macchine da scrivere rarità

ETCetera #14 / February., 1991 / 1

Number #14 ---- Feb., 1991

CONTENTSEditor’s Notes ...................... 2Rarity/Desirability Survey ............................... 3 Alphabetical List .............. 4 Rarity Groups ................... 6 Desirability Groups .......... 8Edison Mimeograph .......... 10Weller VI ........................... 12What in the World?............ 14Int’l. News ......................... 15A New S&G III ................. 15Ads, Letters........................ 16

ETCetera Magazine of the EarlyTypewriter Collectors Association

HOW RARE?

HOW DESIRABLE?ETC’s survey rates this Sholes & Glidden at 7.41/8.96.Find out what the numbers mean beginning on page 3.For the story behind the machine itself, see page 15.

2 / ETCetera #14 / February., 1991

ETCeteraMagazine of the EarlyTypewriter Collectors

Association

Feb., 1991No. 14

Editor,Address ChangesDARRYL REHR

11433 Rochester Ave. #303Los Angeles, CA 90025

(213)477-5229

TreasuryJAMES KAVANAGH23502 Heritage Oak Ct.

Newhall, CA 91321 (805)254-6369 hm (213)553-2800 bus

©1991 by The Early TypewriterCollectors Association

IN PRINT: Smithsonian magazineran a multi-page article on the “de-mise” of the manual typewriter in itsDecember, 1990 issue. The article,written by professional writer JackPage gets most things right abouttypewriter history, which by itself isrefreshing. Friends like Tom Fitzger-ald, Todd Holmes and Wilf Beechingwere quoted, and the piece was accom-panied by fabulous full-color photosof Smithsonian machines. Includedare a square-keyed Sholes & Glidden,a Cooper patent model of 1856, a cir-cular-keyboard Keaton music type-writer, a Malling-Hansen and a beauti-ful mahogany-encased model ofAlfred Beach's 1856 machine. Wow.

A key error in Page’s piece is theinfo on Mark Twain. Page repeats anold error in saying Tom Sawyer was thefirst typewritten book–but any regularreader of ETCetera would know verywell it was Life on the Mississippi (seeETCetera # 6).

Popular Science recently ran aphoto of a curator at Boston’s Com-puter Museum seated on the keyboardof a giant-sized computer. I sent themsome of the postcards I had of the giantUnderwood Typewriter exhibited at1915’s Panama-Pacific Exhibition inSan Francisco and later at the 1939New York World’s Fair. They pub-lished the ’39 card in their Januaryissue.

†††

A fellow who shipped a typewriterto me passed along the following inforegarding packing. He purchased aheavy carton at the nearby franchisedpacking store (in Colorado, it wascalled, sure enough, the “PackingStore”). The carton cost $6, and foranother $6, they reinforced it by add-ing half-inch panels of styrofoam onall six inside walls. The strength of thecombination approximates wood. Healso says the new style styrofoam“peanuts” now tend to lock together,preventing shifting of the load insidethe box.

It seems like there’s always a sur-prise when you keep looking at thefamiliar folding Corona. GeraldJohnson, of Coyle, OK wrote recentlyto tell of one he received with an un-usual set of keyboard keys. His is serial# 561246 (that would date it at 1922).The keys are not the familiar nickelrings with inserts and clear celluloidtops. Instead, they are solid white plas-tic with black characters. He says theFig/Caps shift keys are nearly twice aslarge as the letter keys, and are blackwith white letters. Anyone else eversee a keyboard like that on a Corona?

†††My own Corona surprise came late

last year in the form of a near-mintexample complete with its tripodstand. We’ve all seen historical photosof this intriguing accessory, but I don’tknow anyone else who actually hasone. It’s real pretty, too. Completelynickel-plated. The machine is one ofthe first-generation Coronas, with asingle set of shift keys at left. I hap-pened to have the little pinky “rest”key to fit onto the frame at right, so thewhole setup is quite complete. What adelightful find!

†††

Rex Crews, of _____, North Carolinais a collector relatively new to ourranks. Rex is a 30-year-old Ph.D can-didate at the University of North Caro-lina (he’s studying Classics), and sayshe’s been collecting typewriters casu-ally since high school. He was goodenough to call and chat one night,telling me he also collects phones andelectric fans, making him appreciatetypewriters all the more. It seems thetelephone and fan market is populatedwith an overabundance of mean,greedy people. It’s nice to know some-body thinks we’re a better lot. I hopenobody disillusions him.

†††

EDITOR’SNOTES

TYPEWRITERS IN THE ME-DIA: I recently caught Fred Astairetyping on a Corona 3 on cable TV.Name of the old movie was “Followthe Fleet.”

William Holden was seen writing ascreen story on a Remington Noiselessin Sunset Boulevard. He used both theoffice-sized and portable versions.

Mike Brooks and his typewritercollection were featured in a recentsegment of Missing:Reward, the syn-dicated TV show. Stacy Keach is thehost of the show, and introduced thesegment surrounded by antique type-writers that came from my collection.He even mentioned the fact that hetyped on a Folding Corona in the TVmovie in which he played Ernest Hem-ingway.


In 1985, the Typewriter Exchange, then edited by the late

Dan Post, published an evaluation by Paul Lippman of therelative values of about 100 collectible typewriters. Admit-ting that the task was like “trying to nail Jell-O to the wall,”Paul bravely listed the machines in four groups, labelled Ato D, suggesting that machines in the same group weresimilar in value, condition and all other things being equal.

Though Paul’s work has been extremely useful to manycollectors, the limitations of only four divisions is obvious.With this in mind, ETC’s survey into this subject was set upto examine the subject in greater detail., and for a biggergroup of machines.

For this survey, we contacted a number of collectorsknown for their expertise, experience and/or activity in thetrading markets. Each was asked to rate a long list ofmachines for two qualities: rarity and desirability. Respon-dents were given the freedom to chose whatever scaleseemed comfortable. The majority used a 1-to-10 scale,others used 1-to-6. In discussing condition in the past, ETChas encouraged use of the German 1-to-6 scale, since it wasalready in place and successfully being used. However, afterseeing the data, it is clear that a 1-to-10 scale is preferred bymost for this survey, and is the scale used for the final results.

ETC’s panel of “experts” includes: Mike Brooks of Oak-

land, CA, Richard Dickerson of Pasadena, CA, LarryWilhelm of Witchita Falls, TX, Jos Legrand of Tilburg,Netherlands, Fritz Niemann of Dissen., Germany, AmnonPaldi, of Beaconsfield, England and me. In addition, datafrom the most recent IFHB (German collector's organiza-tion) booklet listing auction prices was included as acomponent in the desirability part of the survey.

