The Alexis typewriter was the result of a small-town inventor’s desire to design and manufacture his own typewriter. James A. Wallace (1845–1906) was born in Alexis, Illinois (population 900), where…

   Charles Spiro: Reaching Back in Time’ – An illustrated articleThe Morris typewriter was invented by Robert Morris of Kansas City. His first version, built on a wooden base, appeared in…

 The Odell 1 typewriter is a beautifully designed linear index machine. Model 1 was produced only during its first year in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and features “Patent Pending” on the…

   The Kosmopolit (Cosmopolitan) is a sophisticated and beautifully engineered linear index typewriter introduced in 1888 by the sewing machine manufacturer Guhl & Harbeck of Hamburg. It succeeded their first typewriter,…

  The Kleidograph was designed for typing in the New York Point System, an eight-dot system consisting of two horizontal rows of four dots each. William Bell Wait developed this…

 The elegant and early Sun typewriter predates the 1889 patent of the Odell typewriter, which would later adopt its innovative sliding selector design, positioned at right angles to the carriage.This…

The second Bartholomew Stenograph was presented on a beautifully curved cast brass base, with a shiny black enamel finish, accented with floral motifs. This machine is very small and can…

The unique and remarkable design of the Williams typewriter features typebars arranged in two symmetrical fans, one on either side of the carriage. With an articulated action, the typebars hop…

 The Waverley Typewriter – An illustrated articleThe development of the Waverley began as early as 1889. Despite the ambitious efforts of its inventors, Higgins and Jenkins (see portrait below of…

  A short video of the Victor working.Many electric typewriters and early computer printers used a daisy wheel in the 1970s and ’80s, but the first daisy wheel actually appeared on the…