SG-3

I came across something special again ;)

During the search of the auction site one typewriter caught my eye…

Olympia model SG3 with unique QWERTY keyboard and with “ ‘ “ key!
Not only newer did QWERTY typewriters was produced with polish specials, but also none of original layout (PRL approved) had this special mark - one single character making typewriter multilanguage (my theory: it was made for purpose).

I pointed out this facts before on my blog, so you can imagine how shocked i was :)

I written to the seller and asked about the details… how it works, what is the condition etc.
And he claimed, that this specific typewriter was his friends, who worked in Vatican for almost entire life.
Well… that was some explanation - such typewriter would never be made for Polish market i believe… but for Vatican was entirely different matter.


I catched the bait… And had it after two-three weeks: I was searching for somebody to deliver it to me - it was too big to send it by post and not to risk any damage.


Well… It doesn’t work yet. I cleaned it and there is some problem with space-bar - it blocks the carriage. Without the shell it work perfect, but when I assembly it after cleaning the problem rise again. I’ll look to it - It’s probably some adjustments in the mechanism.



Anyway… I also figured out, that this is not original made keyboard.
I mentioned craftsmen, who modded foreign typewriters for private owners during the soviet regime in Poland. This is one of it… Altrought very well made!


This is one modded example:

Mine looks almost as original… There is slight difference in the polish specials on the keyboard (they are little brighter) and that’s it.
I figured out, cuz I couldn’t clean the hammers properly… The polish specials were welded in the place of old one - probably spanish.

Original hammer

Welded hammer

The seller don’t want to tell me the owner name… I’m making some investigation around the topic, and hopefully I’ll announce some additional info about history of this model soon :)