I believe that this group of people has a sufficiently broadand varied view of the collecting scene to give the results ofthe survey reasonable validity. However, none of this datashould be considered gospel as there are many sources oferror. These include mistakes made in calculating results,mistakes made by respondents, and the survey itself. Onecollector mentioned that the machines listed did not includemany important European machines, and that more differen-tiation should have been offered (i.e., single and double-wheel Columbias, Hall 1 and 2, etc.). Others questioned theattention given to differentiating all the Blicks and Ham-monds. These ideas are certainly valid, but, given the work

it has taken to arrive at this point, correcting the survey isimpractical. Nobody, by the way, mentioned the exclusionof the 1889 National and the Oliver 9. They should have beenthere. Sorry.

Apart from condition, rarity and desirability are the twokey components that go into a typewriter’s value. Rarity issomething that can be quantified by fact. Desirability is amatter of opinion. However, without a complete, accuratecensus of collectible typewriters, hard facts on rarity are hardto come by, so, in this survey, both rarity and desirability arerated according to the opinions of the respondents. Remem-ber, this is an opinion poll and not a statement of absolutefact. Use the survey as a tool, not as the last word.

The results of this poll are not intended to establish the

monetary value of any typewriter. That’s for the market todecide. The desirability value should give you an idea of howclose the value of any typewriter is to any other typewriter.There has been no attempt to make the rating values propor-tional–that is, a typewriter rated at 3 on the desirabilty scaleis not neccessarily worth half the value of another worth 6.You should, however, be able to make a trade of one machinehaving a 3-rating with another having a 3-rating, and notworry too much that you’ve been taken For trading puposesI'd suggest allowing a margin of +/- 1 full point.

The rating values of the poll are on a scale of 10, 10 beingbest. They were obtained by calculating a simple average foreach machine. Not all repsondents expressed an opinion onall machines. The values are given in three forms. First, analphabetic listing giving the rarity and desirability rating foreach machine. Then, machines are listed in value groups forboth rarity and desirability in descending order.

I hope this survey is both useful and controversial at thesame time. It should provoke healthy disagreements, whichwill be enthusiastically received here and printed in future

RARITY and DESIRABILITYAn ETC Opinion Poll

by Darryl C. Rehr

issues.

Poll Results:

Alpahabetical table ......... pages 4-5Rarity value groups ........ pages 6-7Desirabilty

value groups .............. pages 8-9


Typewriter Rarity DesirabilityAdler - thrust 1.64 1.81Aktiv 5.71 4.92Allen 5.63 2.69American Index 4.31 4.38American keyboard 5.10 4.27American Visible 7.81 6.13Automatic 9.83 9.58Bar-Let 3.12 1.94Bennett 3.53 3.71Bennington 9.38 7.74Bing 4.05 2.08Blick Ninety 5.21 2.79Blickensderfer 5 3.02 5.19Blickensderfer 6 3.02 3.89Blickensderfer 7 3.02 3.75Blickensderfer 8 3.23 3.89Blickensderfer 9 3.62 3.89Blickensderfer Electric 9.57 9.10Blickensderfer Featherweight 3.44 3.71Blickensderfer Oriental 7.24 4.03Brooks 9.40 8.61Burnett 8.62 7.01Burns 9.66 9.19Caligraph 1 9.14 8.33Caligraph 2 4.48 4.44Caligraph 3 4.27 4.19Caligraph 4 4.27 4.19Carissima 6.71 5.00Cash 9.87 8.85Century 10 4.06 3.06Chicago (& name variants) 4.66 5.52Chicago No. 3 7.84 7.15Coffman 9.31 7.01Columbia - (Bar-Lock) - shift key 5.26 4.81Columbia Bar-Lock - fancy 6.29 6.88Columbia Bar-Lock - plain 3.45 3.47Columbia Index 8.49 7.99Commercial Visible 7.41 6.94Corona folding - black 2.07 1.94Corona Folding - colors 3.02 2.50Crandall 7.11 8.33Crown - round keyboard 8.16 8.46Crown index 9.14 8.47Dactygram 10.00 8.18Dactyle 4.47 3.27Darling 8.91 7.50Dart 8.64 7.66Daugherty 7.07 6.46Dennis Duplex 8.36 6.82Densmore 1 5.86 5.28Densmore- others 4.40 4.44Typewriter Rarity Desirability

Diamant 3.21 2.50Diskret 5.94 8.06Dollar 8.28 5.83Eagle 8.65 7.21Edelmann 6.25 5.81Edison Mimeograph 8.10 8.26Edland 8.57 7.88Electromatic-original 3.44 1.43Elliot-Fisher 4.22 2.36Emerson 4.14 4.03Empire 2.67 2.22English 9.27 8.79Erika - folding 2.41 1.81Famos 6.72 4.67Fitch 8.53 8.47Ford 8.79 9.17Fox - upstrike 4.57 3.89Fox portable 5.26 4.17Fox Sterling 5.52 3.87Fox Visible 3.17 1.94Franklin 5.43 5.14Frister & Rossman 5.83 5.00Garbell 7.73 5.00Gardner 9.27 9.03Geniatus 4.14 3.47Granville automatic 8.79 7.36Graphic 7.97 8.04Gundka 3.62 2.92Hall 4.83 5.42Hammond 1 - round 6.12 6.67Hammond 1 - straight 7.76 6.53Hammond 2 - round 3.79 3.68Hammond 2 - straight 3.62 3.47Hammond 12 - round 3.45 3.54Hammond 12 - straight 3.45 3.33Hammond Folding 3.28 3.19Hammond Multiplex - round 3.28 3.13Hammond Multiplex - straight 3.08 3.33Hammonia 9.14 9.10Harris Visible 4.21 1.35Hartford - double keyboard 7.24 5.63Hartford - shift key 6.73 5.00Helios 6.12 5.90Helios-Klimax 5.78 5.76Horton 9.81 8.71Ideal 2.71 1.94Imperial - oblique fronstrike 5.63 5.00Imperial A,B 3.79 4.03Imperial D 3.79 3.61Index Visible 10.00 6.82International - double keyboard 9.58 8.96Typewriter Rarity DesirabilityInternational - shift key 9.57 8.23

AlphabeticalList

This is the master list of results from our survey. Eachmachine is listed in alphabetical order, with its rarityand desirability ratings opposite. Scale is 1-to-10, 10being highest.


