Peerless baby
This is a very cute and well-designed machine, quite a bit smaller than a full-size Peerless, and more compact even than the Archimedes junior (by about 1 cm in width), when the capacity of the machine is taken into account. The reason for this is the very compact (and light) design of the stepped drum cylinders in this machine (25 mm, as opposed to 35mm in a full-size Peerless). They are so short that the setting sliders have to have two columns to represent all the numbers, as they would not fit below each other in a readable size.I got this machine from the auction of the collection of Walter Beck. The tops of the numeral rolls (setting indicators) and discs (registers) were very dirty in the 0 positions, and there was an issue with tens' carry in the result register.
I did one of the fastest "restorations" I have ever done - everything taken together it took 1 hour and 30 minutes - but only because the machine was already very clean. I disassembled the carriage and took out all the numeral discs to clean them thoroughly and restore their brightness, then reassembled. I then disassembled the setting plate in order to get at the numeral rolls for input control and cleaned those as well, then reassembled. And finally, because the carriage is quite light in construction, abuse apparently has a tendency to bend it. I bent the enitre carriage back to straightness, and also straightened the rod at the back it slides on, and this solved the tens' carry issue.
It is now a valuable addition to my collection, and apart from the Curta probably one of the smallest stepped cylinder machines in existence.
And here are some comparison pictures with its bigger sister, the IIa. The carriages are identical, the only difference in size is in the main body of the machine, the setting mechanism and the clearing for the setting mechanism.
