Viewed from a distance you could be forgiven for thinking that the Silver Reed EZ 20 is just another bland, beige, portable wedge.

But you’d be wrong, or if not wrong, slightly narrow-minded.

There’s more to the EZ 20 than meets the eye. Imagine my surprise, for example, to discover an indirect link between this typewriter and Australian poet Les Murray’s poem ‘The Privacy of Typewriters’:

Les Murray’s Brother (Deluxe 762 TR)

~

As revealed in an ABC National Radio “The Science Show” podcast of the 26th of August 2017, a Silver Reed EZ 20 is the typewriter on which the scripts of The Science Show are prepared.

Introduced in late 1986, Silver Reed EZ-series electronic typewriters are a departure from the EX-series of the early-to-mid 1980s. One difference are the print wheels used. The EZ series use a drop-in cartridge wheel …

Whereas the EX series use a clip-on print wheel …

The print ribbon, however, is the same across the EZ and the EX series, at least for the portable machines …

In fact, the only reason I bought this typewriter was to get my hands on 7 spare ribbons for my EX-42.

But I was pleasantly surprised by the EZ 20. There are several things which endear me to it:

• It was made in England (just like me).

• The typing action is incredibly quiet.
• The keyboard’s an exotic one.

• There’s an anomaly on the top row of keys. The previous owner told me he’d bought it like this, second-hand, but didn’t elaborate further …

Surely that wouldn’t have got past quality control at the U.K. factory? Who knows.

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know where to go to type a 3; however knowing that you need to hold down SHIFT to type the # symbol is less obvious.

Silver Reed electronic typewriters were mostly sold for export on an OEM basis in Europe and North America. Much like Brother Industries, Silver-Seiko sub-contracted the assembly of these machines to overseas subsidiaries in so-called “screwdriver plants”.

This perhaps explains the absence of a manufacturer name on the back of the machines.

Released in 1989, the EZ 22 has the addition of decimal tabulation and centering, but is otherwise identical to the EZ 20. According to ribbon listings, there were other model variants:

• EZ-10, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30, 40, 43, 45/B, 46/B, 50, 245/B

This series seems to mark the end of the line for Silver-Seiko as an electronic typewriter manufacturer. Silver Reed subsidiaries eventually sourced their machines from Nakajima and Samsung.

The warning signs were there for all to see. These compact and full Size EZ-series machines take a Nakajima ribbon …

Silver Reed EZ-30 (Compact)

Silver Reed EZ-50

The nearest I could find to an Instruction Guide for the Sharp PA-3100 II …

Sharp-PA3100S-Instruction-Guide PDF (3.8 MB). As far as I can tell its the same typewriter.

Maschinenschreiben Textverarbeitung (Typing and word processing) by Bruno Behne and Albert Titze, Ferd. Dummlers Verlag, 1991), is a German textbook about “typing and word processing on conventional writing machines and text systems, including personal computers”.

The book is basically a traditional typing practice and instruction book—one that’s been updated to take into account the rise of  the personal computer, and prior to that, the rise of electronic typing systems (basically full size electronic typewriters that were interfaced with external magnetic storage and display screen options).

Of interest is a section on “finger gymnastics …

The book is “system independent” and does not go into detail about any one text processing system. The cover photograph was taken at IBM Stuttgart:

Several photos were provided by TA-Adler Royal Nuremberg …

And by Siemens in Munich …

The end of the wedge was nigh.

I was impressed by Sam Rockwell’s performance in the 2009 Sc-fi classic Moon.

Early on in the story, the logo (and the name) of Sam’s employer Lunar Industries reminded me of Litton Industries:

Granted, they’re not identical, but that’s what came to mind.

The likeness (or otherwise) may not be entirely coincidental. After-all, a division of Litton Industries, Litton Space Systems, designed space suits and other equipment for NASA.

Space exploration was, of course, a popular marketing theme for “space age” electronic typewriters of the 1980s and 1990s, as exemplified by the French ad below, which was one of a series released by Brother (as opposed to Luna or Litton) Industries in 1988 and 1989 …

Brother WP-1 Word Processor ad, 1988 (above) from my collection

~

AEG Olympia followed suit around the same time …

AEG Olympia Badge (above) from my collection

~

Alas, AEG Olympia failed to go  “beyond” the year 1997. NASA’s Space Shuttle programme lasted longer, up until 2011— eight years after the Colombia Shuttle disaster of 2003.

