Heinz Sander

Look What Came With My Typewriter!

The typewriter in its case

I was at the thrift store, looking for something worthwhile to buy, and I saw a Smith-Corona Classic 12 for sale. (They often have typewriters for sale. Also Wii balance boards.) And I liked the way it typed, and I allso liked that it was manual (I allready have an electric typewriter (which allso happens to be a Smith-Corona)), but the real reason I bought it was what I found inside the case.

The typewriter as I found it -- with an envelope on top.

It was an envelope containing the original instruction manual! I just had to have that, so I bought the typewriter.

Me holding the envelope.
The envelope and all its contents lying on the floor.

Here’s what was in the envelope:

  • The instruction booklet
  • An order form for new ink ribbons
  • A punch card with the typewriter sales info
  • A card with instructions for re-seating something
  • A packet of Tipp-Ex strips (torn open on the side)
  • A brochure for a touch-typing course
  • A card with a list of authorized Smith-Corona service locations
  • An envelope for ordering new typesets
  • A random piece of paper which I’m not sure what it is (I didn’t scan that one)

And all of them were bent in half because the envelope was sitting on the wrong spot on top of the machine when they closed the case.

For sake of posterity and preservation, I’m uploading scans of everything here. Perhaps some typewriter enthusiast will think these are interesting. I certainly do. They’re a slice of history. (Also, my apologies for the mediocre scanning job. It’s hard to scan something which won’t lay flat!)

Click here to download an archive of the full-resolution scans: SCM-envelope-archive.zip

Here are the scans!

The front cover of the instruction manual
This is the front cover of the instruction booklet.

Click here to view a PDF of the whole instruction booklet: instruction_manual.pdf

The front of the envelope
This is the front of the envelope it came in.
The back of the envelope
Here’s the back of the envelope.
The inside of the typeset-order envelope
This is the inside of the typeset-order envelope. (The flap at the top was stuck down with its own stickum. I tried to pull it up, but I ended up tearing it slightly, so I stopped trying.)
The outside face of the typeset-order envelope
Here’s the outside of the typeset-order envelope.
Me holding the typeset-order envelope
It would fold up like this (then the bottom would fold up, making it look just like an envelope.)
A form for ordering new ink ribbons
This is for ordering new ink spools.
A card which provides help on a common issue
A punch card with order information on it
Here’s the front of the punch card. If you look closely, you can see all the square holes punched in it. I don’t know what they mean.
The back of the punch card
Here’s the back of the punch card.
Tipp-Ex
Here’s the front of the Tipp-Ex packet. It had about a dozen strips left inside.
The back of the Tipp-Ex packet
Here’s the back of the Tipp-Ex packet.
A brochure for a touch-typing class
Looks kind of 70s to me…? I’m not really familiar with that decade.

Hope that was interesting!

Heinz Sander

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