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80-584: The Oliver Typewriter Company was an American typewriter manufacturer headquartered in Chicago , Illinois . The Oliver Typewriter was one of the first "visible print" typewriters, meaning text was visible to the typist as it was entered. Oliver typewriters were marketed heavily for home use, using local distributors and sales on credit. Oliver produced more than one million machines between 1895 and 1928 and licensed its designs to several international firms. Competitive pressure and financial troubles resulted in

160-401: A tow truck or pickup truck with a special towing attachment called a boom. They also may obtain the key from the car owner. Usually, the vehicle owner must be notified of a repossession. The repossession agent will find the car and check its information such as the vehicle identification number (VIN) to make sure they have the right vehicle. If there is a match, they will attempt to hook up

240-631: A , e , i , o and u to produce á , é , í , ó and ú , reducing the number of sorts needed from 5 to 1. The typebars of "normal" characters struck a rod as they moved the metal character desired toward the ribbon and platen, and each rod depression moved the platen forward the width of one character. Dead keys had a typebar shaped so as not to strike the rod. In English-speaking countries, ordinary typewriters printing fixed-width characters were standardized to print six horizontal lines per vertical inch, and had either of two variants of character width, one called pica for ten characters per horizontal inch and

320-591: A balance depends on jurisdiction and on the details of the loan contract. In the case of a nonrecourse debt , for example, the debtor is not personally liable for a deficiency. Repossession is possible with real estate , commercial and domestic properties. These numbers and text relate to home mortgage repossessions in England. In 2010, there was a downward trend in the number of repossessions, as lenders seized 9,400 properties in April, May and June, 400 fewer than in

400-607: A building in which to manufacture his machines. While visiting Chicago to promote the machine, Oliver encountered businessman Delavan Smith, who became interested in the typewriter and bought the stock held by the Iowa investors. Oliver was given a 65% interest in the company and retained to continue development of the typewriter, at an annual salary of $ 3,000 ($ 110,000 per year in 2024). Oliver died suddenly of heart disease on February 9, 1909, aged 56. The Oliver Typewriter Company had begun operating in 1895, with its Chicago headquarters on

480-508: A cylinder inside a wooden box. In 1874, the cylinder was replaced by a carriage, moving beneath the writing head. Then, in 1875, the well-known "tall model" was patented, which was the first of the writing balls that worked without electricity. Malling-Hansen attended the world exhibitions in Vienna in 1873 and Paris in 1878 and he received the first-prize for his invention at both exhibitions. The first typewriter to be commercially successful

560-487: A factory there. Production of Oliver's original, three-rowed keyboard design was discontinued in 1931 when the company began to produce a rebranded model of the "Fortuna" typewriter, a four-rowed German design. In 1935, the company began to produce the Halda-Norden standard typewriter, another licensed design, as model No. 20. The company, however, had to retool its machines and return to the original Oliver design when

640-421: A firm contract for the next batch. However, Remington was engaged in merger talks, which would eventually result in the creation of Remington Rand and no executives were willing to commit to a firm order. Northeast instead decided to enter the typewriter business for itself, and in 1929 produced the first Electromatic Typewriter. In 1928, Delco , a division of General Motors , purchased Northeast Electric, and

720-549: A lack of continuous, reliable electricity. The QWERTY keyboard layout , developed for typewriters in the 1870s, remains the de facto standard for English-language computer keyboards . The origins of this layout still need to be clarified. Similar typewriter keyboards, with layouts optimised for other languages and orthographies, emerged soon afterward, and their layouts have also become standard for computer keyboards in their respective markets. Although many modern typewriters have one of several similar designs, their invention

800-414: A landlord may seize the tenant's property in a rented object if there are outstanding payments. In Italy, repossession if possible only if an executive order by a court is issued and must be performed by a special public official only ( ufficiale giudiziario ). Repossession by self-help is in general illegal and constitutes theft . Repossession by self-help of a stolen property is legal only if made by