There are, needless to say, no electronic typewriter sightings in Moon, which is a movie made (and set) long after the wedge apocalypse of the early 1990s.

Nevertheless, electronic typewriters are, to my mind, (oxymoron alert) retrospectively futuristic and, like Sam (spoiler alert), prone to being cloned.

If you watch this movie you will see, however, the rugged red laptop used by Sam to contact his family back on earth …

… which reminded me of the 1988 Brother word processor ad in my collection, hence this post.

… To boldly go where no typewriter blogger has ever gone before …

In terms of size, the Panasonic RK-T28 cupwheel electronic typewriter is one of those machines (reasonably lightweight and with a carry handle) that hover between the portable and compact categories.

However, since a true definition of “compact” is synonymous with “semi-professional”, the performance of the RK-T28 leaves it firmly in the portable camp.

It seems to me the RK-T28 is slower than my 12 cps portable Panasonic KX-R250. On first use, the time lag between a key press and impact on paper is off-putting.

Another drawback of the RK-T (25, 28, 30 ,32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 40/40D, 45, 55) series is a scarcity of replacement cupwheels and ribbons – a problem that owners of more commonplace Panasonic KX-R series portable electronic typewriters do not (yet) have to contend with.

Without an instruction guide I’m not sure how to change the cupwheel. Access to the wheel seems to be via a “door in the floor” below the right-hand side of the platen …

Much like the “Spinwriter” printer thimbles introduced by NEC in 1977, the Panasonic cupwheel has two rows of characters that run around the upturned spokes of the wheel.

There are 48 petals and 96 characters, which is equivalent to most daisy wheels, but less than the 64 petals and 128 characters on a Spinwriter thimble.

The pairings on each spoke of the wheel, with the exception of two pairings (w W and m M), are not lower and upper case equivalents of the same letter, as you might expect.

The frequency of use of lowercase and uppercase letters, special characters and punctuation marks in English is ( I assume) what determines their proximity to one another.

If, like me, you were hoping that a cupwheel typewriter might be faster and quieter than a comparable daisy wheel typewriter, you’ll be disappointed.

While some RK-T models can be interfaced with a computer for use as a letter quality printer, I get the impression that the cupwheels would not stand up to heavy use (in their advertising, Silver Reed claimed this capability for their early EX series daisy wheel electronic typewriters).

Having said that, these RK-T series typewriters are attractively sleek, have a good build quality and (assuming they were designed primarily for home use) are more than suited for purpose.

According to Panasonic themselves “the cupwheel print element provides remarkably sharp letter-quality”. This is true.

Unfortunately, the bidirectional back and forth of the cupwheel suffers from a stutter that the Emperor Claudius would have been proud of.

Only time and familiarity will tell whether this impediment becomes an endearing feature.

A 1989 ad for the Panasonic RK-T40 (above)

See also: Matsushita & the Margarita

Manufactured by parent company Olivetti (who acquired AT&T in 1983) the AT&T 6310 compact electronic typewriter is a re-branded variant (I think) of the Olivetti CT-605 …

According to ribbon listings the following Olivetti-derived AT&T models were available:

AT-30, 5300 (Portable), 6100, 6110, 6200, 6210, 6300, 6310, 6400, 6500, 6510, 6610, 6710, 7500, 7500S, 7510, 7510S

I don’t own any of the above, however I do have an instruction guide for the 6310 which is shared here.

Given the size of the guide, I’ve split it into two PDFs and moved the sections that describe how to change the print wheel, ribbon cartridge and correction tape, from the Appendices into Part One.

Part Two comprises chapters on the SpellSure Dictionary, Memory and DataBank operation, How-tos on the design of stationary, resumes and charts, a Glossary, and an Index of Screen Symbols.

Non-essential pages to do with warranties and FCC regulations, etc have been omitted. Enjoy!

ATnT-6310-Instruction-Guide-PART1 (6 MB)

ATnT-6310-Instruction-Guide-PART2 (7.5 MB)

Introduced in October 1985, two years after the initial release of the Silver Reed EX-series (42, 43N, 44, and 55), Silver Reed EX (30, 32¹, 34, 34N, 35, 36) portable electronic typewriters were meant to be a continuation of the series.

