Schubert Model DRV

Serial No: 75F263

Date: 1950s

Capacity: 10x8x13

Price paid (including postage): £45

This machine probably dates from the mid-1950s. Early models, starting in 1953, were finished in dark green.  At some point the decision was made to finish the machines in light green hammertone – which dates anything to the late 1950s/early 1960s.  This particular machine must be one of the earlier examples in this finish because it retains the aperture (which shows either + or -) below the counter direction override lever.  Nearly all of the other machines I have seen of this type and colour (including the example shown below) do not have this aperture, and the sense of the lever is printed on the machine cover.

The machine itself contains all of the refinements of a top-end machine – tens-carry on the revolution counter (which auto-reverses), the presence of a control register (the window above the setting levers), a back transfer facility, and the aforementioned override on the counter direction.  The result register and counter register have their own clearing levers, but the right-hand lever normally clears both registers. If only the result register is to be cleared, the button between the registers needs to be depressed while the lever is operated.  Carriage movement to the left and right is effected either by using the knobs on the front of the machine, or by using the lever immediately under the main crank.  For free movement of the carriage, the chrome lever between the two knobs is depressed.

The machine is designed to be operated using chiefly the right hand – which for left-handers like me is something of a challenge!

 

Schubert Model DRV (with ADM branding)

Serial No: 162584

Date: 1960s

Capacity: 10x8x13

Price paid (including postage): £38

This machine, which is nearly identical to the Schubert branded machine shown above, and came off the production line somewhat later, is branded ADM (Archimedes Diehl Machine Co.) which is presumably the imprint under which these machines were imported into the UK.  Some machines, intended for the education market, were branded “ADM Teacher”.  These machines, provided they were used for educational purposes, were available at a special price of £45, which included a manufacturer’s discount and a remission of the Board of Trade import duty.

Other variants of this machine have a smaller capacity, or lack the back transfer facility, as in the machine shown immediately below.

Schubert Model CW (with ADM “Teacher” branding)

Serial No:  CW 153405

Date: 1960s

Capacity: 6x6x11

Price paid (including postage): £31

This is a very much simplified machine compared with the fully featured versions shown above; it has a reduced capacity, lacks the back transfer facility, and lacks the carriage movement lever below the crank.  The idea behind the machine was to make it suitable for schoolchildren to use, and it was marketed in this direction.

 

A “feature” of these machines (shown on the Schubert at the top of the page) is that the left-hand carriage cover is often broken.  One only has to pick the machine up by the main crank (perhaps not the correct way, but perfectly understandable!) and set it down again to see why – the angle means that the cover is the first part of the machine to come into contact with the surface onto which it is being placed.  Because the cover is made of plastic and is quite brittle (maybe increasingly so over the years) repeated encounters with hard table tops mean that such damage is quite likely.  Of the four machines I have had of this type (the other is in the “parts bin”), two have suffered damage in this area.