# Securing typewriters and early computers: dust, battery, and the rare machine

> Secure early computers: rechargeables and batteries out, store dry, the rare machine not as decor by the door.
> Quelle: https://tresorrari.de/artikel/schreibmaschinen-fruehe-rechner-sichern · Stand: 2026-10-01 · Tresorrari Redaktion

A typewriter is heavy and dusty. An early computer is often only a shell once the rechargeable battery has leaked. In the overview [Security for collectors](/artikel/sicherheit-fuer-sammler) you take the batteries out before you put the machine on the shelf.

## Storage

Dry, dust cover, nothing stacked on the keyboard, no batteries in the compartment. Drives and tapes are a climate of their own, cool and dry, and a copy of the data somewhere else if the data are the value. The housing alone is then only the housing.

## When someone comes

Heavy, rarely the first target, but a small rare machine is easy. It does not stand by the door. The number and the proof are on the list. Cipher machines have their own text, because law and history sit closer there: [Cipher machines](/artikel/chiffriermaschinen-sichern).


## Häufige Fragen

### Batteries left in?

No. Leakage destroys the contacts.

### Data only on the machine?

Then a failure is the loss. A copy somewhere else, if the data count.

### Oil the typewriter?

Not into the type so that you gum them up. Dust, yes. An experiment, no.