wasn’t either in New Zealand, the Caribbean, or some other exotic vacation locale in order to drive up and get it. But when the stars finally aligned and we were able to make it to Central Park West a few weeks ago, I couldn’t have been more pleased.

1947 Smith Corona Silent #4S 177818X

Status: My Collection
Hunter: Mark Schrad (MLSchrad)
Created: 05-16-2023 at 10:46AM
Last Edit: 05-16-2023 at 10:51AM

Description Hunter 39 Photos 1 Like  Find on Ebay #AD  Find on Etsy #AD

Description:

Here is a polyglot 1947 Smith-Corona Silent X, which I picked up in Manhattan in late April, 2023 after many months of delay and negotiation.

At first blush, it is no different than the thousands and thousands of Smith-Corona portables from the late ‘40s. But then you look closer at the two-tone (“ska!”) keys—44 of them, rather than the usual 42. This is a polyglot machine: Russian/Cyrillic on the lower case, shift up to write in English/Latin letters, complete with diacritics for most European languages.

Imperial German manufacturers—Ideal and Adler—both occasionally made polyglot standard typewriters. Erika, Triumph and Mercedes made a few portables in the interwar years, but I had never seen or even heard of an American polyglot typewriter. Having shared it with some of the most experienced experts in this field, we could find no mention of this polyglot offering in the Smith-Corona dealer catalogs and typeface catalogs from the 1940s. Yet with the X suffix, added keys and wider segment, this clearly came from the factory this way.
So when this Silent X popped-up online in Manhattan, I jumped at the opportunity to get it. The seller was an elderly Russian-American man, whose daughter received it as a gift from a Turkish friend, but never used it. We played “tag” for five months, trying to work out a time that the seller wasn’t either in New Zealand, the Caribbean, or some other exotic vacation locale in order to drive up and get it. But when the stars finally aligned and we were able to make it to Central Park West a few weeks ago, I couldn’t have been more pleased.

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Hunter: Mark Schrad (MLSchrad)

Mark Schrad's Typewriter Galleries [ My Collection ] [ My Sightings ]

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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 Smith Corona Silent on a computer with lots of screen real estate, you may find that launching the Smith Corona Serial Number page and the Smith Corona Silent By Model/Year/Serial page in new browser windows can give you interesting perspectives on changes throughout the model series.

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