Austria IV
This one, N° 1012, came from ebay, again in a sorry state with multiple issues, not the least of which were the sliding gears on the setting shafts, one of which was glued in place so firmly by oil residu, that I needed a sizeable hammer to finally break it loose. Someone had tried to take the machine apart and repair it, however, the position of the stepped drum cylinders is crucial to the timing and operation of the machine. This is somehow logical, if you have a ten-tooth gear that slides on a square axle, there are two possibilities for it to sit when the cylinder is oriented at "0". Either with a tooth pointing exactly up, or with a slot between two teeth pointing exactly up. The Austria alternates these two kinds of input slider shafts. If you put them back wrong, you'll end up with stepped drum cylinders and/or gears that are 18° off. This means the whole tens carry system goes belly-up, and the stepped drum cylinders start blocking against each other. This is exactly what happened to my predecessor, who I imagine gave up in disgust. Once this was figured out, after a complete strip, clean and reassembly, fun and games started with the tabulator mechanism. There is a spring at the back of the machine, which will draw the carriage one step to the left if you push the large button on the lower lefthand side of the machine. This mechanism wears and then gets very difficult to adjust. In the end, I did get it to work properly though. The only thing that needed to be done was to add an wooden grip to the handle, which had broken off at some point. When I had finished with it, it looked like this.
After pondering for a while, I asked my girlfriend whether the machine didn't remind her of something, as it was standing there. She didn't quite know. When I told her what I was thinking of, she couldn't stop laughing for about 5 minutes, yelling "That is so true!". Discover what Samuel Herzstark's machine reminded me of here.
In summer 2019, I was in Vienna for a conference, and couldn't resist stopping by Samuel Herzstark's place, and the factory where this machine was built. The building is obviously still there. The address is Linke Wienzeile 274. Here is a picture of the Rechte Wienzeile, as it can and could be seen from the left side of the Wien river.
This is the building itself, with its little tower
Who is this strange person holding up his thumb in front of the old Austria factory ?
The Rauchfangkehrergasse makes up the other edge of the building
Street sign across the street
Street name along the street
And the house number
... also in a slightly less glamorous setting
