Advice on sourcing ribbon and type
I have just purchased a Waterlow Ticket Dating Press. These were once use on the railway for stamping the issue date on railway tickets. It is to be refurbished for use at Telford Steam Railway.
The print mechanism has a ribbon, and the roller will takea 48mm ribbon. (presumably originally 1 7/8 in.
It has a block which holds 2 dates made up of loose type. Each date is in the format DD/MM/YY where DD and YY are individual characters however MM is a single 2 character slug. I am told the font would have been Great Primer.
The individual character ‘8’ slug is 3mm wide, 6mm high and 22mm long (excluding the character), the MM slug is 9.25mm wide.
I dont see the point in buying a historic ‘original’ set of type as the type faces will be worn.
Can anyone suggest a source of ribbon and type please, or offer advice on refurb of the print mechanism.
Allan
Telford Steam Railway,
An organisation staffed entirely by volunteers
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The hinges were a bit stiff - cleaned lubricated with WD40
seems to work - havent checked if ribbon advance works yet - and as anticipated ribbon is dry - last date 22 MY 87
Its all working and is now stripped and the body away for painting. I have sourced a ribbon courtesy of a guy who used to service clocking-on machines, still in its original sealed wrapper and the ink is still soft.
I am told the type is a 17pt Great Primer body with 14pt Victoria Titling type face.
I need to find some type. I have been given some 14pt body type to try, with some 3pt packing to make up to 17pt height. Sadly this doesnt work. The type carrier has a 1mm lip at the front edge which stops the type moving forward. with the packing under the type this is just over 1mm and the type falls out. I cant put the packing on top because the packing falls out.
The carrier will take an 18pt body. So now I am looking for a good titling type face, preferably with a type face typical of ‘between the wars’ on an 18pt body. I dont need a full fount, just 4 sets of 0-9, 1 full alphabet and a spare ‘S’, 3 full-stops and some spacers.
Any help appreciated
I should have said it would be best if the numerics were monospace ( is that the correct term?) by that I mean all pices of type having the same width.