A productive evening
My Adler Contessa de Luxe now works! It has a lovely font. I cleaned it, changed (respooled) the ribbon, and made a few little adjustments. It still has two problems: one of the sticky keys is still sticky (the others aren't anymore), and the bell doesn't work most of the time. But I'm happy, it's the first machine I actually repaired.
It can't be too hard using an electric typewriter like the Lettera 36. It could be fun indeed.
We would be reinventing the teletype though.