International Index 7.86 6.73Jackson 9.38 8.71Jewett 5.10 4.76Junior - Bennett type 3.79 3.85Kanzler 5.83 5.24Keystone 7.16 6.67Kneist 8.82 7.62Kosmopolit 8.62 8.70Lambert 5.00 5.49Lilliput - index 8.41 5.77Manhattan 5.83 3.27Maskelyne 9.40 8.82Masspro 6.67 2.27McCool 8.71 7.50McLoughlin 9.05 7.92Mercedes Elektra 4.82 1.67Mercury 10.00 7.50Merritt 5.34 5.83Mignon 2 3.85 3.68Mignon 3,4 2.67 2.36Molle 3.71 2.92Morris 8.75 8.73Moya 8.04 7.38Munson 7.16 6.25National - 3-row frontstrike 6.04 5.00New American 5 7.08 6.05New Century Caligraph 4.74 3.61Niagra 9.66 8.75Noiseless - office size 3.54 2.18Noiseless Portable 4.34 2.88North’s 8.45 7.99Odell 1 7.84 6.53Odell 2, 3, 4 5.26 5.59Official 9.55 7.27Oliver 1 9.57 8.68Oliver 11 4.47 2.42Oliver 2 4.17 2.78Oliver 3 3.45 2.50Oliver 5 1.91 2.36Oliver 7 2.09 2.36Parisienne 8.89 4.55Peerless 8.96 6.85Peoples 6.90 6.39Perkeo - folding 3.33 2.58Picht 4.72 4.29Pittsburg Visible - Daugherty type 5.60 5.63Pittsburg visible - later type 4.83 3.75Pocket 8.95 7.69Polygraph - round 9.38 8.27Polygraph - straight 8.95 7.69Postal 5.43 5.07Rapid 9.14 7.64Rem-Blick 3.75 3.55Rem-Sho, Fay-Sho - black 6.56 4.24Rem-Sho, Fay-Sho - bronze 8.23 6.53Rem. Portable - lever 1.87 1.45Remington 2 5.26 5.56Remington 10 1.87 1.29Typewriter Rarity DesirabilityRemington 3 6.90 5.65Remington 4 8.33 6.77

Remington 5 5.69 4.03Remington 6 3.44 3.06Remington 7 3.45 3.47Remington 8 6.67 4.62Remington 9 6.21 5.28Remington 11 1.87 1.29Remington Electric 6.83 3.06Remington Junior 4.90 2.10Remington Noiseless - office size 2.59 1.67Remington Noiseless - Portable. 2.29 1.54Rofa - round 5.52 4.68Royal 1,5 2.76 2.22Sabb 7.22 3.41Salter 10 5.17 4.58Salter 5 7.50 7.29Salter 6 6.21 7.08Salter 7 6.03 5.07Saturn 9.66 9.31Schade 9.84 9.42Sholes & Glidden - black 7.33 7.92Sholes & Glidden - decorated 7.41 8.96Sholes Visible 7.67 7.29Simplex 1 4.83 3.68Simplex-later 1.74 2.08Smith Premier 1 5.26 5.00Smith Premier 10 3.28 1.94Smith Premier 2 or 4 3.19 3.33Standard Folding 4.31 3.75Sterling 7.86 5.63Sun Index 8.53 7.22Sun keyboard 5.26 4.10Taurus Type 10.00 8.13Thürey 9.74 8.94Tip Tip 6.35 4.68Triumph Perfect Visible 8.93 7.02Underwood 1 6.21 3.89Vari-typer 4.22 2.50Velograph 9.64 8.57Venus 10.00 7.19Victor 7.76 7.50Virotyp 6.12 5.49Volksschreibmaschine 8.86 8.13Waverly 9.48 8.39Wellington 3.71 2.57Westphalia 10.00 9.42Williams 1 - round 8.62 7.99Williams 1 - straight 6.38 5.83Williams 2 5.52 5.42Williams 4,6 4.83 4.38Woodstock Electrite 4.82 0.94World 1 5.78 5.56World 2 5.34 5.42Yost 1 6.03 5.56Yost 10 4.48 3.75Yost 4/New Yost 4.22 3.89Yost visible 4.22 2.92


Machines are arranged in groups for convenience.Groups are named for the upper end of the range.For instance group 10 machines have values from9.01 to 10.

Rarity Groups

Triumph Perfect Visible 8.93Darling 8.91Parisienne 8.89Volksschreibmaschine 8.86Kneist 8.82Ford 8.79Granville automatic 8.79Morris 8.75McCool 8.71Eagle 8.65Dart 8.64Kosmopolit 8.62Williams 1 - round 8.62Burnett 8.62Edland 8.57Fitch 8.53Sun Index 8.53Columbia Index 8.49North’s 8.45Lilliput - index 8.41Dennis Duplex 8.36Remington 4 8.33Dollar 8.28Rem-Sho, Fay-Sho - bronze 8.23Crown - round keyboard 8.16Edison Mimeograph 8.10Moya 8.04

8Graphic 7.97International Index 7.86Sterling 7.86Chicago No. 3 7.84Odell 1 7.84American Visible 7.81Victor 7.76Hammond 1 - straight 7.76Garbell 7.73Sholes Visible 7.67Salter 5 7.50Sholes & Glidden - decorated 7.41Commercial Visible 7.41Sholes & Glidden - black 7.33Hartford - double keyboard 7.24

Blickensderfer Oriental 7.24Sabb 7.22Keystone 7.16Munson 7.16Crandall 7.11New American 5 7.08Daugherty 7.07

7Peoples 6.90Remington 3 6.90Remington Electric 6.83Hartford - shift key 6.73Famos 6.72Carissima 6.71Remington 8 6.67Masspro 6.67Rem-Sho, Fay-Sho - black 6.56Williams 1 - straight 6.38Tip Tip 6.35Columbia Bar-Lock - fancy 6.29Edelmann 6.25Salter 6 6.21Remington 9 6.21Underwood 1 6.21Hammond 1 - round 6.12Helios 6.12Virotyp 6.12National - 3-row frontstrike 6.04Yost 1 6.03Salter 7 6.03

6Diskret 5.94Densmore 1 5.86Kanzler 5.83Frister & Rossman 5.83Manhattan 5.83Helios-Klimax 5.78World 1 5.78Aktiv 5.71

10Westphalia 10.00Dactygram 10.00Taurus Type 10.00Mercury 10.00Venus 10.00Index Visible 10.00Rochester 10.00Cash 9.87Schade 9.84Automatic 9.83Horton 9.81Thürey 9.74Saturn 9.66Burns 9.66Niagra 9.66Velograph 9.64International - double keyboard 9.58Blickensderfer Electric 9.57Oliver 1 9.57International - shift key 9.57Official 9.55Waverly 9.48Maskelyne 9.40Brooks 9.40Bennington 9.38Jackson 9.38Polygraph - round 9.38Coffman 9.31Gardner 9.27English 9.27Hammonia 9.14Crown index 9.14Caligraph 1 9.14Rapid 9.14McLoughlin 9.05

9Peerless 8.96Pocket 8.95Polygraph - straight 8.95


Remington 5 5.69Imperial - oblique fronstrike 5.63Allen 5.63Pittsburg Visible - Daugherty type 5.60Williams 2 5.52Rofa - round 5.52Fox Sterling 5.52Franklin 5.43Postal 5.43Merritt 5.34World 2 5.34Odell 2, 3, 4 5.26Remington 2 5.26Smith Premier 1 5.26Columbia -(Bar-Lock)- shift key 5.26Fox portable 5.26Sun keyboard 5.26Blick Ninety 5.21Salter 10 5.17Jewett 5.10American keyboard 5.10