Stylistically though, these machines are more of a departure from the original series.

Despite taking the same ribbon cassette, they have a boxier and cheaper overall look and feel, as well as a cheaper (but easier to change) drop-in cassette wheel which replaces the awkward yet robust clip-on print wheel of larger EX machines,

Introduced to fill a gap in the product line, these EX-series portable typewriters appear to have been a stop-gap measure.

October 1986 saw the release of the EZ series, a series initially comprised of one portable EZ-20, one compact EZ-30, and one full size EZ-50) —typewriters with better styling (arguably) and performance than most of their EX predecessors.

EZ-20 pros / EX-32 cons

• The EZ-20 has a quieter action, and is noticeably quicker (12 cps as opposed to 10 cps).
• The EZ-20 carriage return is also quicker.
• The EZ-20 has a slightly larger footprint but is lighter to carry.
• The EZ-20 has a sleeker and more sculpted profile.
• The EZ-20 body is made of a higher grade plastic
• The EZ-20 has a lid with an integral paper table, which is easily and quickly flipped up.
• The EX-32 has a separate snap-on ribbon cover which needs to be lifted off with two hands.
• The EZ-20 has one large platen knob on the left-hand side which is easier to grasp than the smaller inset knobs of the EX-32.

EX-32 Pros

• The EX-32 has a Centronics-compatible parallel port
• The EX-32 supports 15 pitch as well as 10 and 12 pitch
• The EX-32 has a margin scale

The Silver Reed EX-30 appears to be identical to the EX-32, but without the benefit of a parallel port:

The EX-34 and the EX-36 (I haven’t come across an EX-34N or an EX-35) are higher-spec and come with an LCD screen. They also have a dark body shell which is less affected by yellowing (although the key-tops are still vulnerable) …

In addition to a parallel port, the EX-34 and EX-36 have a memory card slot at the front-left of the keyboard:

The EX-32 has the same expansion slot, in this case protected by gritted teeth:

A “multimedia” EX-36 is featured in the following YouTube video:

Merry EX-mas!

~

¹The EX-30 and the EX-32 portables were also sold as the 85EP and the 87EP.

See Also: EZ Writer, EX-Machina

The operating manual for the Silver Reed EX-32 portable electronic typewriter is more extensive than the operating manual for the larger EX-42, partly due to the fact it has a Centronics-compatible parallel port which supports “Interface Mode”. More on this in a future post.

Silver Reed EX32-Operating-Manual-FREE-RESOURCE

I erred (see tag line ↑) in a 2015 post “Letters from Nakajima” by assuming that the Hermes Top-tronic 15 was made by Nakajima.

In fact, the”Top-tronics” 15, 15-1 and 16. were made by Japanese manufacturer Towa Sankiden.

Other Hermes “Top-tronics”, as well as other Hermes and Japy electronic typewriters (Hermes Palliard took over Japy in 1971), were supplied by Olivetti after they took over the Switzerland headquartered Hermes Precisa in 1984.

Olivetti acquired AT & T in 1983, so some of the models listed may also have been sold as AT & T typewriters:

• Hermes 26 portable – especially made for Hermes by Olivetti with a paltry speed of 10 cps.
• Hermes 28 (ET-109, SERD 2000)  a compact machine which zips along at 20 cps per second 1986?
• Hermes Top-tronic 30,   Compact, 17 cps 1986

• Hermes 31 (ET-112, REMSTAR 119)  full-size, 20 cps per second 1986
• Hermes 35 (ET-116, REMSTAR 219)  full-size, 15 cps per second 1986

Source: Info-Markt Ratgeber (German Office Equipment Catalogs) Editions 1984-85, 1986-87.

~

The Hermes Top-tronic 51 with external display screen and the Hermes Super 40, are listed (in Info-markt Ratgeber 1984-85) as manufactured by Hermes Precisa Deutchland GmbH, however I suspect the Japanese (Towa) were involved.

Hermes 60/61 full size electronic typewriters (with Video and Teletex options) are listed (in Info-markt Ratgeber 1986-87) as manufactured by Hermes Precisa Switzerland, however it’s clear Olivetti were involved.

