Torpedo 12. The looker!
At first I thought it is a ‘14.
Torpedo 14, that is.
Closer inspection (serial number) and some research - mostly Robert Messenger’s excellent web page here and here - showed that what stands on my bench is Torpedo’s first portable typewriter: Model 12.
Serial number is on right side of the carriage. Manufacturing date for my specimen is around 1928. Soon she will become 100 years old!
Now: the machine is not mine. She belongs to Sara.
I got an opportunity to work on restoring the typewriter to working condition and she will go back to Sara.
Nothing worked initially. Neither space-bar nor key-action moved the carriage - but the draw-string was attached.
Escapement was somehow not clicking. Well, I started disassembling.
Closer look and I found the reason: one small spring was missing.
I found spare spring which should match required elasticity, installed it and the machine woke up to life!
As always in so old machines - paper feed rollers were busted: flat spots, cracked, rubber petrified and brittle.
To remove them one needs to hammer out the axles. They sit with friction fit.
New rollers made with silicone tubing and heat-shrink:
Back in business - in situ:
Draw-string attachment was not looking kosher to me.
I replaced it with appropriate end-piece.
(This tiny nut comes from an old mechanical clock I found in the woods some years ago. I kept the mechanism and whereabouts, finally they become handy!)
This machine is a very early construction.
It does not have automatic ribbon reverse system - one needs to reverse it manually by pulling - or pushing - small levers on each side of the machine. On this one they were missing. I manufactured copies, based on pictures from Internet.
Threads M2.5, or close enough to match. Installed:
Rubber feet with threaded inserts - this machine is screwed to base plate, part of the carrying case. I managed to find matching rubber inserts.
Platen is hard, of course, but not cracked or excessively used. Interesting that axle rod is permanently mounted, riveted on both ends. No ratchet clutch on this machine.
To install this assembly one pushes left side of the platen (with platen rod) into central hole on the carriage. Line advance claw needs to be lifted up to clear ratchet wheel. Then the right side of the platen is dropped into slot on right side of the carriage.
Platen is held in place by a latch, screwed in place afterwards.
Screw head holding this latch was butchered with improper screwdriver. I hate it, especially on a machine like this one, with hardly any other screw damaged.
I made a new screw from an old stock I have, same pre-war era.
In situ:
Same for platen knob screw - the one sitting there was butchered. I made a replacement.
This machine has bi-chrome selector so she should be able to use duo-chrome ribbon. It was broken thou and locked in black position. That needed some attention then - I made a new lever from steel plate.
Installed:
Once having this back in operation I spooled duo-chrome ribbon and started playing with ribbon color selector.
To my horror - it did not work reliably. On RED position, when ribbon vibrator goes all the way up, it often stayed in this position and ribbon was hanging on type guide nearby.
I tried increasing tension on vibrator´s spring by replacing it with a stronger one but that did not help much.
I tend to think now that the selector lever was intentionally broken and left in the only working position: for BLACK. So that no one messes with it.
Well, I’ve already made a new one so it will stay but I don’t know how to repair the problem with hanging vibrator at RED position.
For now, I think, we will just accept the fact that she is typing only in one color. Let’s call it age & patina, shall we?
I spooled fresh, black ribbon and did some typing.
Apparently I still believed it is Torpedo 14 while it is, in fact, Torpedo 12!
New feed rollers take paper like a bulldog!
Not bad, no?
Apart from occasionally hanging ribbon vibrator I discovered one more problem.
This specimen was unlucky to have someone who very enthusiastically treated line advance mechanism.
It was not working reliably - sometimes advancing 1 line, sometimes advancing 1,5 line. Turns out it was bent.
I bent it back to shape - or rather “formed it” as used in the industry. Works like a charm again.
The weather was fine so we went out for a concluding photo session. She is quite a looker!
One can clearly see Remington connections, type arm mechanism is the same:
Honest patina on space bar. Decals in very good condition!
Most controls are on left side of the carriage.
Line-advance is a pinch-lever (black arrows).
Two line-spacing settings: single and 1.5 line space (red arrow).
Ratchet release (but no clutch - yellow arrow).
There is also rudimentary carriage lock: small lever (yellow arrow below) with a tooth, going into carriage rail to lock it (red arrow).
Works fine as long as you don’t press shift accidentally.
Very handsome machine. Typing action is similar to Remingtons of that era.
I very much prefer to type when the machine is detached from its carrying case. This Torpedo has its own rubber feet so this is possible.
Lap-typing, thou, was not yet discovered back then - the whole mechanism is unprotected from below. Setting the machine on your knees means trouble!
So there we have it - another survivor!