5Lambert 5.00Remington Junior 4.90Hall 4.83Williams 4,6 4.83Pittsburg visible - later type 4.83Simplex 1 4.83Mercedes Elektra 4.82Woodstock Electrite 4.82New Century Caligraph 4.74Picht 4.72Chicago (& name variants) 4.66Fox - upstrike 4.57Caligraph 2 4.48Yost 10 4.48Dactyle 4.47Oliver 11 4.47Densmore- others 4.40Noiseless Portable 4.34American Index 4.31Standard Folding 4.31Caligraph 3 4.27Caligraph 4 4.27Yost 4/New Yost 4.22Yost visible 4.22Vari-typer 4.22Elliot-Fisher 4.22Harris Visible 4.21Oliver 2 4.17Emerson 4.14

Geniatus 4.14Century 10 4.06Bing 4.05

4Mignon 2 3.85Imperial A,B 3.79Junior - Bennett type 3.79Hammond 2 - round 3.79Imperial D 3.79Rem-Blick 3.75Molle 3.71Wellington 3.71Blickensderfer 9 3.62Hammond 2 - straight 3.62Gundka 3.62Noiseless - office size 3.54Bennett 3.53Hammond 12 - round 3.45Columbia Bar-Lock - plain 3.45Remington 7 3.45Hammond 12 - straight 3.45Oliver 3 3.45Blickensderfer Featherweight 3.44Remington 6 3.44Electromatic-original 3.44Perkeo - folding 3.33Hammond Folding 3.28Hammond Multiplex - round 3.28Smith Premier 10 3.28Blickensderfer 8 3.23Diamant 3.21Smith Premier 2 or 4 3.19Fox Visible 3.17Bar-Let 3.12Hammond Multiplex - straight 3.08Blickensderfer 5 3.02Blickensderfer 6 3.02Blickensderfer 7 3.02Corona Folding - colors 3.02

3Royal 1,5 2.76Ideal 2.71Mignon 3,4 2.67Empire 2.67Remington Noiseless - ofc. size 2.59Erika - folding 2.41Remington Noiseless - Portable. 2.29

Oliver 7 2.09Corona folding - black 2.07

2Oliver 5 1.91Rem. Portable - lever 1.87Remington 10 1.87Remington 11 1.87Simplex-later 1.74Adler - thrust 1.64

Perhaps the most importantqualification to give the raritydata is the potential for innac-uaries at the upper extreme.The round 10.00 given to thetop seven machines at least par-tially comes from the fact thatwith such obscure machines,few respondents felt confidentenough to express an opinion.Thus, a 10 rating from only 2 or3 respondents easily averagesout to a round 10.

There are others which mightfit in that group but were notincluded in the survey. TheMalling Hansen would be animportant case in point. Othersmight include machines re-cently discovered such as theIngersoll and the long-baseOdell 1.

There were no machines ratedbelow 1 in rarity, so there is nogroup for that value. One mightconclude that on a 1-to-10scale, the 1-and-below rangewould include all the 4-rowfront-strikers that are so ubiqui-tous.


10Automatic 9.58Westphalia 9.42Schade 9.42Saturn 9.31Burns 9.19Ford 9.17Blickensderfer Electric 9.10Hammonia 9.10Gardner 9.03

9International - double keyboard 8.96Sholes & Glidden - decorated 8.96Thürey 8.94Cash 8.85Maskelyne 8.82English 8.79Morris 8.73Niagra 8.75Horton 8.71Jackson 8.71Kosmopolit 8.70Oliver 1 8.68Brooks 8.61Velograph 8.57Crown index 8.47Fitch 8.47Crown - round keyboard 8.46Waverly 8.39Caligraph 1 8.33Crandall 8.33Polygraph - round 8.27Edison Mimeograph 8.26International - shift key 8.23Dactygram 8.18Taurus Type 8.13Volksschreibmaschine 8.13Diskret 8.06Graphic 8.04

8Williams 1 - round 7.99Columbia Index 7.99North’s 7.99McLoughlin 7.92Sholes & Glidden - black 7.92Edland 7.88Bennington 7.74Pocket 7.69Polygraph - straight 7.69Dart 7.66Rapid 7.64Kneist 7.62Mercury 7.50Darling 7.50McCool 7.50Victor 7.50Moya 7.38Granville automatic 7.36Sholes Visible 7.29Salter 5 7.29Official 7.27Sun Index 7.22Eagle 7.21Venus 7.19Chicago No. 3 7.15Salter 6 7.08Triumph Perfect Visible 7.02Coffman 7.01Burnett 7.01

7Commercial Visible 6.94Columbia Bar-Lock - fancy 6.88Peerless 6.85Index Visible 6.82Dennis Duplex 6.82Remington 4 6.77International Index 6.73Keystone 6.67Hammond 1 - round 6.67

Rem-Sho, Fay-Sho - bronze 6.53Odell 1 6.53Hammond 1 - straight 6.53Daugherty 6.46Peoples 6.39Munson 6.25American Visible 6.13New American 5 6.05

6Helios 5.90Dollar 5.83Williams 1 - straight 5.83Merritt 5.83Edelmann 5.81Lilliput - index 5.77Helios-Klimax 5.76Remington 3 5.65Sterling 5.63Hartford - double keyboard 5.63Pittsburg Vis. - Daugherty type 5.63Odell 2, 3, 4 5.59Yost 1 5.56World 1 5.56Remington 2 5.56Chicago (& name variants) 5.52Virotyp 5.49Lambert 5.49Williams 2 5.42World 2 5.42Hall 5.42Remington 9 5.28Densmore 1 5.28Kanzler 5.24Blickensderfer 5 5.19Franklin 5.14Salter 7 5.07Postal 5.07

5Garbell 5.00

DesirabilityGroups

As with rarity , machines are arranged for convenience ingroups, each group labelled for the upper end of the range.Scale, as with the whole survey is 1-to-10, 10 being best.


Rem-Blick 3.55Hammond 12 - round 3.54Geniatus 3.47Hammond 2 - straight 3.47Columbia Bar-Lock - plain 3.47Remington 7 3.47Sabb 3.41Hammond 12 - straight 3.33Smith Premier 2 or 4 3.33Hammond Multiplex - str. 3.33Manhattan 3.27Dactyle 3.27Hammond Folding 3.19Hammond Multiplex - rnd. 3.13Remington Electric 3.06Century 10 3.06Remington 6 3.06

3Yost visible 2.92Molle 2.92Gundka 2.92Noiseless Portable 2.88Blick Ninety 2.79Oliver 2 2.78Allen 2.69Perkeo - folding 2.58Wellington 2.57Vari-typer 2.50Oliver 3 2.50Diamant 2.50Corona Folding - colors 2.50Oliver 11 2.42Elliot-Fisher 2.36Mignon 3,4 2.36Oliver 7 2.36Oliver 5 2.36Masspro 2.27Royal 1,5 2.22Empire 2.22Noiseless - office size 2.18Remington Junior 2.10Bing 2.08Simplex-later 2.08

2Smith Premier 10 1.94Fox Visible 1.94Bar-Let 1.94Ideal 1.94

Corona folding - black 1.94Erika - folding 1.81Adler - thrust 1.81Mercedes Elektra 1.67Remington Noiseless - ofc. size 1.67Remington Noiseless - Portable. 1.54Rem. Portable - lever 1.45Electromatic-original 1.43Harris Visible 1.35Remington 10 1.29Remington 11 1.29

1Woodstock Electrite 0.94

The desirability scores presenta different view of things as com-pared to rarity. Look at the upperend. Not one single machinescored a perfect 10.

