--Victor Typewriter, 1890
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The Victor Typewriter is one of many products called "index"
machines. The "index" is the chart from which you choose the letters.
On the Victor, it is a semicircular strip, but the index can take many forms--it
can be a wheel, a linear strip, a rectangle, whatever.
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On an index machine, you choose a letter first, and then press another key
(or do some similar action) to make it print. YES... it WAS very slow! Collectors
like to say... "about a page a day."
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Index machines were the "bargain basement" items of the typewriter
industry. When full-size office machines cost $100, you could buy an index
machine for $15 or less! Today, generally speaking, good old index machines
are more desirable than the big black office jobbies.
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The Victor, incidentally, was history's first "daisy wheel" typewriter.
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Machine from author's collection.
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Kinds Are There?
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