Summary

Portable typewriter of the type-bar, front strike class, made by the Underwood Typewriter Company of Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.A.

The basic configuration used in Underwood typewriters was invented in 1895 by Francis Xavier Wagner. It offered the great advantage over other typewriter designs that the typebars rested in a typebasket below and in front of the platen and struck the paper and platen from the front. Thus the words being typed were clearly visible to the operator. Wagner's invention was strongly supported by John T. Underwood, a manufacturer of carbon paper, inks and typewriter ribbons, and the original Wagner Typewriter Company became the Underwood Typewriter Company.

The Underwood configuration became the standard layout for the majority of manual typewriters manufactured in the first half of the twentieth century.

Physical Description

Black metal frame resting on a wooden baseboard. Cylindrical platen. Type-bars rest in a horizontal curved type-basket in front of platen. Ink ribbon carried between two spools on vertical axes. Three-row QWERTY keyboard with 28 character keys. 'FIG' and 'CAP' keys to left of character keys, 'BACK SPACE' and 'CAP' keys to right. All keys circular, white with black lettering. Black spacebar positioned in front of keyboard. Case consisting of box fitting over typewriter baseboard, covered in black leather-like material with leather handle and metal catch.

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