Also, the 10 group is muchsmaller in the desirability pciture.Why? Well, perhaps because nomatter how rare a machine is, thereis always a number of collectorswho will be indifferent to it. Re-member, with rarity, one is consid-ering a fact. With desirability, it’sopinion.

There are also machines withdesirability exceeding their rarity.The Sholes and Glidden is the clas-sic example. This machine contin-ues to be among the most desirablemachines any collector can own,yet it is not all that rare. Manydozen survivors are documented.

In any case, be advised thatwhen you get into the upper rangesof anything, you’re bound to dis-cover some distortions–whetheryou're talking about astrophysicsor collectible typewriters.

At the lower end, it’s interest-ing to note that one lone machineresides in Group 1. Is the Wood-stock Electrite really deserving ofso much contempt? We’d like to bekinder and gentler, but the numbersdo not lie.

Hartford - shift key 5.00Carissima 5.00National - 3-row frontstrike 5.00Frister & Rossman 5.00Imperial - oblique fronstrike 5.00Smith Premier 1 5.00Aktiv 4.92Columbia (Bar-Lock) - shift key 4.81Jewett 4.76Tip Tip 4.68Rofa - round 4.68Famos 4.67Remington 8 4.62Salter 10 4.58Parisienne 4.55Caligraph 2 4.44Densmore- others 4.44Williams 4,6 4.38American Index 4.38Picht 4.29American keyboard 4.27Rem-Sho, Fay-Sho - black 4.24Caligraph 3 4.19Caligraph 4 4.19Rochester 4.17Fox portable 4.17Sun keyboard 4.10Blickensderfer Oriental 4.03Remington 5 4.03Emerson 4.03Imperial A,B 4.03

4Underwood 1 3.89Fox - upstrike 3.89Yost 4/New Yost 3.89Blickensderfer 9 3.89Blickensderfer 8 3.89Blickensderfer 6 3.89Fox Sterling 3.87Junior - Bennett type 3.85Pittsburg visible - later type 3.75Yost 10 3.75Standard Folding 3.75Blickensderfer 7 3.75Bennett 3.71Blickensderfer Featherweight 3.71Simplex 1 3.68Mignon 2 3.68Hammond 2 - round 3.68New Century Caligraph 3.61Imperial D 3.61


Edison and the Mimeograph

Mimeograph.

It has become a generic term, although it is a brand namenow more than 100 years old. For four generations, thismessy device blackened the fingers of office boys, secretar-ies, schoolteachers, students and revolutionaries as theycranked out their inventory lists, company newsletters, mathtests and propaganda. To put it simply, the Mimeograph wasan office duplicator. To consider it broadly, it was a vitalinstrument of the communications revolution.

The Mimeograph was one of the earliest stencil duplica-tors. Its origin takes us back to 1875, and the experiments ofThomas Edison, who, fascinated with everything electrical,tried applying the magical fluid to a gadget that wouldperforate stencils.

Edison’s invention was the Electric Pen. Current from abattery made the pen’s tip vibrate, so it would punch tinylittle holes in a sheet of paper. The tiny holes approximateddrawing or writing or what-have-you. Ink was pressedthrough the holes in the stencil to make copies on fresh paper.The number of copies was limited only by the strength of thestencil paper. The Electric Pen, according to one of Edison’sbiographers, was the world’s first electric appliance.

The following year, Eugenio Zuccato developed a sim-pler stencil-making device. Working in London, he inventedthe Trypograph. Zuccato put his stencil paper on the surfaceof an iron file. When he wrote with a plain stylus, the roughfile surface punctured the stencil from below. Edison ob-tained a U.S. patent for a similar process in 1880, althoughit took someone else to put the idea to work.

The someone else was A.B. Dick, of Chicago. Dick wasa lumber merchant who had the problem of producing andup-to-date inventory of stock on hand every day–a necessitypeculiar to the lumber business. Dick was looking for a wayto easily duplicate originals in quantity. Experimenting onhis own in 1884, he came up with a stencil process similar toZuccato’s and Edison’s. Dick saw real market potential inthe product and applied for a patent only to find that Edisonhad beat him to it.

Dick contacted Edison, and proposed selling the deviceto the public. Dick’s most brilliant idea in the venture,however, was his plan to use Edison’s name on the label!Edison’s name had true star quality in the 1880’s. Dickcoupled it with an intriguing brand-name taken from theGreek, and in 1887 the Edison “Mimeograph” duplicatorwas born.

A.B. Dick Company literature is more colorful about therelationship between its founder and Edison. Companypamphlets say Dick and Edison were old friends, and thiswas the basis for their association. However, there is little tosupport this story, and unless other evidence surfaces, it is asafer to assume the link between the two men was allbusiness.

Meanwhile, another player had entered the duplicator

A.B. Dick used Tho-mas Edison's starquality to market theMimeograph. Edisonmay have held thepatent, but Dick wasthe real genius be-hind the machine.

game. In 1881, David Gestetner, working in England, in-vented a different stencil perforator. Known as the Cy-clostyle, it was a pen with a miniature toothed wheel on theend. By writing on the stencil, the wheel rolled along andpunched tiny perforations in the sheet. Gestetner companyliterature has its own colorful story about the founder. Itclaims that Gestetner, while living in America, make moneyby selling kites made from thin waxed Japanese tissue.While working with this material, it is said he discovered thestencil concept by seeing how holes could be punched, inkcould penetrate, and the mesh-like structure of the paperwould keep it intact.

For several years, the Mimeograph and Cyclostyle dupli-cators coexisted, each performing the same function usingtheir slightly different methods. With each, finished stencilswere placed in a wooden frame so that ink could be pressedthrough them with a roller. It was messy but effective. At thisearliest stage, however, neither device effectively exploitedthe Typewriter, another new invention which seemed per-fectly suited to be teamed with duplicators.


on a wheel, then pressed a lever to send the type to the stencil.Speed of use: about a page a day. The typewriter industryrebelled. Remington, Smith and other major makers of theday threatened to boycott the Mimeograph if Dick refused totake his typewriter off the market. Dick was no dummy. Hewisely agreed.

