A 1943 Underwood Noiseless
Isn’t it lovely? I got it today. A friend sent me a link to a kijiji ad where it was listed for $50. $50! I could not email about it fast enough. That was yesterday, I went to see it today and the woman who owned it was so nice. This machine used to belong to her mother, who bought it used in the 50s, but it’s been sitting in a box for about 50 years, untouched. It’s quite dusty, and she thought some of the keys might not work. I told her I wanted to clean it up and fix it, and she said I could have it for free if I did!
With a bit of research I was able to date it to 1943 and also found out that it’s the same model John F. Kennedy used when he was in office. How cool is that?
I’ve been playing around with it and it actually seems like it’s in excellent condition. All the keys work after all and there’s lots of ribbon left. Inexplicably, although it was made in Canada, it has the £ symbol instead of the $ symbol, despite the fact that I’m pretty sure Canada didn’t use the pound sterling as its currency in the 40s. I’m going to give it a good cleaning and since it works better than my Smith-Corona, I may try my hand at writing on it a bit.
I can’t express how thrilled I am to own this machine. My kids love it too – they both want typing lessons now! This one feels like karma brought it to me, since I wasn’t even looking for it, it just fell into my lap.
Today is Tuesday which means it’s time for another round of queries to go out. Last week I sent seven so I’ll aim to do the same tonight. Hopefully I’ll have better results this week than I did the last!
Want to learn more about my typewriters? Check them out here.
Andrew J. Stillman
Lucky!! I’ve been wanting one of these for years but I haven’t gotten around to purchasing one yet. I hope you enjoy it!!
sarahcradit
That is so awesome! Congrats on your find!
sfummerton
Oh, what a find! You realize, of course, that you’ll have to look around, maybe, to find someone who can supply you with typing ribbons when you need new ones.
I learned to type on manual typewriters, and my Smith-Corona word processing typewrite got me through college in the early 1990s when MS DOS was used on computers. I didn’t use the word processing component because it didn’t have enough memory. You could store ten files on it, but each file had a little less than the space I needed for a term paper, plus a bibliography or works cited page, so I used the typewriter. One reason I won’t part with it is that is has a bilingual keyboard. It might be even tri-lingual because it has that symbol that looks like an inverted question mark that you see in Spanish.
Anyhoo, congrats on your great find. Have fun and enjoy it!! :o)
Nicole Bross
You can buy the ribbons online for not too expensive, thankfully, and Underwood ribbons aren’t proprietary like some other manufacturers so they’re pretty easy to find. My other typewriter is a Smith-Corona Super. It’s a beautiful avocado green but it needs a good oiling because a lot of the keys are sticky.
sfummerton
I’m relieved to hear you can access a ribbon source. You should have a couple on standby. I know how frustrating it can be to be “inspired”, and right in the middle of something brilliant (LOL), and find that your ribbon has reached the end. Aarrgh!
reretro
TOTALLY wonderful. and beautiful. wow.
Lori
I love, love, love old typewriters so I am thrilled over your find (and maybe just a little bit jealous!) Beautiful machine. Congratulations on the wonderful acquisition!