Ha, I was looking at my type sample and just realized that the accent key characters on the Swissa do not advance the carriage. Interesting...
Thank you, Adwoa! :D
Air Swissa, Golden Touch and Culling the Herd…
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The Underwood looks gorgeous, and I do like that typeface.
You and I are among the few Americans to have a Swissa — good machine.
And I want to see more of your ’90s creations.
I’m proud to be in such an exclusive club, but a little sad as well. They really are nice to type on – kinda wish they were more common in the states. (:
…but I guess you can say that about Voxxen and Gromas as well :D
Those are “dead” keys to make accent marks over other letters. In other words you type the mark and then letter without having to backspace. Pretty slick piece of work and you find them on the foreign machines that have all the accent marks and curlicues we boring folk don’t have …
Richard
Those are darn nice. I like both typefaces. Can you bring that Swissa up to a NW type-in so we can all try it?
One week??!!! That’s all it took for economy shipping? Man, I bet your typewriters coming from within the US don’t arrive that much faster. This is such great news it brought tears to my eyes – amazing. Glad you received it in the condition it left here, and you are happy with it.
So, you’re culling too? Interesting! My latest hare-brained scheme (after the amazing success of shipping the Swissa to you) was to propose an exchange on my blog in which both parties pay for shipping across the Atlantic (which should somewhat negate the current unfavorable dollar-franc exchange rate). I was kicking myself for not having proposed this to you, but reading through your list the only one that intrigues is the ’38 Remington Rand, but even you don’t seem so enthused about it. Now, if we were talking Little Jake… (just kidding, I know he’s a keeper. *sigh*)
Yep, I was pretty amazed myself when the postman showed up at my door this morning. The few Ebay purchases I’ve made from sellers within the US seemed to always take *at least* a week to arrive, and when I checked last night on the tracking site, the machine was still listed as just having been released from customs.
Happy with it? completely! I have to admit I’ve been typing streams of gibberish on it all day. :D
The ’38 Remington is actually in great shape, and has a light, snappy action – my problem with it is my typing style. I apparently keep my fingers on the keys too long, which results in blurred letters as the carriage advances while the typebars are still barely touching the paper. It’s a machine that I’d really suggest someone try first before adding it to their collection, due to the non-standard action.
P.S. And I see that qwertz didn’t trip you up even once! That is impressive :)
Also probably due to my typing style. I’m one of those people who stare at the keyboard and pound keys with 2 or 3 fingers, and am already trained to look at the keys before hitting them due to the differences between the various computer and typewriter keyboards I use. No touch-typer, me! :D
what trips me up is the lack of a zero key. I’ve hit the accented “e” key a few times there. (:
I tested it out as well, and surprisingly did not have an issue with the qwertz either and I tend to type too quickly for my own good anyway. I flubbed a few other keys, but not the z or y! It’s a great machine, glad to have it around. Thanks for going to the trouble to ship it!
Hey! That’s not only an old French currency, but also our way-too-mighty swiss Franc!
Hmmmm…so my qwertz typing skills are now infamous:)
I have two Swissa Junior machines, a pica 1962 and an elite 1964, both with QWERTY keyboards as they were made for the Dutch market (they also have the ij key). The 1964 Swissa is my street-writer of choice, together with my Groma Kolibri machines.