The turn of the century brought the development ofrotary stencil machines, which meant that copies couldfinally be “cranked out” in the literal sense. A.B. Dick’sversion of this device was a single drum model with inkinside the drum and forced directly through the stencil.Gestetner marketed a double-drum design, inking the stencilwith rollers, which picked up the ink from a tube. Othermanufacturers introduced their own models, but for yearsthe two principal names in the industry were Mimeographfrom Dick and Cyclostyle from Gestetner.

Today, stencil duplicators are frequently available in fleamarkets and antique malls. Most often seen are the rotarystyle machines. Less frequent are the hand-type printingframes. Rarities in the field would be examples of Zuccato’sTrypograph, or specimens of the ill-fated Edison Mimeo-graph Typewriter.

Though stencil duplicators are still manufactured for usetoday, the technology must be see as a fading one in the ageof the Xerox machine. Early examples of the Mimeograph orCyclostyle make fascinating finds for anyone interested inbusiness history and what it was like to “run off” copiesbefore the days when all you had to do was press a button.

The Typewriter had been around for about ten years whenthe Mimeograph and Cyclostyle appeared. Duplicator sten-cils, however, were backed with thin tissue which was oftentorn to pieces under the pounding of typewriters.

A.B. Dick pounced on the solution to the problem whenhe bought rights to an 1888 patent for a new stencil backedby a sturdy porous tissue. The typewriter would penetrate thewax, but not the tissue. Suddenly, the potential for producingthousands of copies from a typewritten original was created.

In 1891, Gestetner helped the technology along anotherstep, by creating an “automatic” printing device, whichworked much faster than the old manual wooden frame. Arivalry between Dick and Gestetner might have developed,but instead, their relationship was cordial. In 1893, theyagreed to share patents, each using the typewriter stencil andthe automatic printer in his own products, and each prosper-ing in the process.

About this time, Dick tried to exercise some businessmuscle that backfired on him. He had successfully marketedhis machines under “restricted license.” This meant thatanybody who bought a Mimeograph had to buy stencils, inkand supplies from A.B. Dick and nobody else. Not bad.Taking the idea a step further, Dick brought out a specialtypewriter for producing Mimeo stencils. This was the“Edison Mimeograph Typewriter,” and was both a techno-logical and economical disaster.

The Edison Mimeograph Typewriter was an awkwarddevice with no keyboard. To print, the user selected a letter

Edison's involvement with theoffice duplicator began withhis 1875 invention, TheElectric Pen. This earlystencil-cutting device nevercaught on as a businessmachine. The inventor'sinterest in stencil cutters,however, led him to patent asimpler machine, which waslater developed and marketedby A.B. Dick as the Mimeo-graph.


The Early History of the Typewriterby Charles E. Weller–Secretary, National Shorthand Reporters Association

PART SIX

APPENDIXExtract from the Procedings of the National ShorthandReporters’ Association at Philadelphia, Pa., Aug 16, 1916.

Secretary Weller:I have a matter here which I think will interest our

members and I promise to be very brief, and not encroachupon the regular order this afternoon.

During our 10th annual convention which was held inMilwaukee in 1908 a number of our members took occasionto visit a little machine shop in tyhe northern part of the cityin which was constructed the first typewriter during thesummer and fall of 1867.

They failed, however, to visit another spot, no lessinteresting and replete with sacred emories of the man whoseinventife genius must always link his name in the enduringchain of great inventors of the nineteenth century.

In Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee, surrounded bythe many magnificent and imposing monuments whichdistinguishthat beautiful city of the dead, is a namelessgrave, with nothing to note the spot, save the simple cornerlot markers which are found on every burial lot placed thereby the cemetery authorities to mark the boundary line thatseparates it from other lots.

Probably no person except the few descendants of thefamily would think of taking the trouble to search out thismodest grave; and yet beneath the sunken mound are thebones of one whose inventive genius gave to the world thatwonderful mechanism known as the typewriter.

It was his brain that conceived the main features of aninvention which has lightened the labor and added to thecomfort and happiness of countless thousands of young menand women who are today earning an independent liveli-hood in fields of usefulness created by this invention—fieldsof labor far exceeding the most sanguine expectation of thepatient inventor who was struggling to produce a mechanismwhich has today found its way into every part of the civilizedglobe.

Crude and cumbrous as was the first attempt at reducingto a practical working model the product of his brain,nevertheless the main principle of the invention was there,and it did its work, despite the many handicaps that devel-oped during its construction in the little workshop that gaveit birth.

The inventor not only conceived the main principles ofthe invention, but at the same time christened it, by giving ita name, which sounded oddly enough at the time, but hassince become a household word throughout the world,—”The Typewriter.”

He perfected his invention so far as possible with the rudemachinery in the hands of workmen unskilled in the manu-facture of its most delicate parts, and patiently labored in aneffort to construct a machine that would accomplish thework and meet with favor with the public, aided in the firstplace by the pecuniary assistance of a friend whose interestwas enlisted to the extent of furnishing the necessary fundsfor the first trial of the invention, and afterwards paracticallysacrificing his own modest home in order to procure furtherfunds for carrying on the work, until he was compelled toturn it over to a factor in the east, whose fine work in steelfinally brought it to a marketable stage, after which he stillcontinued the work of perfecting some if its most intricateparts, propped up in his bed during the last stages of alingering illness, never ceasing his work, up to the time of hisdeath.

Such, in brief, is the story of the man and his work.He died a poor man, so far as the world’s wealth is

concerned. He left a heritage that has been the making ofmilionairs and has blessed the lives of hundred of thousandsof toilers in the world’s work.

It has been to me a matter of great regret that I was unableto preserve the first typewriter which was sent out of theshopt and shipped to St. Louis in the winter of 1967-8, butwhihc was soon afterwards recalled by the inventor to bereplaced by another machine with various mechanical im-provements, and it was not until two years ago that I learnedthat the original model upon whihc the patent was granted inJuly, 1868, was still in existence, and in passing throughWAshington on my way to our Atlantic City convention in1914, I arranged to have the model removed from thewarehouse and unpacked for inspection, and having securedthe services of a Wahsington pnotographer we succeeded inprocuring two excellent views of the machine, which arehere offered for your inspection.

Cut number one is a side view showing the keyboard withconnecting wires running down, and fastened to trivets, withwires connected at the other end of the trivets, and fromthence running up to the machine and connect4ed with thetype bars. It also shows the clock work mechanism withweight attached, which was afterwards replaced by thespring motor.

This is a top view showing the brass disk, slotted andconnected with the type bars, also the platen, consisting of ametal bar rigidly fastened to the frame of the machine, andestending to the center of the aperture in the disk withsufficient surface for each letter to strike at a common center;also showing the flat paper frame moving beneath the ribbon


and platen, the paper being clamped at eachcorner of the frame. The ribbon movement appa-ratus having been lost or mislaid is not shown onthe model. It consisted of spools fastened on eachside of the frame, attached to the carriage move-ment in such manner as to move and present afresh surface with each stroke of the keay, andautomatically reversing when the end of theribbon was reached.

