Small Is Beautiful: Corona 4

I think E. F. Schumacher would have agreed that typewriters are an “appropriate technology”.  He may even have approved of my latest acquisition – it’s actually a liberation.

This afternoon I found this sad little Corona wasting away in a junk shop down the street in my neighborhood. I hit it off with the shop’s owner, and he gave it to me for $12.  He was glad to see it go to a happy home. What a great guy!

Here she is, working on her tan in the Californian sun.  She already feels better.

Her serial number is: J2A03722 which means she’s from 1930. Many thanks to the Typewriter Database for the serial number information and all the beautiful pictures.

This Corona 4 is in terrible shape: extremely dirty (I thought she was all black, but she’s actually black with gold (!) panels now that I see her in the sunlight) and rusty. And frozen stiff too. Her carriage is stuck in a weird way. The draw cord is deceased, there are lost linkages – you get the picture.

All-in-all she is a wonderful project. Funnily enough, I was recently admiring Robert Messenger’s glorious blue and gold Corona. I never imagined that I would own anything like that. Dreams can come true.

My Oliver No. 9 is thisclose to being functional – she’s almost typing. I can’t talk about the Corona in front of her because I don’t want my Oliver to get sulky. As soon as the Oliver is typing, I’ll take care of the Corona.