Clean Arrow

Last night, while watching Dowton Abbey (a miniseries about a noble Edwardian family), I reassembled a 1942 Royal Arrow. Shined and polished, here are the results:

The Invasion of The Big Roll of Paper

I was able to find a little inspiration and start working on a short story featuring a library, a 40s Royal Quiet De Luxe, and some near-future speculative fiction.

"Bow Arts" is an intentional mistake. I know it's Beaux Arts.
All part of a cunning plot twist.



Found!

Apart from the very low quality typecast (sentence fluency and conventions) I am happy I found the badge. I had looked into fabbing one through Ponko. I started tracing a photo of the ghostly glue residue. That's not necessary now. All is right.

Heavy Is the Head that Wears the Crown

When you are gone from your classroom you come back to this kind of cruelty. It was a defenseless typewriter. The trouble-maker and badge location are unknown.

Arrow Unsheathed

The baby was ill, so I stayed home with him today. During a long nap, I took the dog outside and decided to start cleaning the Arrow. The weather is warm and working outside was nice. I really don't want to remove the platen to clean the machine. It is dirty, but the platen and carriage is significantly cleaner than the body. The plan it to have it clean before the Phoenix Typewriter Round-Up which is happening on March 5th. If I can't get it done before that, I have plenty of other typewriters that I can bring.

Happy Olivetti Valentine Day

Arrow of Royal*

This weekend the whole family was ill, but there was an typewriter arrival to take my mind off the mayhem. This machine, as I understand it, represents the middle of Royal's portable line. The Quiet De Luxe had the most features. The Companion was the most inexpensive. This typewriter was a popular combination of features and price. It is the Royal:

The Arrow was a QDL minus the tabulator and chrome trim around the ribbon cover. It was a popular machine and is fairly easy to find today. This one came from eBay and was very inexpensive. It cost more to ship it that I paid for it. Take a look at that "Arrow" logo. It just screams post-war speed.

This Arrow is in an absolutely filthy state, but it was only a few dollars. Under the dirt, grime, and niter there is a very nice machine. Regardless, It's going to take some time to clean up and I am going to love every minute. 

Look Ma, no tabulator!

It must have been kept in a very damp environment, but there seems to be very little water damage to anything. The only hint to the atmospheric humidity of the previous location is the felt on the typebar rest. It's a little moldy. The mold seems to be fairly old because nothing feels damp. The chrome is bright and the keytop paper inserts are clean and flat. 

After some elbow grease I'll have a shiny new Arrow. I don't know if this one will make it full-time into the classroom. It might go on rotation with some other rarer machines. 

* A terrible, artless allusion to Achebe's third novel.