The guts sliding out of the case was pretty common for typewriters. Most of the cases where nothing more than decorative shells while the actual mechanisms were

The guts sliding out of the case was pretty common for typewriters. Most of the cases where nothing more than decorative shells while the actual mechanisms were built into a rectangular metal frame and pretty easy to get around in. Most of these things were fully mechanically linked and manufactured by hand. My grandfather had a weekly Italian music radio program and every week he went through the same process. First he'd hand write his cues, then add in any commentary, and finally type up the entire thing double spaced so he could easily follow along. I have fond memories of helping him rip apart various type writers to fix them on Friday afternoons during they type up the notes phase.