Varityping in Dietwil

Dietwil, Switzerland, has proven to be an epicentre of typewriter science. Yesterday we set out to explore Alfred's Varityper, # 512326 20. There was a question mark as to its functionality at first, but we gradually lifted the cobwebs and found it working.

See a few impressions of the day. And Varityper?? See Richard's page for details.

  

Marvellous pencil sharpeners

Here is some pencil sharpeners from the Alfred R Wepf collection. Alfred is only the occasional pencil sharpener collector. He is more into typing.

First comes the "Jupiter" 1, produced by Guhl & Harbeck in Hamburg, Germany

Elegant and functional design

Plus it works! See more technical details at http://www.jupiter-spitzmaschinen.de/3.html

Here comes the Automatic Pencil Sharpener, made in the U.S.A.

Add caption

And here comes a Play-Me pencil sharpener from Spain!

Nice details!

they put quite some work in this side ornament

But here is the King of Kings: IDUNA, made by IDEA from Germany

IDUNA logo. The machine was made in Leipzig. "D.R.P." is short for "Deutsches Reichspatent", and patent n° 341369 was issued on 30.9.1921 to Martin Berndt of Leipzig-Eutritzsch for a "Schreibstiftspitzmaschine" (patented as of 8.10.1919) 

An excerpt of DE341369

Here is the US patent (US1504019 of Aug. 5, 1924)

strong and solid

One can choose the fitting pencil size

The upper cylinder then moves right or left accordingly

Simply the best! Usually it is mounted on a wooden plate, which we left out from the photo.

  

5 great typewriters from the Alfred R. Wepf collection

These are from my friend Alfred's collection:

Olivetti Lettera DL

Olivetti Graphika

Mercedes Elektra

IBM 72

The Noiseless Typewriter, Mod. 4