It’s the dealer stickers on a plastic wedge that make a mass produced machine a little more unique.

Sometimes a sticker may have been added by a previous owner to personalise it. The one that came with my Casio CW-600 (Nakajima) is perfect for a daisy “wheel” machine …

The sticker I added to my Brother AX-10 is not quite so attractive. Still, it’s another “plus point” for what is a great little typewriter …

Plus it’ll confuse any future owner, should I be inclined to part with it!

Plus point sample letter 
Free and without obligation 
+++ type wheel change

Go ahead Punkt, make my day …!

The Canon S-300 (introduced in March 1987 and also sold as the UTAX T-3300) occupies the same ambiguous “portable-compact” territory as machines like the Brother CE-70. Functionality-wise, it sits at the top of the S-series …

The Canon S-200 (also sold as the UTAX T-3200, below) is a lower-spec model, without an LCD screen, and without any of the extra (Text, Mode, margin and tabulation) keys to the left and right of the main keyboard.

According to specifications the S-300 boasts (this example in my collection is *dead* so I can’t test this):

• A top speed of 14 cps
• An impressively low noise reading of 50 dBA
• A 31 character LCD screen

The “truly compact” AP-1500 (16 cps) is actually less compact (in terms of its footprint) and takes a larger ribbon, however the difference in “class” shows when you compare them side by side …

Weight-wise these two typewriters are similar, however the S-300 shares more in common with the AP-150 (July 1985, 15 cps), and takes the same ribbon. I guess the category it fits into could be “personal compact” as opposed to “office compact”: In other words, a cheaper, brighter, lower-level, more consumer-friendly version of a compact typewriter.

I *think* the Canon MX-300 (below) is the same typewriter …

Model name variants (possibly regional) confuse matters. Another example is this almost identical S-68S …

And this anomalous (I’ve only ever seen this one) Korean-made S-66 MX which is very close to the AP-150 in its keyboard layout …

Different, yes, but note the “vacant lot” immediately to the left of the Return key. The S-300 has the same thing …

The S-300S (S = more storage options?) has “a vacant lot” at the far left of its top-most row of keys. …

Should you find a working model S-300, or similar, let me know how it goes. Ribbon cassettes are still reasonably easy to find worldwide. The typewriters themselves, on the other hand, are becoming increasingly scarce.

This Brother AX-550 portable electronic typewriter punches well above its weight (said weight being 4.5 kg and noticeably lighter than my Brother AX-10 or Brother AX-30. No doubt, cheaper construction materials and components account for the difference.

So what kind of punch does this cheap-looking AX-β (BETA) version of an AX typewriter pack?

Truth be told (rather than a half truth), the specification for this typewriter should probably state “a top speed of 12 cps” rather than “12 cps” as stated in the User’s Guide. In other words, this typewriter’s average speed feels more like 10 cps.

A reasonably tactile keyboard and a smooth carrier return compare well with older JP-12x portable electronic typewriters, however the motor that rotates the type wheel wheezes like a mildly asthmatic dog.

Nonetheless, the AX-550 does what it was designed to do and is still in good working order almost thirty years after it was made.

This function-rich portable typewriter (the User Guide weighs-in at 111 pages) sits at the top of the Brother AX-β series – however there are at least four distinct (JP-12x, JP-18, AX BETA, GX/SX) AX-prefixed variants.

Some later AX- portable wedges have the scalloped GX/SX body shape, for example an AX-325 (added on the TWDB). Another UK-made AX-210 seems like a JP-18 yet different again (also added on the TWDB).

The only ones with this β (BETA) body shape I’ve come across so far are the AX-110, 130, 140, 350, 450 and 550. (Various non “AX” word processors, WP-1600D, WP-3400, etc have a similar BETA-like body shape.)

This one was sold – as distributor stickers on both the paper table and the front cover of the User’s Guide attest – as a “business” machine.

It supports Pica, Elite and Micron pitches, has a keyboard memory of 48 characters, a correction memory of one line or 383 keystrokes (???), allows up to 12 tabs to be set (including decimal tabs), and can safely handle 1 original plus 4 carbon copies.

