I bought a new typewriter as an early birthday present for myself. It’s a Corona #3 Special from the 1920s or 30s and it folds. The original Corona #3 was a popular typewriter with war correspondents during WWI due to its compact size. The Special was slightly larger, because it had a longer platen and a full size keyboard.
This one caught my eye because of the color, but the really cool feature on this is that it has a mathematical keyboard. In addition to the regular figures, this has additional options for symbols like ? and fractions. It is very, very cool.
The enamel work is in very good shape with just a little wear at the front where the top of the machine rests on the front part of the chassis. Mechanically, it needs to be cleaned and oiled but is otherwise functional.
And for those of you who are going to ask, this brings our collection to seventeen typewriters. One just went out on longterm lone, however, so I didn’t have to find a spot for this one.
With exhibits going out on long-term loan, does that mean you have an official typewriter museum?
Hm… museum is probably the wrong word since the typewriters are going out to be used.
I learned to type on my mother’s typewriter, which was a Royal portable modified with a chemical keyboard so she could type up my father’s Masters thesis in Chemistry in the early 50s. They actually squeezed in one more key than the typewriter had originally. (grin)
Of course that meant that I could do subscripted numbers — and superscripts if I rolled up the platen — but then had to make some punctuation marks and didn’t have others. So I learned that a semi-colon was a colon-BACKSPACE-comma and a dollar sign was S-BACKSPACE-/. (double-key-grin)
Dr. Phil
What a cool machine. And yes, the various hacks for doing punctuation are fun. I like the period and apostrophe combination for an exclamation point.
It’s gorgeous! Seeing those photos makes me miss the typewriter I used as a kid. I’ve been thinking of it a lot and missing it and wondering if I should buy one when I have some spare cash, even if it’s just for nostalgia’s sake. Seeing your pictures makes me determined to now. I will blame you, of course, when my husband complains ;p
Check ebay. You can usually get a sweet machine for under $50. The Corona Sterling is a sturdy and attractive machine, for instance.
And totally blame me.