---Hammond No. 1, 1884
---Hammond Multiplex, 1918
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The Hammond Typewriter was first introduced around 1884, the first single-element machine operated by a keyboard on the market. The machine employed a "type shuttle" which was a curved strip of hard rubber with the type embossed on its surface. It pivoted to its appropriate place when a key was pressed. A spring-loaded hammer struck the paper from behind, whacking the paper against the type, with the ribbon in-between. Sounds bass-ackwards, but it worked. It worked so well, in fact, that the basic design survived until 1980! In 1927, the machine's name was changed to Varityper. Sound familiar? That company is still in business, but its mechanical typesetter, based on the Hammond principle, remained on the market until 1980. Wow.
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All Hammond's came with the "Ideal" (curved) keyboard, or the Universal (straight/qwerty) keyboard. The No.1 was originally offered with the Ideal only, the Universal added to the line later. Most-common of the many Hammond models is the Multiplex, so named because it carried two type shuttles on the machine at the same time, allowing the user to quickly switch between two different typefaces (i.e., normal and italic.).
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No. 1 from Dickerson collection. Multiplex from Rauen collection.