1977 Hermes 3000 #7453997
Status: My Collection
Hunter: Jonas Lauritsen (legofanatikeren)
Created: 02-22-2025 at 05:50AM
Last Edit: 02-22-2025 at 06:00AM
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Description:
Went to take a look at a local thrift store, found this sitting for about $8.
Without the "lid" for transportation, but including what seems to be at least 1 original metal spool (the other is a DIN 2103 plastic spool, fits perfectly fine), and everything is in perfect working order - except for one button, more on that.
After an admittedly tricky bike-facilitated transport later, I took a better look at it. The list of fully functional features is long; ribbon reverse, carriage lock, colour change, TAB creation and removal, margin release, margin adjusting, anything related to paper, letters, shifts, back space, you name it, it was working fine (touch control didn't appear to do a whole lot for me, but I hesitate to call it broken or dysfunctional).
Except for the clear all TABS button [---] which only allows the button to be half-depressed before it refuses to go further. It does not clear all TAB stops, and I operate under the assumption that this means it's not working properly - until I find out otherwise. There's always one thing, isn't there...
It wasn't overly dirty or anything of the sort - being relatively young has properly done it a few favours as well. No discolouring of the keycaps (surprisingly), although the plastic casing itself has yellowed - only showing its original white colour on the bottom of the typewriter (which has original "feet" intact).
keyboard wise, it's a Danish layout, with no 1, 0 or ! symbols, necessitating substitution. Nice feel to it, very responsive and "lightweight" key-pressing. One very interesting thing, that I only noticed while cleaning, is that THIS machine is one of the wide-carriage ones - about 335mm platen-width. I didn't even notice this when I spotted it that day.
On the back there's a sticker with the Danish retailor, presumably. There's also evidence of a small Tipp-Ex box-holder on the right side (very old glue left behind before cleaning) as well as 2 old, used pieces of correction paper lying inside the bottom of the casing, which I fished out.
Inside on the left side there's the serial number, and I also found some cryptic markings stamped into the carriage on the left side as well, that I don't understand the significance of.
Typeface Specimen:
Photos:
Hunter: Jonas Lauritsen (legofanatikeren)
Jonas Lauritsen's Typewriter Galleries [ My Collection ] [ My Sightings ]
Status: Typewriter Hunter
Points: 691
Casual collector of replica flintlock pistols, and in that same vein, picked up a couple of typewriters through the years - as a mechanical engineer, I could not resist.
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.