With a generously wide (2 lines x 40 characters) LCD screen, it’ll take a while to reach the “hot zone”, and an eternity to reach someone on the Brother “hotline” …

Call me picky, but this typewriter’s “Lego-land” construction (as exemplified by one hideously simple platen knob) lets it down badly.

What, no grooves? I’ve seen better looking toothpaste tube caps.

Remember the parable of the dentist in the Coen Brothers’ movie A Serious Man, wherein a Hebrew message was discovered engraved in the plaster mould of a goy’s teeth?

“Help me, save me”

Oy vey, Brother, if this typewriter could speak! I see dark echoes in the way an identity number has been burnt into the skin of this machine, not once, but twice!

Why would anyone do such a thing? I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man: which of us is possessed?

Of course, I knew Juki 2100 and 2200 portable electronic typewriters took an Olivetti Praxis compatible ribbon (and a TA Triumph-Adler print wheel, and quacked like a duck, see my Juki New Year blog post of January 1st, 2017), but who knew the Juki 2100 (or is it the 2200?) portable electronic typewriter was also sold as the Olivetti DAISY BLACK?

This imaginatively-named typewriter appears to have been unique to Japan (this is a sighting on the Japanese Yahoo auction site).

While Olivetti collaborated with several major Japanese electronics and computer companies throughout the 1980s to produce photocopiers (Sharp, Canon) and office automation systems (Toshiba, Hitachi), I cannot find any evidence they entered into any kind of joint venture with Juki Industries.

On its own, the existence of an Olivetti ribbon, hardly seems like proof of anything. Many electronic typewriter manufacturers used third-party consumables.

But an “Olivetti” branded typewriter and operating guide (rather than the “no name” generic booklet you normally get with an OEM machine)?

Hmm… Maybe Olivetti was more than just a supplier of ribbons? Is it likely Juki came to an agreement with the Olivetti Corp. of Japan to produce a Praxis clone, in the same way they came to an agreement (presumably) with IBM, to put Selectric ribbons in their daisy wheel printers, and unadulterated IBM Selectric golf balls in their Sierra 3300 golf ball typewriters?

Apart from taking the same ribbon, the Juki 2100 and 2200 do share a number of features in common (for example, they share the same see-through top cover, and the same KBI and KBII selector switch to the left of the keyboard) and were manufactured around the same time (1983).

Below, a Daisy Black is listed as an “Olivetti” alongside a Nakajima AX-150 … which shows how much care and attention went into this Japanese online listing.

A second Nakajima thumbnail image is also shown (above) for the Olivetti ET 101, which should look like this…

Not that an association between Nakajima and Olivetti is completely erroneous – if you ever wondered why this Olivetti CX-880 takes a Nakajima AE-series compatible ribbon ….

The answer is simple …

… it’s a Nakajima clone.

I stumbled across this while searching for something else …

It makes for interesting reading (I downloaded a copy onto my Kindle for just a few dollars).

From approximately 1976 to 1984, the Soviet union used electro-mechanical and electronic implants to gather information from Selectric typewriters located in the U.S. embassy in Moscow, and the U.S. consulate in Leningrad. Project GUNMAN was a National Security Agency (NSA) plan to remove and replace all of their potentially compromised typewriters (so any bugs could be analysed and reverse engineered) without the Soviets knowing they’d been rumbled.

The first bug was discovered on the 24th of July, 1984 …

On a Monday evening, 23 July, a technician noticed an extra coil on the power switch of an IBM Selectric typewriter. He decided to x-ray the whole machine from top to bottom. The x-rays of the keyboard proved to be very interesting:

When I saw those x-rays, my response was ‘holy f***\ They really were bugging our equipment.

[…] The next morning, [engineers] argued about whether we had an anomaly or a bugged typewriter. Some typewriters had memory now which could account for additional circuits. What led us to conclude that this typewriter was probably bugged was the location of so many circuits in a metal bar that went along the length of the machine.”

Of the 44 typewriters shipped back to the NSA from the U.S. embassy, 6 were bugged. Later, 7 additional typewriters in the Moscow embassy and 3 typewriters in the Leningrad consulate, were found to have implants.

