Keyboard
             - 43 typing keys
             - 86 characters
             - Key travel: 13 mm
             - Keyboard angle: 27°

             Operational controls
             - Two shift keys
             - Shift lock
             - Space bar
             - Back space key
             - Margin release key
             - Paragraph indentation key
             - Indentation set/unset lever

             Carriage
             - Maximum page width: 25.2 cm
             - Length of typed line: 22.6 cm
             - Number of spaces per line: Pica 87; Elite101
             - Line space selector - three position plus "zero"
             - Line space and carriage return lever
             - Carriage release lever
             - Margin setting levers
             - Paper release lever
             - Bail rod

             Auxiliary services and devices
             - Carriage locking lever
             - Three-position ribbon selector;
               blue/black,red,stencil
             - Three position touch regulator;
               hard,medium,soft
             - Automatic ribbon reverser
             - Variable line spacer
 
             Body
             - Metal matrix

             Dimensions
             - Width: 34.6 cm
             - Height: 10.5 cm
             - Depth: 35.1 cm
             - Weight: 5.9 kg
 
 
 

This little machine sat around the legs of my table in its faux-leather casing for almost 21 years before I took it out and gave it a new life. Its blue-gray, and in almost mint condition. My grandfather bought it for my aunt at some unknown date almost two decades ago. Like a family heirloom, the typewriter passed into my family after my aunt was done with it.Nobody really did anything with it, and it seems like it has been waiting all these years for me to give it a purpose.

The manual typewriter is really a superb piece of mechanical engineering - a premium example of postwar manufacturing. Not one single flaw has manifested itself since I started using it three months ago. It has many levers with functions unknown to a computer-savvy generation. If you look under the bonnet, you will find banks of springs attached to banks of rods which are hinged to banks of keys and typebars that strike upwards, meshing their movement with the ribbon vibrator. This raises the ribbon so that typebar and ribbon impact the paper together, while advancing the carriage and ribbon by one space forward. Its innards look pretty sinister. I suppose they look no more intimidating to one born of that era ( eg, my parents ) than computers are to me.

I really admire the its overall design, which while looking fairly ordinary, has some pretty curvy lines which reminds me of Italian cars in general. The Alfa Romeo Spyder would be a fitting morph of the L32.

A query on the Net about the history of this machine threw up some interesting information.

From Olivetti HQ Italy:

The Lettera 32 production started in 1963. The place of manufacture was in
Spain and Mexico.Actually it is manufactured only in Olivetti's Mexico plant. The model can be produced with two different typefonts: "PICA" (10 crt x inch) and "ELETTO" (12 crt x inch).
 

A radio journalist and magazine writer, Thomas Caldwell replied to my query with quite a bit of history:

As for the lettera 32, I don't know too many details of its history, although your note has has sparked my interest to find out more.  My understanding is that it came out in the the early 1960's and was manufactured until the early 70s.  It was THE standard portable typewriter for journalists during that time.  32s were used all over the world by everyone from TV news anchors to lowly wire reporters.  They could be found in bunkers during the Vietnam War, with Nixon on his historic trip to China and at Mission Control when Armstrong first set foot on the moon.  If you pick one up you may want to find out where it came from and who owned it.  Chances are it had quite a pedigree.  Many were custom built for news organizations.  The one I own has the UPI logo on it.  If you find one of these GRAB IT ANY ANY PRICE!  Put me on your list of potential buyers.

The 32s were so well built and so durable that they are still very, very useful to have around.  I used mine while covering the Kobe earthquake to write my radio scripts (they don't need power).  Now I only use it at home, often on the balcony with a cup of coffee early in the morning to write notes.  I don't ever intend to bring it into the field again because it is so valuable and the chances of losing it are too great.  CBS correspondent Morley Safer used one in Vietnam and brought it back with him to take notes during a visit to the country in 1998.  The book he wrote about the trip (FLASHBACKS, Random House, ISBN 0-394-58374-4) has a 32 on the cover.  In the book he also found the machines still being used in Vietnam.

An article he wrote about the Lettera can be found at
A Writer's Best Friend
 
 

Here are some typewriter related schwag I've dug up:
 
 

Flashbacks with Lettera 32 on book jacket.
 
Pre-war Typewriter Related Links

Typewriter Collectors
Thomas Caldwell's Newsroom
The Classic Typewriter Page
This Olde Office
The Typewriter Exchange
Et Cetera
The First Typewriter
Early Typewriter Collectors Association Homepage
 

Typewriter Articles.
The Query Column
Ward on Technology
Jargon - TV Typewriters
Technology Skills may be lost art, but typewriters aren't dead yet
Not With A Bang But With A Hushed Tap, Typewriters Fade Away
Mystique of the typewriter alive and well at Silicon Valley shop
Why QWERTY was Invented
The Fable of the Keys
The Evolution of Word Processing
 

Typewriters Interesting Things
Cultural Typewriter

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