Antique Oliver No. 9 "Batwing" Typewriter, Fully Functional for Sale

Antique Oliver No. 9 "Batwing" Typewriter, Fully Functional For Sale

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Antique Oliver No. 9 "Batwing" Typewriter, Fully Functional:
$219.00

Antique Oliver No. 9 "Batwing" typewriter.

One of the first "visible typewriters" that actually let you see what you were writing, it's a pretty important piece of history.

The serial number (959083) puts the date of manufacture most likely in the year 1921.

Winona Ryder can be seen typing on one of these in Dracula (1992), which is a bit of an anachronism since it wasn't created until 1916.

I've cleaned it up as best I can and made sure the machine is fully functional. All keys are functional (although the "Tab" keycap is missing) and do not stick (if a key starts sticking, clean with a bit of mineral spirits or Simple Green).

Has 3 tab stops.

Has a brand new draw band. The mainspring tension can be adjusted if you feel the carriage is sluggish.

Does not have a ribbon, but does have original metal spools. Any standard typewriter ribbon will work, although you will have to manually wind it onto the spools because it feeds through the typebars. Some sellers on also make small wooden spools for this machine that you can pass through the typebars.

The platen and rollers are rock-hard, as expected with a machine this old, but functional. One of the rollers appears to have a minor split, but it doesn't seem to affect the function.

The video in this listing shows me going through all of the typewriter's functions--all keys, tab, margin releases, both shifts, ribbon advance, ribbon reverse, line advance, and bell. It's hard to see what the "Right" key does, but it does successfully release the right margin; just hard to show on a video with one hand. You can see the mechanism moving when I press the key.

A a machine in this kind of mechanical condition with so little rust is quite rare. These machines are usually rusted out and impossible to get working.

Let me know if you have any questions about the machine.

Cheers.