Chevron–Woolworths–Nakajima ALL electric typewriter

These were made by Nakajima ALL in Japan and sold around the world under many different names, often the names of department stores. This one is a Chevron, and has a Woolworths logo on it (the logo was used in Australia from about 1987 to 2005 or something, so I guess that dates the machine – later than I would have expected).

This example works essentially perfectly. The plastic is a little faded in places, and the unit is not visually pristine, but it's completely functional. So let us speak of function.

As befits an electric, the key press need not be hard. But it does feel vague and rather tinny. The sound is also tinny. I found that the impression was not as uniform as I expected from an electric, but the ribbon is quite old. It cannot keep up with very fast typing, especially (like many fluted shaft electrics) if you type quickly after hitting 'Return'. You can hit one key while the carriage is returning, but not more.

It is heavier and, needing mains power, less portable than a manual of similar capability. Unlike many electrics of its vintage, it does not have a delete key. Having said that, on similar machines the delete key essentially backspaces and temporarily selects the lower half of the ribbon. The user then types the mistake again, and if the ribbon is a half-black, half-white one, correction fluid gets stamped onto the error. That means that (a) such machines tend to fill up with little white flakes of dried correction fluid, and (b) the 'correction'; is really in the ribbon – one could fit such a ribbon to any 2-colour machine, and manually backspace and select 'red' (ie 'white') to correct. The so-called correction function saves a bit of fiddling about, is all.

front top view

Here is a sample of the typeface – nothing exciting, I'm afraid,

character set and
typeface example from the Chevron–Woolworths thing

Conclusion: an excellent typer for little investment and no competition from collectors. A good buy if you want to use a typewriter as it was intended, rather than collect them.

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