hi my names rook i have found an old typewriter with dates scratched into a flappy thing on it. yes a flappy thing. i have googled the dates and have found them to coincide with atleast 1 if not more than one event on each of the dates. my real question is why is there a zero in front of the date. military code? some random idiot? the date looks like this 0-4-16-41/ 0-4-11-42/etc please email me or past back my email is bong_water_420@hotmail.com i really would like to know if this zero means something and if this typewriter has/could of been in the war thanks for any and all help/criticism for saying flappy
Interesting e-mail... Urgent, immediate answers are usually $25, unless some thinking is required, then it could be more. (j/k)
im 25 had that email since i was 13 when my shop teacher said (yes shop teacher thats where i learned to use a computer) use anything word term or anything you want your email addy to be. an well to this day i still have it. and 25 bucks for an answer may be worth it. im really interested in how why and where this thing was. my grandpa served in ww2 so im really curious about the dates and the zero in front of them..
First of all... View attachment 15271 Let's see a pic of typewriter and markings in question. Second, the way I see it there are a couple of assumptions being made: 1) the numbers and dashes represent dates 2) the presumed dates are historically relevant, let alone WW2 related For all we know, they could be lock combinations or birth dates or any number of things. At any rate, good luck with your search.
they could be lock combos or birthdates yes. but since Royal was about the only typewriter company around an since they were asking everyone for them and it was made in 1939 or 1940 my assumption seemed accurate to me even still why a 0 in front of them all an why the same format everytime? could it have been a tune up on the typewriter? View attachment 24393 View attachment 24394 View attachment 24395
If they were scratched in, that would be a personal modification and could mean any number of things. Nothing OEM-wise so difficult to find an answer. Isuspect it to be a Royal KMM mode http://mytypewriter.com/ProductImages/Royal_Desk_KMM_early40s_M.jpg
only thing is mine has rounded keys an every model i have found has squared ones or "tombstones" and like i said i assumed that it was military related because of the dates etc. thought maybe it was a military thing.. still dont understand but oh well thanks for spendin the time to look
Rookie, you're attachments don't seem to be working, at least not for me. Assuming they are dates, wouldn't the military be DD-MM-YY rather than MM-DD-YY? Of course, it could have been a civilian using the typewriter that etched the dates. I'm just throwing out anything that out there for sake of discussion.
dEAr mR boNG Water, Please tell your old school to fire your English teacher.... You're dealing with WW 2 historians here and they'll do anything for WW 2 research. If it's WW 2 related they'll let you know. You can keep the $25 bucks. Besides it's overtime on weekends !! Outside of my smart remarks, I hope it is of historical value !!
the 16 is a day , considering there are only twelve months in a year, it can only be the DD-MM-YY patern , hence I'm thinking of a civilian model rahter than a military one. The WW2 years of making makes it interesting, but not worth a lot I'm afraid.
There have been various ways of doing military dates throughout the years, varying by time, nation, and even service. However, It has been very common in the US since pre-WW2 that the date would be dd-mm-yyyy or sometimes mm-dd-yyyy. Thus, even if a month or day would normally have only one digit, it is common to put a "0" in front of that to make up the two digits for the day or the month. Thus, it doesn't seem at all unusual to me to have "04" for the fourth day of the month, or "04" for April. I suspect the "0"s on this typewriter actually go with the "4"s, and thus the dates would be April 16, 1941 and April 11, 1942. About one year, so maybe just dates of assignment at a unit or in a job..... Lots of possibilities. DocL
Pretty much what I was saying. I do think it odd that there would be a dash between the first "0" and the "4" if they are dates. It would be helpful if Rookie187 had posted pics. Further speculation is useless without more info.