Book 3 — Kinks in Cleaning a Typewriter

Irregularities in the feeding of the paper into a typewriter are often due to slippery spots on the platen. To overcome this trouble, clean the platen thoroughly with a mixture of two parts of denatured alcohol to one part of ether. Rub the polished parts with No. 2 emery cloth, then smooth the surface with No. 0 emery cloth. In cleaning a typewriter with gasoline, the effect is to leave the parts dry. A better method is to use a mixture of one part of typewriter oil to 50 parts gasoline. This will leave a fine coating of oil, which is too fine to collect dust, on the working parts.—William Doenges, Fort Sam Houston, Texas.