1959 Hermes 3000 #3016249
Status: My Collection
Hunter: Oliver Scheit (osh)
Created: 09-19-2016 at 07:10AM
Last Edit: 12-28-2022 at 12:52PM
Find on Ebay #AD
Find on Etsy #AD
Description:
Hermes 3000 with some marks of use.
Somewhen along the timeline this typewriter must have gotten a new platen. It's very soft, which gives a real nice and solid typing feel. Also, this typewriter is very quiet.
I really like the carriage return on Hermes 3000. Smooth and with a soft and solid sound.
Due to the small font I use this one whenever I have to type something that has limited space available.
=================================
Update in 2022:
Nowadays I prefer smaller fonts for pretty much everything. Especially for writing fiction, because with 12 or even 13cpi more text goes onto one page, meaning more words per line and less feeding of new paper. Once you reached page 200 of your work and beyond, this becomes something of value. 10cpi looks quite chunky to me today, after typing so many pages in 13cpi.
Also worth mentioning is that this typewriter is "the one". Not so much in the meaning that I picked it, but more that it picked me. It is one of the very few that do not make my fingers ache. (Doctors have no clue, but any hard/stiff keyboard, computer or typewriter, will give me pain in the finger joints.) The Hermes 3000 is yet the softest to my joints that I came across. And I did come across around 150 different typewriters over the years.
So this typewriter always came back to me. I can not remember how often I would receive a new typewriter in the mail thinking "now this is it" and going back to this Hermes 3000 just a few days later. I love pretty much everything about this typewriter, except:
a) the paper support. (I'd like it much higher, so I can always see the whole page.)
b) the looks. Call me a philistine, but I like the later model much better when it comes to looks. Especially with white keys. I never liked that green and probably never will.
However, over the time we have grown together quite a bit. Do I love my Hermes 3000? In a way, yes. The typing action is wonderful, the sound is perfect (especially when you write a lot, where you learn to cherish the more muffled type of machines) The Hermes is considered to be one of the greatest portable typewriters, and I fully agree.
Still, I am looking for another Hermes 3000 Elite in 13cpi with the newer body style. Or even a Media 3 as I never use tabs anyway and set my margins exactly once. That is because if you are writing a novel on a daily basis, the typewriter becomes your workhorse, and you don't play around with it.
And for the missing touch control, I would simply modify the Media 3 so it is exactly like a 3000 on it's easiest setting.
Until I find a nice sister to this one, she is my trusty daily workhorse.
The font-code is S 7.
13 cpi (Elite font in 2mm, not 2.12mm)
The paper bail goes up to number 120 printed (Hermes 3000 with 10cpi Pica have 90 as the highest printed number AFAIK)
Typeface Specimen:
Links:
Photos:
Hunter: Oliver Scheit (osh)
Oliver Scheit's Typewriter Galleries [ My Collection ] [ My Sightings ]
Status: Typewriter Hunter
Points: 510
located in Hamburg, Germany
RESEARCH NOTE: When researching the Hermes 3000 on a computer with lots of screen real estate, you may find that launching the Hermes Serial Number page and the Hermes 3000 By Model/Year/Serial page in new browser windows can give you interesting perspectives on changes throughout the model series.
