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Instructions for the Marx Dial Typewriter

Dial typewriters date from the turn of the 20th century, when the machines were new and several rival styles were in use. Dial machines, as the name suggests, used a dial to select letters and punctuation and imprinted them by striking a single working key. These machines made for slow typing but were inexpensive and easy to produce compared with a regular typewriter. They were obsolete by the time of World War One, but a popular toy version was manufactured by the Louis Marx company from 1923 until the beginning of World War Two.

Things You'll Need

Disposable glove
Stamp pad re-inking bottle

Instructions

- 1
  Put on a disposable glove to re-ink the ink roller without staining your fingers.
- 2
  Extract the felt ink roller from the underside of the letter wheel by pulling out the cotter pin that holds it in place. Ink the roller with a sponge-tipped bottle, the kind used to re-ink stamp pads.
- 3
  Replace the ink roller and cotter pin in their original positions. Insert a sheet of paper under the platen, or roller, and turn the knobs to raise the paper to the typing position.
- 4
  Rotate the dial at the top of the typewriter to select a letter, punctuation mark or space. Some later models have a separate space key.
- 5
  Strike the typing key in the middle of the typewriter, at the base of the printing head assembly, to imprint the letter on the page. Repeat Steps 4 and 5 to complete the message.
- 6
  Remove the paper from the typewriter by turning the knobs at either end of the roller.

Collecting Vintage Toys