In total, 16 bugs were found in twelve IBM Selectric II typewriters and four IBM Selectric III typewriters. All had modified bails (interpose latches or arms) that controlled the pitch and rotation of the ball.

The Soviets continually upgraded and improved their implants. It was discovered that there were five varieties or generations of bugs. Three types of units operated using DC power and contained either eight, nine, or ten batteries. The other two types operated from AC power and had beacons to indicate whether the typewriter was turned on or off. Some of the units also had a modified on and off switch with a transformer, while others had a special coaxial screw with a spring and a lug. The modified switch sent power to the implant. Since the battery-powered machines had their own internal source of power, the modified switch was not necessary. The special coaxial screw with a spring and a lug connected the implant to the typewriter linkage, and this linkage was used as an antenna to transmit the information as it was being typed.

Six ferromagnetic magnetizable bails were replaced with six nonferromagnetic nonmagnetizable bails with a very strong magnet in the tip. All the typewriters contained a modified comb support bar. Housing the bug inside a metal bar, and using low power and short burst transmissions at the 30, 60, or 90 MHZ range via radio frequency, made it very difficult for the bugs to be detected.

The Soviets also used “snuggling”techniques to hide bug transmissions in the noise of the transmission of television stations.

All of the implants were quite sophisticated. Each implant had a magnetometer that converted the mechanical energy of the keystrokes into local magnetic disturbances. The electronics package in the implant responded to these disturbances, categorized the underlying data, and transmitted the results to a nearby listening post. Data were transmitted via radio frequency. The implant was enabled by remote control (the Soviets could simply turn off the implants when they knew teams of inspectors were around). The integrated circuits were very sophisticated for that time period, and contained one bit core memory, an advancement that NSA engineers had never seen.

When the story broke in June 1985, press reports attempted to describe how the bugs worked, but were inaccurate in saying that the bugs were based on sound or timing. In reality, the movement of the bails determined which character had been typed because each character had a unique binary movement corresponding to the bails. The magnetic energy picked up by the sensors in the bar was converted into a digital signal.

While there was some ambiguity in determining which characters had been typed, the laws of probability enabled the Soviets (and subsequently NSA) to figure out what had been typed.

The implants were most likely installed by the Soviet Intelligence Service when the typewriters were under the control of Soviet customs officials before they reached their destination at the embassy or the consulate.

(Incidentally, the Soviets exercised extreme caution when it came to their own typewriters, using mechanical typewriters for all classified documentation.)

The GUNMAN security breach led to improvements in procedures for shipping plain text processing equipment. In 1988, the State Department built a facility to inspect and package (using ant-tamper technologies) all such equipment that was shipped overseas. The facility is still in operation today.

Extracts (and paraphrasing) from: Learning from the Enemy: The GUNMAN Project by Sharon A Maneki, National Security Agency, Progressive Management Publications, 2012.

At the very last, Smith Corona VTX- and DTX- series (and Samsung-manufactured “Wordsmith”) portable electronic typewriters bore the (Sun) logo of Smith Corona Office Supplies …

Which literally shows how rapidly the sun went down on a company that was once one of the giants of the typewriter industry.

At some point during the production run of these series, in the early 1990s, Smith Corona threw their (re-born, 1986 onwards) logo, and their reputation, out with the bathwater, stopped manufacturing better quality PWPs in Singapore, and began sourcing shoddy machines from Indonesia instead …

From a distance, the rounded design of these machines is attractive (a lone rampart to the right of the keyboard is reminiscent of the ramparts on Nakajima AX-series machines), however the quality of construction is low grade and the keyboards are sub-standard (I’ve seen several where the transfer lettering on the key-tops has completely worn away).

VTX/DTX-300/400 typewriters were also sold (with “Death Star” logo) as “Display Dictionary” typewriters in North America. The Model Number, listed on the underside of these machines, takes the form NA<n>HH, where <n> is a number in the series: 1, 2, 3, or 4.

VTX- and DTX- prefixes are meaningless, but at least the underlying model numbers make sense. Do I recommend you buy one? NAHH.

Ever wondered (like me) what was underneath the plastic shell of an IBM Wheelwriter?