Shortly after returning from the Atlantic Cityconvention I wrote to the director of the Smith-sonian Institute at Washington, suggesting thatthey obtain possession of the model which wasthen lying exposed in the basement of the PatentOffice fuilding. and liable to injury, and receivedin reply a note from the director with thanks forthe informatio, and promising to take the matterup with the Interior Department with the view tosecuring the model, and I trust that it is now safelyreposing with other valuable relice in the Insti-tute.

Now, recurring to that nameless grave, we oldmen are in the habit sometimes of dreamingdreams and seeing visions, and I think I see avision in the not far distant future when abovethose sacred remains will arise a beautiful monu-ment of marble, in which is set a bronze tablet,bearing in base relief the stong features of amanof the type of Elias Howe of sewing machinefame, with the inscription

“CHRISTOPHER LATHAM SHOLES

The Father of the Typewriter.”

“Erected by the National Shorthand Reporters’Association, aided by tyhe free will offerings of thou-sands of men and women in grateful memore of theman whose genius has lightened labor and broughtcomfort ahd happiness to millions of toilers in theworld’s work.”

I am not making a motion but simply offeringa suggestion which may or may not be deemedworth of consideration by the Association. Aplan that I am about to suggest will not take adollar out of the treasury of the National Associa-tion. The undertaking would lose all of its charmand greace, were it not accomplished by the freewill offerings of the many thousands of youngmen and girls who are today earning their livingin the new field of labor which had its origin in thebrain of this remarkable man.

This concludes ETCetera's serialization ofWeller's history.


What in theWorld?Items from the pages of “The Phonographic World” and its successors

A Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Expert TypistThe accompnaying illustration is from a photograph ofMiss Linnie Haguewood, of Vinton Iowa, the deaf, dumband blind operator of the Smith Premier Typewriter. MissHaguewood recently gave daily exhibitons at this type-writer company’s booth at the omaha Exposition, hewwork creating the most favorable comment on the part ofvisitors who witnessed her wonderful manipulation of thekeyboard, and on the part of newspapers as well.

Miss Haguewood’s triple affliction was the result ofspinal fever when she was eighteen months old. Nothingwhatever was done to educate her until she was twelve,when Mr. French of the Dubuque Institute for the Blinddiscovered her conditon, and began to teach her themanual for the deaf. Throught the efforts of Mr. BernardMurphy, editor of the vinton Eagle, Miss Haguewood wasplaced in the Vinton School for the Blind. Later, a fundbeing raised for her education, she was given into the solecharge of Miss Donald, a teacher in the Vinton School.Miss Haguewood’s development of mind has been maar-velous, and she is considered second only to the famousHelen Keller. Miss Donald is at present engaged in teach-ing her to articulate, and already she can speak manywords more or less distinctly. In time she willl undoubt-edly be able to talk nearly as well as the ordinary mortal.Miss Haguewood mastered the keyboard on the SmithPremier in three days, and wrote a letter, which, in pointsof spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and general exe-cution, was pronounced perfect. She will give othereshibitions of her skill upon the Smith Premier at thecompany’s booth later during the Omaha Fair.

[Illustrated Phonographic World–September, 1898]

A Unique SouvenirThe Omaha agency of the Smith Premier Typewritercompany recenty issued from their exhibiton department,at the Omaha Exhibition, the most artistic souvenir book-let we have yet had the pleasure of examining. The title ofthe pamphlet is “Our Juvenile Class,” presenting twelvehalf-tone engravings of beautiful little girls, each sitting ata Smith Premier machine. These are taken from life, andthe bright and charming faces and the graceful attitudes ofthese youngsters produce a peculiarly striking. impres-sion. Among the dozen bright faces is a handsome roundand chubby face of a little Chinese girl in her native dress.This is little Miss Guy Wing, of San Francisco. On a sheetof paper which she has apparently just written are thesignificant words, “The Smlith Plemier is the glate Ame-lican typeliter.” It is wonderful the amount of taste and

ingenuity that is now displayed by the manufacturers of writinginstruments in their advertisements and literature.

[Illustrated Phonographic World–September, 1898]

Thirty words a minute is not extraordinarily rapid, I’ll admit.By keeping the hands close to the keyboard you will save sometime and gain a little speed. Practice in the right direction willbring the best results, however.

If some stenographers I see could operate their machineswith their jaws tjey would attain such a speed that Mr. McGur-rin would have to look to his laurels. Gum-chewins is not aladyliike habit. The girl who chews gum invariably uses slang.moves about the office noisily, slams doors, etc. The gum-chewing habit and its attributes should be placed on everystenographer’s list of “donts.”

KATHRYN CHATOID

[The Typewriter and Phonographic World–May, 1990]


INTERNATIONALNEWS

GermanyHistorische Bürowelt has been a bitbehind schedule on this side of theocean, probably due to the need to pre-pare English translations. The June andSeptember, 1990 issues reached ET-Cetera at the end of November. Of mostinterest was Uwe Breker’s item in theJune issue on the “real” Odell No. 1. Itseems this very different Odell No. 1was discovered at Brimfield in Marchof 1989 and exported to Europe by thewell-known dealer Yan Maillet. ThisOdell has a Sun-type “dogbone” baseinstead of the familiar round base we allknow and love. The dogbone base is thesame as that shown in the patent draw-ing for the machine. HB mentions themachine being “made available” to allcollectors and interested persons inDüsseldorf.—Uwe tells me it is now inthe collection of Hans Barbian in thatcity.

The November, 1990 issue of HBhas an interesting discourse on the the-ory of typewriter prices by collectorJörn Holzmann of Hamburg. Amonghis contentions: prices for very raremachines will continue to go up; pricesfor moderate collectibles will stagnatefor 10 years and shoot up afterwards.The same issue of HB pictures the rareIngersoll typewriter–but the readers ofETCetera know they saw it here first(issue No. 13).

Netherlandskwbl of Oct., 1990 also presented somediscoveries about the Odell’s begin-nings. Editor Jos Legrand wrote of anOdell #1 he discovered with a name-plate reading “ODELL’S TYPE-WRITER made by ODELL TYPE-WRITER CO., LAKE GENEVA, WI.”Those unfamiliar with the model oneshould know that it prints in caps onlyand the round base is decorated insimple lines that remind one of Ameri-can Indian designs. Before Jos’ discov-ery, the known Odell #1’s were all

thought to have been made in Chicago.kwbl also reproduces a newspaper clip-ping from the Lake Geneva Cisco dated1887, mentioning the company “latelyformed” to manufacure typewriters lo-cally. The clipping is illustrated with amachine like the one pictured in Histo-rische Bürowelt.

