Loaded fresh bicolor ribbon in the Selectric cartridge

RIBBON CARTRIDGES FOR THE 1053

1053 uses Selectric 1 fabric ribbon cartridges, which is an alternative to the carbon coated mylar ribbons commonly used on the typewriter series. Because it has a dual color feature, the ribbon is a 9/16" fabric strip that has black ink on the bottom half and red ink impregnated into the top half. By changing the portion of the ribbon that is lifted in front of the typeball, the 1053 can print characters in either color. 

These bicolor fabric ribbons were never very popular but with the passing of time they have become even rarer. New old stock can be purchased but often the ink is partially dried out in those cartridges when you take them out of the packaging. 

FRESH RIBBON AVAILABLE FOR OTHER PURPOSES

Fortunately for us, 9/16" fabric ribbon is still used with quite a few other typewriters or printing devices so there are plenty of brand new ribbons on the market. Dual color ribbons are also still being manufactured, thus we could buy a brand new dual color ribbon but it won't come in the Selectric ribbon cartridge. It is wound on reels used on the other equipment but not compatible with our 1053. 

OPENED CARTRIDGE, SWAPPED RIBBON AND WOUND IT UP

The cartridge is easy to open the dried up old ribbon can be removed. That allowed me to wind the newly purchased ribbon on the parts from the Selectric cartridge and put it back together. Voila, a fresh bicolor ribbon to put on the typewriter. 

GREAT FRESH TYPING AS A RESULT

Here is an example of a program typing in both black and red on the restored 1053. The print quality is quite good.