880-682: A large number of customers to default on their payments, resulting in the repossession of their typewriters. The company opted not to borrow money and, in 1926, the board of directors voted to liquidate the company. Only one employee, Chester Nelson, was retained to oversee the company's liquidation. In 1928, the Oliver Typewriter Company was sold to investors who formed the British Oliver Typewriter Company in Croydon , England and established

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960-527: A manufacturer of sewing machines ) to commercialize the machine as the Sholes and Glidden Type-Writer . This was the origin of the term typewriter . Remington began production of its first typewriter on March 1, 1873, in Ilion, New York . It had a QWERTY keyboard layout, which, because of the machine's success, was slowly adopted by other typewriter manufacturers. As with most other early typewriters, because

1040-411: A provision of law requires that repossession takes place, the lien holder has a non-delegatable obligation not to cause a breach of the peace (which is synonymous with disturbing the peace ) in performing the repossession or the repossession will be reversed, and the party ordering the repossession will be liable for damages (or the lienholder will be held responsible). This requirement not to breach

1120-420: A regular court judgment. The debt must then be collected by an officer of the court ( Gerichtsvollzieher ) who exclusively may use force to collect the debt, such as opening a door or enlisting help from police. Neither the creditor nor private debt collection agencies may use force or seize property against the will of the debtor. Specific forms of self-help repossession for real estate are legal. For example,

1200-424: A term in the lending contract. There is nothing legally preventing a creditor with a security interest from repossessing the goods if a payment is late - even if it is only one day overdue - unless the lender has agreed otherwise as a binding term of contract. Various objects can be repossessed, including boats and aircraft , but most repossession agencies focus on car repossession. The repo agent normally uses

1280-650: A workable design. Some early typing instruments include: By the mid-19th century, the increasing pace of business communication had created a need to mechanize the writing process. Stenographers and telegraphers could take down information at rates up to 130 words per minute, whereas a writer with a pen was limited to a maximum of 30 words per minute (the 1853 speed record). From 1829 to 1870, many printing or typing machines were patented by inventors in Europe and America, but none went into commercial production. In 1865, Rev. Rasmus Malling-Hansen of Denmark invented

1360-413: Is replevin . The security interest over the collateral is often known as a lien . The lender/creditor is known as the lienholder. The existence and handling of repossessions varies greatly between jurisdictions . In most jurisdictions outside of the U.S., self-help is limited to real estate , and otherwise the right of possession can only be enforced by a court or other official agents. When

1440-658: Is considered the first practical power-operated typewriter in 1914. In 1920, after returning from Army service, he produced a successful model and in 1923 turned it over to the Northeast Electric Company of Rochester for development. Northeast was interested in finding new markets for their electric motors and developed Smathers's design so that it could be marketed to typewriter manufacturers, and from 1925 Remington Electric typewriters were produced powered by Northeast's motors. After some 2,500 electric typewriters had been produced, Northeast asked Remington for

1520-569: The Hansen Writing Ball , which went into commercial production in 1870 and was the first commercially sold typewriter. It was a success in Europe and was reported as being used in offices on the European continent as late as 1909. Malling-Hansen used a solenoid escapement to return the carriage on some of his models, which makes him a candidate for the title of inventor of the first "electric" typewriter. The Hansen Writing Ball

1600-531: The font . In 1941, IBM announced the Electromatic Model 04 electric typewriter, featuring the revolutionary concept of proportional spacing. By assigning varied rather than uniform spacing to different sized characters, the Type 4 recreated the appearance of a typeset page, an effect that was further enhanced by including the 1937 innovation of carbon-film ribbons that produced clearer, sharper words on

1680-590: The Bar-Let and the Corona No. 3 Typewriter have two separate shift keys, a "CAP" shift (for uppercase) and a "FIG" shift (for numbers and symbols). The Murray code was developed for a teletypewriter with a similar three-row typewriter keyboard. To facilitate typewriter use in business settings, a tab (tabulator) key was added in the late nineteenth century. Before using the key, the operator had to set mechanical "tab stops", pre-designated locations to which

