Hail Ultraports!

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Now this thing has to be the lightest typewriter I’ve ever come across! It was made in England and sold at Eaton’s as a Playfair Feather Touch. The only metal I saw on it were a few screws, and every other part was plastic, including the type slugs, which have 3 characters each. This you could carry on a backpacking trip, if only it was likely to work. It did seem to work from my testing, but the tiny ribbon, about 1/4″ wide, was not inked enough and was all twisted, so that was an assumption. They were asking a ridiculous price for it too, so I let someone else have it.

This great generosity was well rewarded soon after when I picked up two real typewriters in succession, both very similar to each other and for a good price.

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First was this one:

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4 Comments

Filed under Technology, Thrift shop finds, Typewriters

4 responses to “Hail Ultraports!

  1. Nice finds! I too like ultraportable, though I don’t have either of these.

  2. Those plastic toy typewriters barely work, if at all. But I do enjoy a good metal ultraportable.

  3. ooh, the Underwood 18. actually an Antares design and fairly uncommon. I really liked the one I got to play with a bit.

  4. Kidthings

    Those plastic typewriters like the Playfaire were kids toys. I had a red and white one as a kid from the Sears Catalogue. I now have the Aqua Playfaire and it is a childs toy. That is why it is made out of plastic.

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