That's the beautiful sound of a Smith-Corona at 70 wpm.

In fairness -- there are a lot more typewriters still around than people who know how to clean, adjust, set them up and test them . . . which means most of the ones you see on eBay or on Facebook marketplace are machines someone found at a thrift shop or when cleaning out the attic. You're right that one of these can make a good display piece, but anyone shopping for a typewriter without being able to test it, without seeing a video clip, without seeing a specimen page -- it's really just a throw of the dice whether you end up with a working typewriter or not.

The spools are unique but the ribbons are generic, and easily transferred. Just takes a few minutes, and a hand-wash after.

Right you are. But of course, every two or three hundred pages you have to spend $6 on a new ribbon . . .

This is interesting. Can you discuss further your primary sources?

@@Joe_VanCleave Newspapers that are digitized. Of course ads are always circumspect as sources, however, when the trends remain the same that lends a bit more validity. Occasionally SCM dealers will cite how many millions of electric machines were sold. Then you can look at Ted's fantastic SN data, the small amount that is there for SCM, and start to speculate. The sheer number of years these variants all the way back to the 5TE tells us there are far more than what they get credit for. Next up we have the business data for the industry as a whole. This shows the SCM went from a 4th tier player to the 2nd slot right below Remington. This with no really good standard and all on the back of the electric portable. I'd add that Remington is really hard to parse out since they sold so much more than typewriters. I'd take a leap and suggest if you could, SCM passed them in typewriter sales. So if they got to 2 million sold in 74 ish, did they sell another 2 million in the next decade before the bottom fell out of typebar sales? The Coronamatics, entirely overlooked today, were another game changer. If not, it had to be close to Underwood No. 4/5 territory. Now one could argue all these SMC electrics are not the same model. Of course, but essentially they are under the hood. By that standard, we could cut out all the No 4 as not the same model. And that number is always included when people say the No 5 is the most sold. I don't think there is any data on the number of No. 4s? Whew!

@@JB-uv4hm Thank you!

​@JB-uv4hm is it accurate to guess that these Electrics dominated the home market, in the same way that the Selectrics dominated offices during the 1970s?

@@jeremynv89523 Perhaps the home market, but also these were less expensive than Selectrics and thus may have had significant penetration into the office market as well.

It's a commitment -- not easy to store away -- but I can't disagree with your choice. These are formidable typing machines.

Good for you. This machine is an excellent choice for a first typewriter to gift to a child.

They typically have a bell but he either disabled his or just didn't type to the margin.

It was a pretty straightforward rattle-can job. Three coats of satin paint, after carefully taping off the faceplate.

@@NisKildegaard Nice touch. Also, are there major differences between the 1976, 1977, and 1978 Sears Achiever models? Thanks

@@TristanGeary I haven't done side-by-side comparisons, but I don't think there are significant differences. I do know that the later models had all-black keyboard layouts, lacking the red key highlights for the TAB and auto-spacer functions. Basically, these are Brother JP-7 mechanisms inside, much like the Accord, and like the Montgomery-Ward Escort machines.

Honestly, Richard, most of my time with tabulators is spent testing them, not using them -- making sure they work right before listing a typewriter on eBay. They can be finicky, in different ways for different brands. Later Smith-Coronas, for example, have a tabulator speed brake built into the escapement that can seize up if a typewriter is stored for many years, and it takes some patient attention with solvents to get them working again. (The speed brakes on Olympia portables are so problematic that I often simply remove them.) If you were to look at several examples of the specimen pages I type up as the final presentation of a typewriter, you'd find that I prefer separating paragraphs with an extra line of space -- half a line, if the machine provides for that -- rather than indenting. On the office typewriter I keep at my upstairs desk and frequently use for addressing envelopes, I just make sure there are proper tab stops for the addressee. That machine happens to be an Adler Universal with decimal tabs, a set of keys running across the top line of the keyboard.

@@NisKildegaard I owned a Universal for many years, finding its kinship with their portable manuals and electrics convenient. Like you, I prefer block style rather than indenting. In production work it's faster than indenting. Best wishes!

I think I picked it up from our local thrift shop.

Same feeling! Lol