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1760-517: The British Oliver Typewriter Company between 1930 and 1942: Oliver typewriter designs were licensed for production in several countries. Variants of model No. 3 were produced by The Linotype Company of Montreal and A. Greger & Co. of Vienna . Models produced by licensees were marketed under various names including "Courier" ( Austria ), "Fiver" (Germany), "Stolzenberg" (continental Europe) and "Revilo" ( Argentina ). The Argentinian licensee used Revilo, Oliver backwards, to avoid royalty payments on

1840-633: The British government placed large orders for the three-rowed No. 15 at the outbreak of World War II . Production of the No. 20 resumed around 1947, at which time the company began to license the Oliver name to several European manufacturing companies. The standard desktop machine was eventually discontinued in favour of portable models; the company began to sell a German design, the Siemag Standard, as

1920-734: The District of Columbia have enacted (with minor variations) Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code , which generally permits security interest holders to repossess goods if a debtor is in default and the repossession can be conducted without a breach of the peace . Being "in default" means that the debtor has failed to fulfill his or her obligations under the contract. The most common forms of default resulting in repossession are failing to make required payments and failing to maintain adequate insurance coverage. Many U.S. states have enacted additional laws that apply specifically to

2000-558: The Oliver Building , now a Chicago landmark on the National Register of Historic Places , when it was completed in 1907. Starting in 1899, the company established sales networks by encouraging customers to become local distributors. This method of marketing relied on word of mouth and emphasized sales made directly to neighbors ( door-to-door ) and, after 1905, sales on credit. In response to increased competition in

2080-490: The Oliver name, which had already been registered in Argentina. A heavy, 28-pound, nickel-plated model No. 3 was designed to avoid rust in warm, damp climates; by 1907, Mexico was importing them, with a market value of around US$ 100 in 1910 (the equivalent of about $ 2,100 in 2013). The 1915 novel Los de Abajo by Mariano Azuela was about the declining value of a pillaged typewriter for Mexican revolutionaries who had to carry

2160-660: The Oliver standard. In 1958, Oliver purchased the Byron Typewriter Company, previously the Barlock Typewriter Company, of Nottingham . The licensing ventures were ultimately unsuccessful, and the company's machine tools were transferred to a factory in Germany. Production of all Oliver typewriters ended in May 1959. The general design of Oliver typewriters remained mostly unchanged throughout

2240-551: The Simplex Typewriter Company made index typewriters for 1/40 the price of a Remington typewriter. The index typewriter's niche appeal however soon disappeared as, on the one hand new keyboard typewriters became lighter and more portable, and on the other refurbished second-hand machines began to become available. The last widely available western index machine was the Mignon typewriter produced by AEG which

2320-461: The United States—but before the advent of daisywheel and electronic machines—the typewriter market faced strong competition from less expensive typewriters from Asia, including Brother Industries and Silver Seiko Ltd. of Japan. In most of the early typewriters, the typebars struck upward against the paper, pressed against the bottom of the platen , so the typist could not see the text as it

2400-593: The addition of a fourth keyboard row dedicated to numbers. Although a four-row prototype was designed in 1922, it was shelved due to the company's financial troubles at that time. The No. 20, No. 21 and portable models produced by the British Oliver Typewriter Company had four-row keyboards. Oliver typewriters were finished with olive green paint or nickel -plating and white or black keyboards, depending on customer preference. Beginning with model No. 3, machines were painted green except some variants to be exported to warm or damp regions, which were chrome-plated . The colour

2480-508: The bank involved. Repossession also generally does not apply to real property. Real property is generally subject to a cause of action known as foreclosure . In the United States, repossessions are carried out pursuant to state laws that permit a creditor with a security interest in goods to take possession of those goods if the debtor defaults under the contract that created the security interest. In particular, all 50 U.S. states and

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2560-417: The basket of typebars, in which case the typewriter is described as "basket shift", or the paper-holding carriage, in which case the typewriter is described as "carriage shift". Either mechanism caused a different portion of the typebar to come in contact with the ribbon/platen. The result is that each typebar could type two different characters, cutting the number of keys and typebars in half (and simplifying

