Thursday, September 22, 2011

HERMES Media 3 in Cursive - Typecast



The last comment is from my 11-year-old.  So glad my kids know how to build sentences.

OK, I'm going to get this over with.  I may be a heretic, but the sage-ish green of Hermes typewriters is just kind of OK in my book.  Color, however, is a very personal thing.  The freakishly smooth operation of this machine is in another class.  The downside is that there is no chance whatsoever to even think about changing your mind in mid key stroke.  The type has already hit the page.

The cursive script on this machine is dainty and delicate.  I haven't done a thing to align typebars, yet everything links together nicely



Lovely curves.  I wonder how it would look in a deep metallic green?  Just kidding!


Unexpected bonus:  an official Hermes brand ribbon spool!

The money shot.
It was pretty clean to start with.  I was kind of lazy and focused on cleaning up old lube and getting the segment slots and type cleaned out with mineral spirits.
If I'm reading the Internet Typewriter Database right, this machine was made in 1962.

Bad light in the garage during cleaning.  This is the underside of the basket with the ball bearing equipped shift rails.

3 comments:

  1. Money shot indeed! Love taking macro shots of type slugs; glad I'm not the only one :-)

    I've found many Hermeses in the wild (this is Switzerland, after all...) but only one script, a white Hermes Baby I picked up earlier this year. I am holding on to it for dear life! There seem to be many more script Hermeses in the US than over here. Then again, there are many 3000s and Media 3s listed on Swiss classifieds/ auction sites whose typefaces I will never know because the sellers don't care to mention them. Maddening...

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  2. It has been awhile since I used the macro lens on my Canon. I vacillate between the full depth of field world of landscape photography and extreme shallow depth of field. Type lends itself to the latter.

    I was at home yesterday waiting on roofers and accumulated a range of images for future posts. I found a telephone company ad plate that I particularly like and will post soon.

    I watched ebay for cursive typewriters for several weeks and found this one with a type sample buried in the description photos. Funny thing is that an identical one came up two weeks later also with a poor description.

    Many sellers, like me a mere two months ago, have no idea there are different typefaces. I want an italic machine and you have triggered serious Fraktur lust. Finding either given the dearth of accurate product descriptions could be difficult *sigh*

    On the other hand, the hunt is part of the fun. I don't run into many typewriters in my weekly rounds of the area thrift stores. Now I dismissively study the type faces and do a catch and release photo. Yes, this is your fault :-)

    Today I found purchase order forms in triplicate! The Oliver is building an army of flying Oliver 99s (our story arc for this machine) and will now be able to requisition parts in style.

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  3. Your Hermes Media 3 is quite the saucy machine!

    LOVE the closeup images. They fairly jumped out onto the screen. Now I'm going to be attacked by giant type slugs in my dreams!

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