model100

the "Model 100"

Bruce Beard, a fellow collector in Australia, has sent me a number of extra owners manuals for typewriters, with which a great deal of research is being done. One set of manuals, in two slightly different versions, is for the 'Model 100' portable, the cover of one of which is seen at the right.

There's just one odd thing about these manuals, though. There is no brand name, no manufacturer name, no country or date, no printing code; in short, no identification at all other than the stated model number of 'Model 100.' Naturally, the question becomes one of "what were these things?"

Both manual versions cover the same machine, although the units pictured have very slight differences -- the shape of the carriage return lever, for example. One picture showing how to change ribbons is seen at left, with two identifying features.

The main, or carriage, spring can be seen to the left of, and below, the segment. To the right, and below, is part of the ribbon selector / vibrator mechanism. Using this picture, and my collection of hundreds of portables, I found that this setup is a match for exactly one kind of portable. The match is the TIPPA, the version used being a mid-60's TRIUMPH TIPPA. Other numerous details visible in the pictures match as well, at least as far as the machine itself is concerned, including keyboard characteristics (right down to shape and angle of key levers) and what is visible of the type bar mechanism. We might then think that this is some department store version of the TIPPA, but all the features other than these don't match; body style is wrong, keytops are wrong, and something much bigger is wrong too.

At left, another Model 100 manual view, showing the carriage lock design, which again perfectly matches the TIPPA. And note: This isn't the later basket-shifted TIPPA S, but the earlier version. But look at the carriage end... all wrong for the TIPPA! Nothing matches on the carriage at all.

At right, a better view of the left end of the carriage. Note the steel roller, connected to an arm by two screws. Note the see-through plastic scale on the paper table, behind which are pointers to show where the rear-mounted margin set tabs are set. Note the aft mounting of the hinge for the carriage return lever, and note the line space selector's design with just three hash marks to indicate setting.

Interestingly, the carriage details don't match anything in the TRIUMPH or ADLER sphere, nor the later LITTON ownership sphere which included ROYAL, IMPERIAL and SILVER-SEIKO (and later NAKAJIMA) machines. They all DO match, exactly, carriage details and designs found on the small range of OLYMPIA machines, namely the little SF series and the later, slightly larger SKM series better known as the TRAVELLER. My OLYMPIA SF and UNIS TBM DE LUXE were used for this comparison, just as my TRIUMPH TIPPA was used for the machine details. Very many other machines were compared and ruled out, I should add.

Now we have an interesting situation. We don't know who made this machine or where, although since German is the first lanuguage in the manual Germany's as good a guess as any. We might guess 1970's to 1980's for date, which is a very large window. The only thing we can be sure of is that the design is an amalgamation of two other different and widely produced machines, namely a TIPPA with a minimally-modified OLYMPIA SF carriage grafted on.

index

Note: This page was originally built in March 2003. In March 2004, the author actually acquired one of these machines. You can see it on the next page. This page has been left mostly intact, as constructed, for the interest of readers who are curious as to how our research is performed ... and as to what our "batting average" is!