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1961 Olympia SM4 Serial # 1736825 1961 Olympia SM4 typewriter, Serial # 1736825 Mark Petersen's 1961 Olympia SM4 typewriter. 2014-11-16 From the Virtual Typewriter Collection of Mark Petersen: 1961 Olympia SM4 Serial # 1736825 This is a machine which seems to have been "serviced" by too many people and though I have left it mechanically better off I too have left my own mark on it.
Some person took the effort to replace some screws with exact matches, just not painted. Presumably a different person removed the four screws attaching the typewriter to the body and replaced only one them. I myself replaced the other three with properly threaded but not quite right screws I had in my random pieces box, most likely from a busted Lettera 22. If you hold this machine by the body and invert it the typewriter inside moves. But it works.
If you press any key the space bar moves, and if you press the tab only half way it works as a second space bar. If you depress the tab key a little more it works perfectly well. Everything on this machine is fully functional and hardly anything on this machine is quite right.
But it looks mint; it is the kind of machine that would fool a new collector into thinking that they had gotten some awesome deal.
I paid $10 for it. I guess that's still a good deal.

Were this a muscle car entered in a car show you could drive it in and the people at the show would cheer and thumbs up but when the judges popped the hood or looked underneath you would start losing points so fast and you would never win any awards. Then you could drag race it later and do just fine even though things would be rattling all over.

1961 Olympia SM4 #1736825

Status: My Collection
Hunter: Mark Petersen (totallyyourtype)
Created: 11-16-2014 at 08:37PM
Last Edit: 11-16-2014 at 08:38PM

Description Hunter 2 Photos 0 Likes  Find on Ebay #AD  Find on Etsy #AD

Description:

This is a machine which seems to have been "serviced" by too many people and though I have left it mechanically better off I too have left my own mark on it.
Some person took the effort to replace some screws with exact matches, just not painted. Presumably a different person removed the four screws attaching the typewriter to the body and replaced only one them. I myself replaced the other three with properly threaded but not quite right screws I had in my random pieces box, most likely from a busted Lettera 22. If you hold this machine by the body and invert it the typewriter inside moves. But it works.
If you press any key the space bar moves, and if you press the tab only half way it works as a second space bar. If you depress the tab key a little more it works perfectly well. Everything on this machine is fully functional and hardly anything on this machine is quite right.
But it looks mint; it is the kind of machine that would fool a new collector into thinking that they had gotten some awesome deal.
I paid $10 for it. I guess that's still a good deal.

Were this a muscle car entered in a car show you could drive it in and the people at the show would cheer and thumbs up but when the judges popped the hood or looked underneath you would start losing points so fast and you would never win any awards. Then you could drag race it later and do just fine even though things would be rattling all over.

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Hunter: Mark Petersen (totallyyourtype)

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

Status: Typewriter Hunter
Points: 2142

I am an aspiring novelist and avid typewriter enthusiast from the New River Valley in Virginia. I am a proud Virginia Tech graduate with an education in creative writing. I use typewriters for all my writing and am working on a novel. I also do street poetry. I often can be found writing on one of my machines in downtown Blacksburg and enjoying a drink.
You can email me at totallyyourtype@gmail.com
You can mail me at Mark Petersen / PO Box 6683 / Christiansburg, VA 24068-6683


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