One reason why these machines are so bulky is they contain what appear to be the skeletal remains of an IBM Selectric …

My understanding is there are four, sometimes five, motors on a typical electronic typewriter: 1. a servo/stepper motor to rotate the platen and provide line control and paper feed, 2. A drive belt motor for the travel of the print carrier back and forth, 3. an impact solenoid to work the print hammer, 4. a servo/stepper motor for the rotation of the print wheel, and 5. a secondary impact solenoid for the application of correction tape.

But is that front-most motor (below) a secondary servo/stepper motor used to control the print carrier, for micro-spacing, centering, etc.?

Obviously, legacy parts did not bode well for the development of a stream-lined IBM electronic wedge. Big Blue left that to the likes of Olivetti and Brother.

Exposed, the back of the 6747 (Jumbo) is home to a “great wall” that Donald Trump would be proud of …

You’d think something could have been done to reduce the size and the weight of the power unit.

The motors on the back of the carrier assembly are hefty (see top-most image). Mind you, they do have to transport a very substantial print unit plus a very large ribbon which is playing piggy-back with a coupled correction cassette …

A lot of clearance is needed depth-wise, and also height-wise for the large print wheel …

Even if IBM wanted to lay that big mother of a motherboard flat, they couldn’t …

In the case of this 6747 Wheelwriter, a secondary PCB was located on a clip-on “false wall” at the rear of the machine …

This PCB connects to the motherboard on the inside “wall” of the machine, and the connector is accessible via a small hatch.

The IBM 6715 (1985) had a printer option which consisted of “a backpack panel containing a circuit board”, plus a parallel cable interface for connecting the typewriter to a personal computer. So I guess this is something like that.

Don’t ask me what it all means. On the contrary I’d be grateful if someone could tell me …

Seriously though, what am I looking at here? I have no idea …

A third PCB – the only one that lies flat – is located just behind the keyboard. Since it’s partly under the travel path of the print carrier, it has a cover …

On proper “wedges” with flatter rubber dome keyboards, the equivalent PCB would have been tucked underneath the keyboard to save space.

The keyboard unit is held in place by two plastic dowels at the end of the prongs on the front of the base plate. …

A highly tactile keyboard is the Wheelwriter’s saving grace. If only they could have built something a little less cumbersome behind it (they did try with the Personal Wheelwriter (6781), but that isn’t exactly lightweight either).

The key-tops and switches are worthy of further investigation. They’re likely the same as those on the IBM 6715 AKA Actionwriter (T-A Triumph-Adler hybrid). See: https://deskthority.net/viewtopic.php?t=14358

Introduced in October 1985, two years after the initial release of the Silver Reed EX-series (42, 43N, 44, and 55), Silver Reed EX (30, 32¹, 34, 34N, 35, 36) portable electronic typewriters were meant to be a continuation of the series.

Stylistically though, these machines are more of a departure from the original series.

Despite taking the same ribbon cassette, they have a boxier and cheaper overall look and feel, as well as a cheaper (but easier to change) drop-in cassette wheel which replaces the awkward yet robust clip-on print wheel of larger EX machines,

Introduced to fill a gap in the product line, these EX-series portable typewriters appear to have been a stop-gap measure.

October 1986 saw the release of the EZ series, a series initially comprised of one portable EZ-20, one compact EZ-30, and one full size EZ-50) —typewriters with better styling (arguably) and performance than most of their EX predecessors.

EZ-20 pros / EX-32 cons

• The EZ-20 has a quieter action, and is noticeably quicker (12 cps as opposed to 10 cps).
• The EZ-20 carriage return is also quicker.
• The EZ-20 has a slightly larger footprint but is lighter to carry.
• The EZ-20 has a sleeker and more sculpted profile.
• The EZ-20 body is made of a higher grade plastic
• The EZ-20 has a lid with an integral paper table, which is easily and quickly flipped up.
• The EX-32 has a separate snap-on ribbon cover which needs to be lifted off with two hands.
• The EZ-20 has one large platen knob on the left-hand side which is easier to grasp than the smaller inset knobs of the EX-32.

