1958 Imperial de luxe 5 (aka: Good Companion 5) #5I 984

Status: My Collection
Hunter: Brad Sarno (bradsarno)
Created: 09-05-2014 at 06:17PM
Last Edit: 09-08-2014 at 03:31PM

Description Hunter 28 Photos 2 Likes  Find on Ebay #AD  Find on Etsy #AD

Description:

Well, after a couple days of hesitation, I finally dove in and bought it. It's such a rare, beautiful, and high-quality typer, I just couldn't pass it up.

I've read that it's a descendant of the Torpedo 20. While it's not as swift as my Torpedo 18, it surely has a nice, positive quality to the type action and feel. Overall, it just seems to be a very well engineered and well built machine.

This is the USA export version of their Good Companion 5.

The case is very cool to, all fiberglass, lightweight, rugged, and with some very nice latch mechanisms, chrome plating, and a cool wood handle.

It's a fully featured machine too: touch control, margin release, tab set/clear buttons, all tab-clear lever, line-space selector, carriage lock latch, flip-up paper guide, etc.

The platen is pretty hard, but it's not stone hard. The sound is reasonably quiet too.

The typeface is 12-pitch elite. (new ribbon added - updated typeface specimen)

Typeface Specimen:

Photos:

Hunter: Brad Sarno (bradsarno)

Brad Sarno's Typewriter Galleries [ My Collection ] [ My Sightings ]

Status: Typewriter Hunter
Points: 2728

I've spent my life as a mechanical and electronics tinkerer, bikes, cars, lawnmowers, appliances, cameras, audio gear, guitars, amplifiers, and pedal steel guitars. I was trained as a typist for 2 years back in the late 70's on IBM Selectric II's. At home I recall my mother having an Olympia SM3. More recently we got our daughter a typewriter for Christmas, and that somehow sparked my own personal interest in these fine and interesting machines. Now it's a habit that just won't quit. Daily searches on Craigslist, frequent trips to antique stores & malls, garage sales, etc. It's a fun and healthy addiction.