POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Physical Description

Typewriter, Sholes & Glidden Type Writer, metal/wood/glass/paint, Sholes & Glidden, E Remington & Sons, 1874-1878. Typewriter, "Sholes & Glidden type writer" one of the first commercally produced typewriters designed by Christopher Latham Sholes, and produced by E.Remington & Sons, Gunmakers from 1874-1878, not more than 5,000 were sold. The mechanical typewriter has a black painted metal casing decorated with gold and colourful decals. There is a flap at the front bearing flags and a crest, this lifts to reveal the alphanumeric keyboard, there are 42 keys with two keys missing in a standard QWERTY layout. This is the first typewriter to use the QWERTY keyboard, the keys are metal with clear glass tops, the characters underneath are black printed on white, the space bar is dark brown wood (possibly non-original), the underside of the cover has a central floral arrangement. The typewriter is of an "upstrike" design, the letters sit on the end of rods called "typebars', the typebars hang in a circle in the middle of the top surface plate, the roller or platen, that held the paper, sat over this hole, when the keys are pressed the typebar swings up and strikes the platen from the underneath. This method meant that the text was hidden from view, so the machine was called a "blind writer", the roller is on a hinge so that the work can be checked. There is a wheel on the right side of the casing. On the top half of the case there are two flaps, one front and one at the back, that give access to the internal workings of the typewriter, both are decorated inside and out with floral tranfers. Each side of the case bears a crest, while the back panel has a large rose in the centre. Gold lettering on the centre front of the housing has worn/faded leaving it illegible.