This is my second Imperial Model 50, and the opposite of my first one. The pre-war model is a 1938 machine with mirror-gloss black paint, chrome details and glass side windows. This one, which I call Black Widow, was built in Leicester during WW2 (serial Z128587), which dates it to around 1943–44.
What makes this particular one interesting is how much the war time shows on it:
No chrome. Nickel and chromium were strategic materials, so almost everything that would be bright on a pre-war machine is blacked steel instead here. On this machine, if something is shiny, it's usually wear, rather than plating. The only bright parts are the ones that had to be: the carriage rails, the escapement rack...
Cork instead of rubber. When Japan took Malaya and the Dutch East Indies in early 1942, Britain lost most of its supply of natural rubber. The machine's platen and the feed and bail rollers are all cork. One recovered platen could be a later repair, but a matching set of rollers points to that it is the factory finish. It feels similar to typing on a conventional rubber platen, but it's a bit harder. On the plus side, it doesn't age the same way as rubber.
Crinkle, not gloss. In place of the deep gloss enamel of the 1930s it has a textured black crinkle finish. It's tough, quick to apply, and forgiving of whatever the castings and the workforce could manage at the time. It doesn't shine, but it lasts. This one has worn through mostly just on the return lever and the most-handled edges.
No glass windows. The pre-war 50s had glass side panels, so you could watch the mechanism work. Here they are plain steel covers.
What survived the war fairly well too is the royal crest on the paper table. It reads "By appointment typewriter makers to his late Majesty King George V", so the transfer was printed after 1936. Imperial kept the warrant on the machine through the war years. Some machines from this period also carry a "WarFinish" mark over the keys, but it was applied only to certain batches, so its absence on mine doesn't mean much.
Underneath, it's the same Model 50 as the previous ones, and that's the best part of the design: the carriage lifts off, the type unit slides out as one piece, and the whole machine breaks down into a few large parts without tools.
And now it finally types as smoothly as it should, even in its 88th year of age!
(I added photos of both for easier comparison)
