If This is a Marxist Typewriter Why Do I Like it So Much?

A signed plaque of the Connie at The Airplane Restaurant in Colorado Springs:


One of the few snapshots I still have from my years on the Connie. Note the double "Battle E" award insignia painted on the worn and greasy nonskid flight deck, earned by our performance in training up for this deployment. "Haze gray and under weigh" was one of our favorite sayings; here it's literally visible:


An excerpt from "The Sea, A Grave," written in January 1979, just a few weeks after the Shah of Iran was deposed and the USS Constellation sped across the South China Sea and Indian Ocean (outrunning our oiler and escort ships, averaging about 27 kts) to keep station off the Arabian Sea, because gunboat diplomacy:


Note that this was typed on the Senior Chief's red IBM Selectric II, after-hours, but with his permission. He wore some nasty scars on his face and arm, along with a command button -- unique for an enlisted man, but he commanded a riverene patrol boat during the Vietnam conflict, where he also earned the scars.

I have three volumes of this rubbish, containing perhaps a few gems. Maybe someday I'll share more.

When I exited Uncle Sam's Canoe Club I still had lots more poetry to type, and couldn't afford a Selectric, so instead bought a Smith-Corona SE100 daisywheel machine at the local Service Merchandise store. Such are the early years of my typewriter history.

Notes on the Fourth Way

Stay well, stay creative, and love one another. Peace.

Typecast via Groma Kolibri.

Dream Machine

I worked on this machine sometime last year, when Kevin owned it, and struggled then with the skipping issues. It also was making a clanking sound, which we thought was something interfering with the bottom plate. There was also some evidence of this because of a spot on the plate with scratches. I tried padding it with foam, then tried shimming the bottom plate with washers, but it didn't really help much. Actually going without the plate ends up being quieter, but then you have the problems involved with interference with the mechanics underneath, unless it's sitting on an absolutely flat surface; forget lap-typing without the bottom cover.

There's an extension arm on the escapement rocker that's operated by the type linkages via an adjustable cam, one of the few adjustments on this machine. But gaining access is difficult, you need a special angled driver and adjustment tool. I've been tinkering with this and can get the skipping to become less frequent, but not go away entirely. Then I tried crimping a thin brass tube, a kind of shim, on the extension arm of the rocker, and that actually helped a whole lot, also making the touch a bit nicer -- but alas the brass piece slipped and I was back where I started. Finally I just put a piece of heat shrink on the arm and it seems to be working good enough for now; I only had one skip during this piece.

There's another arm of the escapement that rides on the bottom edge of the carriage as a dampener, the arm has a rubber sleeve but it's badly worn. I need to get a replacement, probably some thin Tygon tubing, about 1/8" diameter, much smaller than automotive vacuum hose.

I was also seeing some issues with the ribbon not auto-reversing, but I think it's because these new DIN-sized ribbons are shorter than a full sized spool and the sensing arms need to be reformed slightly to compensate for the smaller diameter of the ribbon pack.

That's one thing about the Kolibri, it's a beautiful machine but lacks a lot of built-in adjustments. Things have to be reformed or shimmed to compensate.

As for the clanking sound, it's dampened a bit by just typing on a thick pad, so that's the way I'll go; there's very little clearance between the mechanism underneath and the plate for any internal foam padding.

I was thinking the other day about naming this little bird. No, I don't name all my machines. Of course, there's Adobe Rose, the Royal QDL, but she's an exception. We used to have a VW Jetta turbo-diesel that we named Dieter, after the Mike Myers SNL character, but I don't see this little Kolibri as a black-clad Dieter in a German dance club. Maybe it doesn't need a name, it just needs to inspire me to write, and that's good enough for me.