2640-546: The car to the tow truck and tow it away or pick the lock and drive it away. However doing so does not absolve the repossession agent's requirement to be covered under an active insurance policy for the vehicle under the applicable criminal traffic laws. Thus, an agent who elects to do this may be subject to arrest for the violation of criminal traffic laws which apply to insurance requirements. The repo agents also cannot legally cross locked and enclosed storage spaces such as gates and garages. Repossession does not necessarily satisfy

2720-429: The carriage would advance when the tab key was pressed. This facilitated the typing of columns of numbers, freeing the operator from the need to manually position the carriage. The first models had one tab stop and one tab key; later ones allowed as many stops as desired, and sometimes had multiple tab keys, each of which moved the carriage a different number of spaces ahead of the decimal point (the tab stop), to facilitate

2800-485: The company's liquidation in 1928. The company's assets were purchased by investors who formed The British Oliver Typewriter Company, which manufactured and licensed the machines until its own closure in the late 1950s. The last Oliver typewriter was produced in 1959. Thomas Oliver was born in Woodstock, Ontario , Canada, on August 1, 1852. Having become interested in religion, Oliver moved to Monticello , Iowa , after

2880-411: The company's history. The Olivers are "down strike" typewriters, meaning the typebars strike the platen (also known as the roller) from above, rather than from below ("up strike") or from the front ("front strike"). Unlike the "up strike" method, which prints text out of sight on the underside of the platen, the "down strike" is a "visible print" design, meaning the full page is visible to the typist as

2960-409: The concept that each key was attached to a typebar that had the corresponding letter molded, in reverse, into its striking head. When a key was struck briskly and firmly, the typebar hit a ribbon (usually made of inked fabric ), making a printed mark on the paper wrapped around a cylindrical platen . The platen was mounted on a carriage that moved horizontally to the left, automatically advancing

3040-421: The creditor's repossession expenses, and then reacquiring the automobile as if the repossession had not occurred. A "redemption" entails the consumer paying off the entire contract balance and then being given ownership of the vehicle free and clear of any contract obligations. If these instances do not occur and the vehicle becomes repossessed, the lien holder is required to notify the debtor of their intent to sell

3120-533: The death of his mother, to serve as a Methodist minister. In 1888, Oliver began to develop his first typewriter, made from strips of tin cans , as a means of producing more legible sermons . He was awarded his first typewriter patent, US Patent No. 450,107, on April 7, 1891. After four years of development, a "crude working model" composed of 500 parts had been produced. Oliver resigned his ministry and moved to Epworth, Iowa , where he found investors willing to provide $ 15,000 ($ 549,000 in 2024) of capital , and leased

3200-516: The electric typewriter came in 1910, when Charles and Howard Krum filed a patent for the first practical teletypewriter . The Krums' machine, named the Morkrum Printing Telegraph, used a typewheel rather than individual typebars. This machine was used for the first commercial teletypewriter system on Postal Telegraph Company lines between Boston and New York City in 1910. James Fields Smathers of Kansas City invented what

3280-568: The electric typewriter was laid by the Universal Stock Ticker , invented by Thomas Edison in 1870. This device remotely printed letters and numbers on a stream of paper tape from input generated by a specially designed typewriter at the other end of a telegraph line. Some electric typewriters were patented in the 19th century, but the first machine known to be produced in series is the Cahill of 1900. Another electric typewriter

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3360-508: The far left was then pressed to the right to return the carriage to its starting position and rotating the platen to advance the paper vertically. A small bell was struck a few characters before the right hand margin was reached to warn the operator to complete the word and then use the carriage-return lever. By about 1910, the "manual" or "mechanical" typewriter had reached a somewhat standardized design. There were minor variations from one manufacturer to another, but most typewriters followed

3440-455: The first quarter of 2010, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). Repossession by self-help is generally illegal and constitutes theft . In most cases, if the debtor is unable or unwilling to pay an outstanding debt, the creditor must first obtain either a court order authorizing the repossession ( Vollstreckungsbescheid , only possible if the debtor does not contest the debt) or

