Summary

Book typewriter of the typebar, down-strike class manufactured by the Elliott-Fisher Book Typewriter Company in the U.S.A. The design of this machine originated with the Elliott-Hatch Company in about 1897. Its purpose was to allow typing into bound books such as account ledgers or minute books, and also on to flat sheets of paper. Unlike a conventional typewriter where the paper moves past the fixed printing point, in the book typewriter the paper was fixed and the printing point moved.

The typewriter mechanism moved on rails and was positioned directly over the page to be typed. The typebars were in a vertical typebasket beneath the keyboard and rotated downwards to strike the ribbon and paper at the base of the machine. As each lcharacter was typed, the keyboard and typebasket moved forward along the rails to complete the line of typing. To type the next line the whole machine was moved along another set of rails, at right angles to the first set.

Physical Description

Four-row QWERTY keyboard with 39 character keys sits above vertical semicircular typebasket with 39 typebars. Typebars rotate downwards to strike ribbon and paper at printing point at base of machine. Keyboard and typebasket mounted on wheels and moves, controlled by a rack and pinion, on rails within a frame which in turn is mounted on wheels running on rails along the sides of a heavy metal baseplate.

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