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Much simplified oscillating engine
The instruction manuals of the '20-ies and '30-ies contain a lot of mechanical machinery. Next to the trucks, cranes and large excavators, they have a range of workshop machinery and engines. These...
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Get ahead faster, improve your homework
To convince you it is a wise decision to purchase a typewriter, several manufacturers advertised not so much the machine itself, but rather the benefits you will experience.Royal's effort here starts...
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Rubber, still rubber
This is amazing.This is a little motor tyre, in the Meccano system this is part number 142c. This particular specimen can be dated to around 1930. Made by Dunlop (in England, hence it's a tyre).The...
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Sightings (and a purchase)
We went to a local thrift shop yesterday. It's a fairly large store that raises funds for the shelter next-door to it, and attracts quite a lot of visitors from the area. The place is neatly organised...
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Three more items, a cross-section
The large thrift shop (with that Erika M) also had a vast store of records. Bins and bins filled with vinyl. Bins with large, once expensive box sets (now for 1,-)Just as we were going to leave,...
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Technical colour, a brilliance never before attainable
When first introduced, the strips and plates of Meccano were nickel plated. This gives the small mechanical models a fairly neutral and technical appearance - albeit a bit boring perhaps.Starting first...
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Then two come at once
Like the proverbial buses. A few weeks after buying a Joseph Schmidt record, I got a small rack of records via/from a colleague and that contained the same record.Listed on the index booklet for the...
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Felt for Four rubber
A simple tweak that can usually be done with an old typewriter is to replace the felt of the typebar rest. It often is compacted and may be moldy, a source of the 'old typewriter smell'. Replacing with...
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Sighting of an Adler (and a tenor)
Usually typewriters in (American) films of the thirties and forties are readily recognised as common (American) machines.In this scene from the (German) movie 'Ein Lied Geht Um Die Welt', a slightly...
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See article about the 'editing room' tent at the Oerol Festival.The article is in Frisian, that Google Translate actually does support (sort of). The English translated text is a bit surreal - dadaist...
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Carrying handle quick repair (when riveted to case)
The handles of the carrying case of older portable typewriters are often riveted to the wooden case and not screwed. Usually the 'splayed' type of rivet is used that is hard to remove without seriously...
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Talkie art deco (use each needle only once)
When playing records on a 78 rpm wind-up gramophone, every side needs to be played with a new needle - so these needles were widely sold. Mostly in small tins of 200 needles. This is just such a tin....
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D&P sliderule - 111 and calculating
Occasionally picking up a nice sliderule (that is not priced through the roof), recently acquired this compact Mannheim sliderule. In the images it looked a clean and complete early 20th century...
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Low end (Continental) safari
Having just read of the rich seam of typewriters that may be spotted on a San Fransisco area safari, I'm prompted to share at least one machine that I keep encountering in my occasional visits to the...
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Typewriter hiccup (1928)
With old typewriters, the escapement may sometimes skip a space - the age of the mechanism I've always thought. Hence with some surprise I noticed what I think is a machine 'skip', in a proper document...
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A beautiful database
One of those things that were once common and have quietly disappeared - the card index to the library.Not only does this index survive, it really is the most beautiful database I've seen. For data...
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Wrong period
Spotted today - a typewriter for the right price, but of the wrong period for my collection. (And am out of storage space in any case :-)For a very reasonable 10 euro, a quite modern looking Olivetti...
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D&P Kubus Rechenstab
A while back, I managed to snag the little instruction booklet that goes with an erly 20th century Dennert & Pape sliderule. In addition to the explanations on the use of the 'Normal' sliderule, it...
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Little blue Magic Motor (and Outfit B)
A little bargain bought online last week. Postage actually came in at triple the purchase price, but still not too bad.This is a little Meccano 'Magic Motor' in the pre-war blue colour. The printing...
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