EnglandType-Writer Times’ Summer, 1990 is-sue featured a long-needed article ondating Blickensderfers. Analyzingsparse serial number data, editor PaulLippmann matches the following num-bers with the following dates:

8000=1897,20000=1899,60000=1904,192000=1917.

Everything in between is interpola-tion, but that’s not a bad start wherebefore the information was zip. Also inTWT, nifty writeups on the wierdround-keyboard Crary, and the City ofDayton, Ohio, where so many type-writer failures occurred.

TWT's Autumn, 1990 issue includesthe text of a speech by the Rev. ThomasOliver on the history of his machine.Also in the Autumn issue is a piece ontypewriter tins. ETCetera has an articleon that intrguing subject that is quitedifferent, and it will appear in a futureissue.

A NewSholes & Glidden

III

The Sholes & Glidden Type Writerpictured on this month’s cover is one Ipurchased in February of 1990. I’vedelayed writing about it, because at onetime it was up for sale, but a slightimprovement in my financial situationhas now enabled me to keep it. So, inkeeping with ETCetera’s tradition ofreporting news of any collector’s findof an S&G, here goes...

This Sholes & Glidden is serialnumber 3596. According to the re-search conducted by Richard Dicker-

son, that serial number would have beenmanufactured in the first half of 1877.

As you can see from the photo, thismachine seems to have the remodeledor “perfected” hardware introduced byRemington in 1877. However, it retainsthe ornate decoration, and the carriagereturn wheel left over from the originalhardware. The absence of an “A” pre-ceding the serial number indicates theperfected hardware may have been in-stalled at the dealer level instead of atthe factory. This may be supported bythe fact that the wheel was not removed.The other remnant of original hardwareis the use of old-style type bar guidesand a round instead of v-shaped rearcarriage rail.

The odd thing about this machine isthat most of the decorations appear to bevery skillfully hand-painted. A feworiginal decals remain, but these areinside the panels that open to reveal theinterior. The painted decoration is veryfaithful to the original as seen on mostS&G’s. It seems this machine may haveexperience heavy wear or some damageat some point early in its life, and theowner chose to have a skilled craftsmanrestore it to its original appearance. Inany case, the machine is not an exampleof a black machine with a modern paintjob. As found, the machine was missingits rear feed roller assembly and itspaper table. Each of these parts havebeen replaced with modern reproduc-tions.

This machine was brought to myattention nearly a year before I was ableto purchase it. An elderly woman inNew Jersey sent me a cryptic letterindicating she had a “Remington No.1.” My attempts to get a photo were invain, but since she told me by phone ithad “flowers painted all over it,” I hadfaith it was the real thing. I was finallyable to see the machine when I hadoccasion to visit the East Coast, and wasvery happy to be able to take it homewith me.

--Darryl Rehr


LETTERSYou might warn your readers who

are planning to see the Dietz Collectionof typewriters at the Milwaukee (Wis-consin) Public Museum to reconsider.When we sent there in early October,we found that the collection had beenplaced in stroage under a “rotation”system for exhibits. It might be best towrite to the director personally and getan official letter saying that it will orwill not be available when one plans tovisit. I had to ask three reception staffmembers on the main floor before Ifound one, a security guard, who evenknew that they had the collection and hetold me it was in storage completely. Heput me in telephone contact with a mu-seum official who offered to have a staffmember open the box of a single ma-chine that I might want to see, but thatwould add to my frustration and so I didno have it done.

At the Alexander Graham Bell mu-seum near Baddeck on Cape BretonIsland in Nova Scotia we saw Mrs.Bell’s specially constructed HammondNo. 12 which she used to conduct Mr.Bell;s business and her correspondencewith their large family. Mrs. Bell wasdeaf and for her the Hammond was“visible speech.” Near Cavendish,Prince Edward Island (Canada’s small-est province and pictured postcardpretty) is the Green Gables house madefamous early in this century by LucyMaud Montgomery in “Anne of GreenGables.” There were subsequent“Anne” volumes also. Her Empiretypewriter, which she bought secondhand in 1906 is preserved in a clearplastic exhibit case with its letters A, Nand E well worn.

Marco ThorneSan Diego, CA

†††

I would be remiss not to let youknow that I have been thoroughly en-joying ETCetera. A great deal of re-search has gone into the past few issues

which has made for some very interest-ing reading. Members may be inter-ested in reading an 8-page article in theDecember, 1990 Smithsonian maga-zine covering the early days and thegradual demise of the manual type-writer. Know your efforts are appreci-ated.

Arthur F. NorthTamarac, FL

†††

I received your latest issue of ET-Cetera and, as usual, it’s a great publi-cation. I’m happy to renew my sub-scription, even without the incentive,but the stationery is a good idea...thanksfor all your work on ETCetera.

Pamela McVeighGrand Rapids, MI

†††

I have been enjoing ETCetera sinceabout the middle of 1989. The articlesare in-depth and extremely interesting.I so injoyed “A Chinese Typewriter”and “The Early History of the Type-writer” published in the last issue. I amnot sure how many letters you get frommembers, but I just wanted you to knowthat I sure appreciate all of your effortsin the publication.

Cheryl DidricksonRenton, WA

†††

First, let me gbegin by saying howpleased I am to be a part of the ETCorganization. Your newsletter has re-ally opened my eyes to the incrediblepossiblities that lay ahead for the begin-ning collector. Second, I wish to com-pliment you on the content and presen-tation of ETCetera. I have read my fourissues over and over and look forwardto receiving many more in the future.

Steven SperberVan Nuys, CA

It’s almost a pleasure to send youmoney to renew my membership be-cause of all the publications I get, on avariety of topics, I enjoy yours as much,if not more, than any other. The layoutis clean and crisp, the writing is welldone and the topics are fascinating, ex-pecially for a collector like me who isnot very knowledgeable (and inher-ently cheap).

Marv GisserSouth Euclid, OH

†††

Well, your ETC publication has un-covered a hornet’s nest here with me. Ihave been gathering typewriters sincewe talked together last July. Have beenbuying everything that I find out about.They are piling up on the racks in thebasement. They are disappearing in thearea and I can sort them out later.Remingtons, Royals, Smiths, Under-wood, Olivers, Chicagos, IBMs. 1Odell, 1 Harris Visible, 1 Blickensder-fer. Look forward to your publication.

Frank BogenriefHinton, IA

†††

I look forward to the next copy ofETCetera only after I have devouredthe current issue almost to the point ofmemorizing it. Thank you for all you doto make collecting so interesting and somuch fun.

We were looking at a show when Ispotted a heavy black object on the floorof one booth with the letters SHOLESclearly in gold. I admitted I was a col-lector but pointed out that a few keycaps were missing and it would takesome doing to restore it.With a littlefriendly discussion we finally settled on$50 and I was inwardly delighted.

Eileen CainLake Almanor Peninsula, CA

Eileen's find was a rare Sholes Visible,made in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

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