Life On Cooligan Hill

 Underwood No. 5 stubborn Margin Release

I gushed over this machine when I wrote its gallery description for The Typewriter Database back in 2013, and righty so. Sturdy and classic, Models No. 3 (wide carriage), No. 4 (76 characters vs. the No. 5’s 84), and No. 5 were made from 1900 through 1931 and were ubiquitous on office desks through the first half of the 20th century. Nearly four million of the Underwood Model No. 5’s were made. Richard Polt describes the combination of features that made the No. 5 a success, including a front stroke mechanism, designed by the German-American engineer, Franz X. Wagner, allowing characters to be visible as they’re typed, and a four-bank keyboard  with single shift. 

That’s all taken for granted by us now. What stands out for me and I believe most collectors now, is its solid functionality and its looks that say, “classic typewriter”. I’m smitten by the steampunk look of the exposed gears, cranks, bell, and linkages. 

The margin release issue. I’d purchased my 1929 Model No. 5 in 2013 and used it a lot for a few years until it got sort of absorbed among the crowd as the collection grew to over 100 typewriters. It came to light recently in time for writing Christmas notes and was the master of our dining table for about a week, during which time a familiar affliction, one that had been a mild annoyance, surfaced to become a real problem. The margin release button would have no affect until jabbed at several times - worse, the jarring of a carriage return could lock up the keys.

The margin lock bar hovering in front of the hooks formed as part of the type bars, ready to drop into them when triggered by the margin lock system. 

How it works - sort of. Despite the visibility of much of its innards that give the machine its character, the path of linkages from the MR button is tucked in close to the cast iron frame and difficult to trace. Removing the “U”-shaped faceplate behind the keys is simple and helps a bit. The basics of the locking mechanism consists of a pair of parallel bars. One hovers just above the type bars ready to plunge into their waiting notches when the margin lock is triggered. I’ll call it the margin lock bar, and it’s visible with a good light from both the front and through the window on the bell side. 

Here’s the margin lock bar in the free position

The margin lock bar in lock position. The bar has moved forward to slip under the hooks formed on the top of the type bars preventing the keys from being depressed.

The margin lock bar is attached to and swung into and out of lock position by what I’ll call the margin lock pivot bar, or just the pivot bar. It pivots on bearings in the cast iron frame on each end and is attached to the lock bar by three arms. When the margin lock is triggered the pivot bar turns slightly against a spring that wraps around the right end of the pivot bar, swinging the lock bar into the lock position where it is held by a small arm or latch on the left end of the pivot bar that is captured by the vertical linkage of the margin lock/release system tucked in tight in the front left corner of the machine..

The margin lock bar seen through the side window in lock position. One of the three cross bars or arms that fasten the lock bar to the pivot bar is visible to the right of the rightmost type bar. Next are the bars for the backspace and left shift keys. To the far right tucked into the corner of the frame is part of the linkage connecting to the bell and the pivot bar

The pivot bar extends across the underside of the typewriter.

A closer view of the spring that pivots the pivot bar and the attached lock bar back into the free position.

Clean up. Once I had a general idea of the parts making up the margin lock/release system I cleaned it as well as I could with a brush and blasts of compressed air. Rinsing pivot points with repeated squirts of lighter fluid followed by blasts of compressed hopefully removed congealed lubricant. (Do have a care with solvents - keep them away from paintwork and remove as soon as possible. Read Richard Polt’s suggestions for typewriter cleaning).

That done, and the margin release button still cranky, I simply tightened up the spring on the pivot bar slightly. Better, but still sometimes requiring extra presses. So I tightened it a bit more, in all perhaps less than a quarter turn around the pivot bar. Success - a happy typospherian and an annoying glitch done away with. 

Almost happy. Although the margin release button does its job well now, I was compelled to get it to reveal how it does it, there in its hidden corner of the frame. So out came the endoscope. A very fun tool, it connects to my iPhone through some sort of Wi-Fi wizardry and can capture photos and videos via the phone's camera. Reviewed full screen on my computer things became slightly less fuzzy.

This half-speed video looks down at part of the margin lock and release system in the left front corner. It shows one of the type bars in slow motion action as the right margin is approach until the bell rings. After a pause seven more characters are typed until the margin lock is triggered. The view moves to an inside view of the margin release button as it releases the lock and frees the type bars. 

It's time to move on, although I've left unresolved many mysteries of the various cams, levers, springs, pivots, etc.,that make up the margin lock system. Maybe I'll get back to it - I'm hoping the Typosphere will comments and help me out with an update.

Out with the plastic ribbon spools On, now, to a bit more TLC. . The plastic spools would occasionally lift from the drive pins resulting in weak impressions as the slugs kept trying to squeeze all the ink out of the same place. I re-spooled the ribbon onto metal spools and all was well. 

New feet. Finally, the 90-or-so year-old feet. They'd become brittle with age, and as I shoved and tilted the machine this way and that they had crumbled and a couple had fallen off. I was happy to find I’d stashed a fresh pair so I was able to replace them. Interestingly, I’d found that, sometime during this No. 5's life, someone had added a thick washer between each of the right hand feet and the frame, firmly gluing them on. Not wanting to create damage by prying or knocking them off, I left them be. So the machine now has a very slight, but apparent, list to port. That is, a tilt to the left. Perhaps to help a supposed weak motor along with a bit of gravity?! Well, so be it. And now my typewriter and I have something in common - a weakening motor and a list to port.

Tools used:

Ronson lighter fluid

Xpower electric air blower

Long, thin bladed screwdriver (to reach up through the keys to remove the see-saw ribbon selector.

DEPSTECH Endoscope.