Everest Z4
A relatively little known Italian machine, built in Milano, as it advertises on the front, by soc. an. "Serio", Milano. The Z series was their ten-key pinwheel calculator. They also built typewriters and adding machines. The Z4 was the first machine with all the controls on the righthand side. This example is a bit banged up, it lost its upper comma rail, and a few buttons. Unfortunately the buttons themselves are also italian design, and not easy to reproduce. One day I may try my hand at them. When I got the machine, it was blocked. I was afraid it would be permanent, because I thought I had another Everest in a parts drawer somewhere, that I spent quite a few hours on tying to get it apart enough to see what was the issue, but I had to admit defeat with the machine still completely and hopelessly blocked. It turns out that that machine was (well, is) actually a Precisa, and not an Everest, so the buttons and comma rail are different and it cannot be used for parts for this Everest. The blockage in this machine was easy to clear, some judicious wiggling of everything was met with success. The advantage of having a fully enclosed machine is that dust can't get in, and everything stay nice and clean, so generally the machines are much less prone to blocking in the first place. The manufacturing and assembly techniques of the early 50s though, make it nigh on impossible to actually disassemble and repair a machine - lots of things are no longer screwed, but pressed together, and as I always say, if a machine that is screwed isn't screwed together, it's you who's screwed ...