EX-32 Pros

• The EX-32 has a Centronics-compatible parallel port
• The EX-32 supports 15 pitch as well as 10 and 12 pitch
• The EX-32 has a margin scale

NOTE: 24/12/2018: One thing that might catch you out, should you not have the instruction guide, is a “Cassette Ribbon Holder” (more like a release lever) to the left of the ribbon cassette …

You can’t just simply lift out the ribbon as you do on most other wedges. You have to “Release the Cassette Ribbon Holder (d) from the Correctable Film Ribbon by pulling it to the left.” See Below. Also, the sprocket will not be properly engaged if you don’t push the Cassette Ribbon Holder (to the right) and back into position after inserting a new ribbon.

The Silver Reed EX-30 appears to be identical to the EX-32, but without the benefit of a parallel port:

The EX-34 and the EX-36 (I haven’t come across an EX-34N or an EX-35) are higher-spec and come with an LCD screen. They also have a dark body shell which is less affected by yellowing (although the key-tops are still vulnerable) …

In addition to a parallel port, the EX-34 and EX-36 have a memory card slot at the front-left of the keyboard:

The EX-32 has the same expansion slot, in this case protected by gritted teeth:

A “multimedia” EX-36 is featured in the following YouTube video:

You can find the Operating Manual here. This is a free resource and should not be offered for resale.

~

¹The EX-30 and the EX-32 portables were also sold as the 85EP and the 87EP.

See Also: EZ Writer, EX-Machina

Released circa September 1991, Sharp’s “second generation” 3000 Series of PA (Personal Automation) portable electronic typewriters are smaller and lighter than their predecessors …

“First generation” PA-3000/3100 Series portable electronic typewriters (3000, 3020, 3120, 3130, 3140, 30211) were introduced in October 1986 …

Both the new and the old PA-series continued to be manufactured and sold into the 1990s.

In the following ad, a Sharp PA-3000II is described as “compact”. Not compact in the sense of “semi-professional”, but compact in the sense of being small and lightweight …

Since these were entry-level typewriters (often targeted at students and given away with fountain pens) the “Intelliwriter” name was dropped …

Like the PA-3000/3100 series “Intelliwriters” that came before, these typewriters have an average speed of 12 cps, which is one benchmark of a good rather than a poor-to-average portable electronic typewriter.

Other portable wedges (Brother AX-440 I’m thinking of you) claim a top speed of 12 cps, when the average speed is somewhere around 10, and are sluggish by comparison.

Things to like about these 1990s Sharp PA-3000 machines:

• A quality keyboard with tactile soft-to-the-touch key-tops
• A spacious cable-stow compartment on the rear of the machine
• Simple, stylish, lightweight

On the downside:

• The typing line is hardly visible:

Where’s a 40 character LCD screen when you need one? A major drawback of these typewriters is the one-piece transparent ribbon cover which doubles as the paper bail bar and obscures your view of what’s being typed – annoyingly this is a cover which you can only pull towards you and rest against the keyboard, rendering the typewriter inoperable …

• Another downside is the print wheel:

“First generation” PA-3000/3100 Series typewriters use a drop-in cartridge (Below Right). The wheel is further supported by a metal brace.

“Second generation” wheels are also dropped in, but without a protective cartridge (Below Left). Get the alignment wrong and you can damage the wheel …

Drawbacks aside, for simple typing jobs these typewriters are pretty good. Manufactured in Korea, the U.K. and the Philippines, the PA-3000, with various S, H and X suffixes that hint at additional storage and/or functions, come in a variety of light-to-mid-to-dark grey-to-charcoal colours …

The UK-made Sharp PA-3000s below appears to have been the very first incarnation of the “second generation” – they have a flip-up lid/paper table which is separate to the ribbon cover and the bail bar, plus a chunky platen knob – features more in keeping with typewriters of the “first generation” (PA-3000/3100 series) …

A variation of this typewriter was advertised for sale in the USA, in August 1990 and the years following, as the QL-800 “Celebra” …

Brand recognition is important to the giants of consumer electronics. Sharp is no exception and mostly sells its products under its own name; however some electronic typewriters were clearly supplied on an OEM basis …

Later (“third generation”?) QL-110, 200, 210, 310 portable electronic typewriters (sold in the U.K. circa 1993 onwards) have a body style which is very similar to typewriters of the “second generation” …

These QL- typewriters have a more rounded shape. A view of the underside of both machines shows the difference …

My copy of Paradigm Shifts: Typewritten Tales of Digital Collapse has landed down under …