Taking the Wheelwriter for a Spin

Post-Script: I do like the font style of this particular print wheel, it's a Courier 10 font. Interestingly, the machine came with, not only the plastic dust cover (nicely yellowed to a vintage luster) but, a box with a spare print wheel, with a label indicating this to have been the "old" wheel, as it's missing several petals from the daisy wheel. They appear to be very brittle, these letter petals, much thinner than the daisy wheels on my old Smith Corona I once owned.

Inside the flip-up lid is a label indicating the machine to have been purchased on November 6, 1985, and a smaller address label, which came off inside the machine, indicating the backup batteries were replaced on August 7, 1989 (along with being serviced), and again in January 1994. I can see, from looking inside the machine, that it's very dusty, and there's a set of AA cells for the backup memory that are nicely corroded in the battery compartment.

As you might be able to tell, the erase ribbon doesn't function at all well, while the carriage return might have a problem, as indicated by the left margin being uneven between the 6th and 7th lines in the piece.

My overall feeling is that this machine, it's "interesting," but not a collectable item for me. And so it goes.

Typecast via IBM Wheelwriter 5, photo via Lumix G5.