I bought my first typewriter again, only 356 serial numbers later. Perhaps they were made on the same day, around the same time my parents were making me in 1971.
The Wards Signature 511D has all the fancy features of a manual typewriter. The rubber stills feels fresh. Its Pica typeface is straight and even. The paper injector always rolls in the sheets perfectly aligned. The Brother JP-3 is one of my favorite manual typewriters.
Unfortunately this one was not packed well and its case suffered the brunt of the damage. Luckily the typewriter survived with only bent metal levers on top and a cracked spacebar attachment. The metal arms of the spacebar were severely bent inward, but I was able to reform them well enough to work properly.
I saved another typewriter! Hopefully it will live to type more tales for 50 more years.
https://typewriterdatabase.com/1971-montgomery-ward-signature-511d.17011.typewriter
Heh, I had basically the same experience when I bought one of these off Ebay some years ago. Wanted it so bad because I wanted a JP3 and loved the way these look, but it got hard slammed in shipping so bad that the case shattered, the platen knob on the left was busted, several levers were bent and all of the keylevers had a distinct leftward lean from the full-body blow. I got it working... uh, OK, but wasn't the typing experience I wanted, so eventually gave it away. I'm happy that *someone* loves these Jetsons styled JP-3's, because they do deserve the love (:
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, I failed to check in on the typosphere for a short while and come back to find that you've gone bonkers posting away here on Arkansas Typewriter. What a great development! I too am still incredibly fond of my first typewriter, congratulations on procuring a backup for yours. I'm enjoying all the new blog entries.
ReplyDeleteI just got a JP-3 as well, from 1969, avec les accents français.
ReplyDeleteIt is model Opus 900 and has the paper injector as well but not quite the same shell, not as curvy.
Its action is quite sluggish so I will clean it.
Congrats on finding such a nice machine!
Daniel B.
These really are impressive typewriters.
ReplyDelete