[GreenKeys] 7470 oil

[Jim Haynes]

On Fri, 18 Apr 2014, Teletypeparts wrote:
> 28's have so many felts that when I worked at WU I had a squirt can to oil
> them with.  Used a drip spout oiler for 32 and 33's. 
>  
When you worked at WU were you using KS-7470 oil or something else?
Granted that you were there fairly late in the history, and they may have
used something else earlier.

The reason I am asking is that I have had some 2B printers that I had to
take the selector apart and remove a green varnish-like substance from
the separator plates.  The green color suggests it was some chemical
reacting with the nickel plating on the parts.  So I've been wondering
if the official lubricant had that reaction, or if WU was using some other
lubricant and that was the cause of the varnish.

Back in the 1950s the RTTY magazines frequently warned us to use 
non-detergent oil on our machines, saying detergent oil would turn all
the springs green.  I don't know if this was based on actual experience
or someone's imagination.  In a pinch I've used detergent oil on a machine
fairly recently and did not have anything turn green - but then detergents
may have changed a lot in the intervening years.