1956 Smith Corona Electric Portable #5TE111262
Status: My Collection
Hunter: William Saxbe (wsaxbe)
Created: 01-01-2022 at 09:12PM
Last Edit: 01-02-2022 at 12:25PM
Find on Ebay #AD
Find on Etsy #AD
Description:
"Pinkerton"
It's pink!
Sweet little electric machine came to me as a gift from my Sister in L.A. Cosmetically rough, with quite a bit of fading on the body. Tucked under overlapping edges and on inner surfaces, however, the dusty pale rose pink is revealed to have originally been a much darker shade of rich lipstick pink, almost matching the space bar. The white 'electric' badge has lost a few letters, and most corners are showing a bit of paint loss. Candidate for a repaint? The folks at Smith Corona certainly didn't mind using a LOT of fasteners on their panels: several dozen fiddly little screws makes me appreciate IBM's designers. They made machines that were built to be serviced simply and expeditiously. The internals did need a lot of cleaning! The first time I turned it on several type bars did their best impressions of a machine gun. Forced air, several generous applications of solvent, and a few springs sourced from the donor bin calmed everything down. Typing nicely now. Very responsive and surprisingly quiet! Manual return so motor isn't too big. Had no clean paper so type sample looks filthy.
Molly Ringwald, eat your heart out.
Typeface Specimen:
Photos:
Hunter: William Saxbe (wsaxbe)
William Saxbe's Typewriter Galleries [ My Collection ] [ My Sightings ]
Status: Typewriter Hunter
Points: 312
Old typewriter hound in Seattle Washington
RESEARCH NOTE: When researching the Smith Corona Electric Portable on a computer with lots of screen real estate, you may find that launching the Smith Corona Serial Number page and the Smith Corona Electric Portable By Model/Year/Serial page in new browser windows can give you interesting perspectives on changes throughout the model series.
