How Many Different Kinds Are There?

You name it, they made it! The first factory-made typewriter, the Sholes & Glidden, appeared in 1874. It was made by Remington and evolved into the later Remington line. It was a type-bar typewriter with an "up-strike" action, meaning the typebars swung upward to hit the platen.

Typewriters of this profile were called "blind writers" since the typist could not see what was written without lifting up the carriage. Hundreds of other ingenious inventors of the era thought they had better ideas about making typewriters, and by the 1890's, it seem as if all those ideas were on the market! (the illustration at left is from my article in POPULAR MECHANICS. To read it, click here)

Type Bar Machines:

• upstrike: blind writers like Remington and many others
• downstrike: type bars standing erect & swinging down from the front(Franklin), side (Oliver), or rear (Fitch); rear/downstrike also called backstroke
• frontstrike: modern conventional machines
• thrust action: bars sliding forward to platen (Wellington, Adler, Empire)
• grasshopper: odd action with type bars "hopping" forward to hit platen (Williams)

Single-Element machines:

• type wheel: type cylinder spins into place before hitting platen (Blickensderfer).
• type "sleeve" if cylinder is elongated (Chicago).
• type shuttle: curved strip pivots to place before printing (Hammond, Sterling, Keystone)

Different Keyboards:

• rows of keys: anywhere from 1 to 8! (6 or more are "double keyboards")
• shape of rows: straight, curved or circular
• shift keys: one, two, three or none
• arrangement of letters: QWERTY or many non-standard layouts

Index Machines:
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A major class of machines with no keyboards, using pointers or indicators to choose letters from a chart (the "index"). Printed with type wheels, type plates, type shuttles and many other novel systems. May or may not have been toys.