Vintage, Collectible Typewriters
Typewriter Collectors/Enthusiasts have various reasons for collecting. Some love the mechanics of early and later electronic typewriters. Others just love the variety of styles, colors, and models. Still others have read stories of famous writers and their love of typewriters.
The featured typewriter is a REMINGTON Noiselss Tabulator Typewriter, probably around the 1930s. The Remington and Sons bought the patent for the QUERTY keyboard layout.
In 1873 Sholes’s backer, James Densmore, successfully sold the manufacturing rights for the Sholes & Glidden Type-Writer to E. Remington and Sons. The keyboard layout was finalized within a few months by Remington’s mechanics and was ultimately presented:
from wikipedia
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 – , Q W E . T Y I U O P Z S D F G H J K L M A X & C V B N ? ; R
After they purchased the device, Remington made several adjustments, creating a keyboard with essentially the modern QWERTY layout. These adjustments included placing the “R” key in the place previously allotted to the period key. Apocryphal claims that this change was made to let salesmen impress customers by pecking out the brand name “TYPE WRITER QUOTE” from one keyboard row is not formally substantiated. Vestiges of the original alphabetical layout remained in the “home row” sequence DFGHJKL.
The modern ANSI layout is:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 – = Q W E R T Y U I O P [ ] \ A S D F G H J K L ; ‘ Z X C V B N M , . /
Remington 2 typewriter, 1878 – First typewriter with a shift key for upper and lower case characters
The QWERTY layout became popular with the success of the Remington No. 2 of 1878, the first typewriter to include both upper and lower case letters, using a ⇧ Shift key.
We also have an UNDERWOOD typewriter from the early 1900s.
The original Underwood typewriter was invented by German-American Franz Xaver Wagner, who showed it to entrepreneur John Thomas Underwood. Underwood supported Wagner and bought the company, recognizing the importance of the machine.
from wikipedia
The Underwood Number 5 launched in 1900 has been described as “the first truly modern typewriter.” Two million of these typewriters had been sold by the early 1920s, and their sales “were equal in quantity to all of the other firms in the typewriter industry combined.” When the company was in its heyday as the world’s largest typewriter manufacturer, its factory in Hartford, Connecticut was turning out typewriters at the rate of one per minute and, along with Royal Typewriter Company, made Hartford the “Typewriter Capitol of the World”.
Below are several others in our collection, including a 1960s Smith Corona Galaxie Twelve, a 1970s Smith Corona, and a beautiful vintage typewriter.
Many of you know Tom Hanks as an Academy Award-winning actor, director, and producer. But did you know that Hanks has been a passionate typewriter collector since the 1970s?
from typewriters.com
In fact, in the film California Typewriter which was released in 2017, Hanks said he probably has about 250 plus typewriters in his collection and “that 90% of them are in perfect working order.”
So, what is it about the typewriter that Hanks loves?
“What thrills me about typewriters, is that they are meant to do one thing and one thing only, and with the tiniest amount of effort, and maintenance, it will last a thousand years,” he explained in an interview during the London Literature Festival with Gabby Wood, literary director of the Booker Prize Foundation and writer for the Telegraph.
If you’re a writer, you may enjoy this article by Diane Ako – CLICK HERE to read it. From this article:
Through this medium, writing becomes a meditative exercise. “It’s slower, yes,” Wisch says, of using any typewriter. “Once I type anything, it’s there on the paper. I can’t take it back. But I like that it makes me think about what I’m going to say.”
Last but not least we have several newer models and a couple for kids, including these interesting 1950s Berwin Toy Typewriters.
1950s Berwin Toy Typewriters
It’s a great time to stop by and view these typewriters. Of course, you’ll enjoy our “Collection of Collections.” You know we’re here and we’re watchin’ for ya!
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