Monday, August 23, 2010

To-Do List

Blogging, like anything else, grows a "to-do" list and mine has some interesting entries; this covers all three blogs and you'll have to work out what goes where from topic and context:

"The Adler Mystery:" I have a very nice portable typewrite, post-WW II, made by Adler. I have found almost nothing about the manufacturer online but the little I have found makes me at least 80% sure this was not some mail-order store's house name.

Book report 1: I was given a charming little steampunk penny dreadful, an enjoyable read from a new author, worth a couple of paragraphs at least.

Book report 2: Picked up a couple of Winston SF hardbacks, the ones with the charming Alex Schomburg endpapers: one by Raymond F. Jones and the other a first edition of Lester del Rey's Mission To The Moon, part of a series that used the Collier's articles (mostly by Werner von Braun and Will Ley, with illustrations by Chesley Bonestell). Sure, they're juveniles, but they're pretty good juveniles.

RME 45: a find at one of the online auctions, a very nice communications receiver built not long after the end of WW II by Radio Manufacturing Engineers of Peoria, Illinois. RME was one of the top manufacturers of such receivers, in the same class as National, Hammarlund and the best Hallicrafters. This one's in nice shape and worth a photo essay.

State Fair: I've got another dozen photos left, including one of Tam feeding baby goats.

Speaking of State Fairs and the food and food-like items offered there, I have a small bet with myself that we're only a few years way from fried escargot. Breaded, with ketchup! Ew.

There's more, but that's a start.

8 comments:

John Peddie (Toronto) said...

"Adler" is German for "eagle".

I saw a lot of their typewriters when I first started working in an office about a gazillion years ago.

Definitely not a mail order house brand.

I'm guessing they were swallowed up by another company, possible European (Olivetti?)

An older typewriter repair guy, if you can find one, could tell you a lot more.

If you google "Adler typewriter" you get to the Typewriter Museum site:

http://www.typewritermuseum.org/collection/index.php3?machine=adler15&cat=kf

The article refers to Klein Adler (klein = small in German, i.e. portable).

Stranger said...

The RME is worth restoring. It is a far better AM rig than most of those currently on the market, and does quite well on CW. Of course, it is pre product detector, so SSB suffers.

RME was a sister company of Electro Voice. The late Al Kahn was the boss, and when he retired he founded Ten Tec.

Stranger

Anonymous said...

"I've got another dozen photos left, including one of Tam feeding baby goats"

Nice, but we was promised pachyderms! Well, not really but we inferred it...

Ya'll are such teases!

AT

Bubblehead Les. said...

Back in the Old days, Typing was a required class in 8th grade in my school district. We had a mix of Adlers and Smith Coronas. The Smiths were always breaking down, but the Adlers just kept on trucking. Good machines, but most of them probably have melted down to makes Prius's by now. If you can keep it fed with ribbons, hold onto it.

Anonymous said...

Have an Adler wide-carriage office
purchased out of school when I needed
a typewriter for work. 14 pitch,
large and small-caps only. But
unbeatable when it comes to keeping
on trucking. Will be interested to
see what you find.
Anon, Don

Eck! said...

RME good receiver of it's kind. Watch for the waxed paper caps, same for filter caps, power transformers that are cooked. Common tube swap was higher heater current rectifier for the lower (5Y4, 5U4 same pinout
same but the 5u4 needs more amps, bad).

On the air it's a good single conversion receiver with 455khz IF. That means images are a problem for 20M and above unless you have the preselector. Selectivity was good enough if the filter was in for SSB/CW.

Been a few years but remember it well.

Eck!

Stranger said...

Yes, the RME had 455/456 kc IF's but the image is 910 kc lower on 20, and the 250 KW SW stations are about gone. Try it without a preselector.

I would use a silicon substitute in a 4 pin shell base for the 80, but with a 5 ohm wirewound surge limiting resistor in each secondary lead. Watch for those red Sangamo "paper caps" also.

Stranger

Old Grouch said...

We had one Adler electric at my first place of employment. I found I preferred its keyboard touch to even the boss's IBM Selectric, plus it laid down type nicer than any of the others (a mixed bag of electrics and manuals). Wouldn't mind having one today, if only for addressing the occasional envelope.

TW: "misap"
What you got when you tried typing "mishap" on one of the company's Royal machines.