Summary

Typewriter of the typebar, upstrike class manufactured by the Smith Premier Typewriter Company of Syracuse, New York, U.S.A. The design of this machine was first patented in 1889 by Alexander Timothy Brown of New York and production began in the same year. The Model 4 was first produced in 1896 and remained in production in various forms until 1908. This typewriter is of the upstrike variety in which the typebars strike the underside of the platen. The printed characters are thus not immediately visible to the operator who must tilt the platen and carriage upwards and backwards to see what has been typed. In 1908 the Model 10 was introduced. This was a front strike machine in which the typebars struck the front of the platen and the typed letters were directly visible to the opeartor.

Physical Description

Black-finished metal frame. Vertical circular typebasket centred on platen, with 84 typebars strike upwards on to platen underside. Cylindrical platen on carriage which pivots upwards and backwards to allow typed characters to be seen. Ink ribbon, 35 mm wide, carried between two spools on horizontal axes and runs diagonally across typebasket. QWERTY keyboard with 84 octagonal character keys in seven rows of twelve. 30 keys, cream with black lettering, grouped in three rows of ten in lower centre of keyboard are for lower-case letters plus four punctuation marks. Remaining 54 keys, black with white lettering, are for upper-case letters, numbers and other characters. Short spacebar in front of keyboard. Scales engraved 0-70 along front and back of carriage.

More Information