1953 Olympia SM2 #415416

Status: My Collection
Hunter: Tansal Arnas (Tansal)
Created: 08-04-2019 at 08:17PM
Last Edit: 08-04-2019 at 09:11PM

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Description:

This was my grandfather's typewriter. He purchased it in Germany in the late 1950s and brought it home to Turkey. A technician in Ankara rearranged all of the keys and type slugs, modifying it from the German QWERTZ layout to the Turkish F layout, and swapping out some of the slugs for special characters.

Note: the accented A is actually a dotted capital i, but the overwritten character marking has worn off more than the other modified Turkish characters. It's missing some useful punctuation marks, such as a colon, dash, apostrophe, among others, in order to retain three letters not in the Turkish alphabet (W, Q, X) in order to use this as a bilingual English typewriter. I might have chosen to lose the += key in favor of the '- key. The "dead" accent key is cool, giving the ability to type an acute, grave, or circumflex accent before typing the letter you wish to reside below the accent.

This machine may be unique in the typosphere. I laid claim to it on 3 July 2019 and consider it my fourth antique manual typewriter. I had it professionally serviced by Gramercy Typewriter Co. in NYC, with a new platen and rollers, carriage alignment, and a good cleaning.

Typeface Specimen:

Hunter: Tansal Arnas (Tansal)

Tansal Arnas's Typewriter Galleries [ My Collection ] [ My Sightings ]

Status: Typewriter Hunter
Points: 63

I grew up in the generation that transitioned from analog to digital, so I had childhood experience using manual and electric typewriters before moving onto computers. In 2013, I started researching ultraportable antique manual typewriters. In 2016, I bought my first one, a Hermes Baby Featherweight. I loved the portability but learned that it's not very suited to long periods of writing. I intensified my research into medium-sized portables. In 2019, I purchased two exceptional typewriters, a Hermes 3000 and an Olympia SM3. I also excavated my grandfather's SM2 and had it professionally restored. Then the floodgates opened, and I chased down several more Hermes and Olympia typewriters, each with a different body and typeface. Eventually, I branched out to other brands, bringing my current total to 23 typewriters. I use them for journaling, letters, notes, and creative writing. I've tried other models, but my favorite makes continue to be Hermes and Olympia, particularly their models from the '50s and '60s. I’ve slowed down my pace of procurement, but I still keep my eyes open for good finds in the wild, and I also accept rescues from friends and acquaintances.