3520-602: The front side of the platen, became standard. One of the first was the Daugherty Visible, introduced in 1893, which also introduced the four-bank keyboard that became standard, although the Underwood which came out two years later was the first major typewriter with these features. A significant innovation was the shift key , introduced with the Remington No. 2 in 1878. This key physically "shifted" either

3600-412: The heavy device on their journeys; it featured an Oliver Typewriter model No. 3. Typewriter A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys , and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectively against the paper with a type element . Thereby,

3680-420: The index type--albeit with a very much larger index and number of type elements. Embossing tape label makers are the most common index typewriters today, and perhaps the most common typewriters of any kind still being manufactured. The platen was mounted on a carriage that moved horizontally to the left, automatically advancing the typing position, after each character was typed. The carriage-return lever at

3760-411: The internal mechanisms considerably). The obvious use for this was to allow letter keys to type both upper and lower case , but normally the number keys were also duplexed, allowing access to special symbols such as percent, % , and ampersand, & . Before the shift key, typewriters had to have a separate key and typebar for upper-case letters; in essence, the typewriter had two keyboards, one above

3840-496: The keyboard. In the early part of the 20th century, a typewriter was marketed under the name Noiseless and advertised as "silent". It was developed by Wellington Parker Kidder and the first model was marketed by the Noiseless Typewriter Company in 1917. Noiseless portables sold well in the 1930s and 1940s, and noiseless standards continued to be manufactured until the 1960s. In a conventional typewriter

3920-407: The late 1910s, however, the company eliminated its network of local salesman and used the resulting savings in commissions to reduce the typewriter's $ 100 ($ 1,800 in 2024) price by half. Sales increased and, at its peak, the company's labor force of 875 was producing 375 machines daily. During World War I the company produced munitions for the British army and supplied typewriters for the military. At

4000-417: The loan. If the repossessor sells the asset for an appropriate amount, and if that amount is less than the amount of the loan, and if the repossessor sues the debtor for the balance (plus reasonable fees if applicable) in a timely manner, the debtor may be liable to pay the balance (sometimes called the "deficiency"). In this case the creditor will be liable for contributory negligence if the creditor auctions

4080-527: The machine produces a legible written document composed of ink and paper. By the end of the 19th century, a person who used such a device was also referred to as a type writer . The first commercial typewriters were introduced in 1874, but did not become common in offices in the United States until after the mid-1880s. The typewriter quickly became an indispensable tool for practically all writing other than personal handwritten correspondence. It

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4160-604: The ninth floor of a building on the corner of Dearborn and Randolph Street. In 1896, manufacturing moved from Iowa to Woodstock, Illinois , when the City of Woodstock donated a vacant factory once used by the Wheeler and Tappan Company on the condition that the Oliver Typewriter Company remain there at least five years. Manufacturing was divided into six departments: type bar, carriage, assembly, tabulators and adjustment, inspection, and an aligning room. The company's headquarters moved to

4240-414: The number of whose characters (sorts) was constrained by the physical limits of the machine, the number of keys required was reduced by the use of dead keys . Diacritics such as ´ ( acute accent ) would be assigned to a dead key , which did not move the platen forward, permitting another character to be imprinted at the same location; thus a single dead key such as the acute accent could be combined with

4320-410: The opposite direction. By 1900, notable typewriter manufacturers included E. Remington and Sons , IBM , Godrej , Imperial Typewriter Company , Oliver Typewriter Company , Olivetti , Royal Typewriter Company , Smith Corona , Underwood Typewriter Company , Facit , Adler , and Olympia-Werke . After the market had matured under the market dominance of large companies from Britain, Europe and

4400-425: The other elite , for twelve. This differed from the use of these terms in printing, where pica is a linear unit (approximately 1 ⁄ 6 of an inch) used for any measurement, the most common one being the height of a typeface. Some ribbons were inked in black and red stripes, each being half the width and running the entire length of the ribbon. A lever on most machines allowed switching between colors, which

4480-684: The other. With the shift key, manufacturing costs (and therefore purchase price) were greatly reduced, and typist operation was simplified; both factors contributed greatly to mass adoption of the technology. Certain models further reduced the number of keys and typebars by making each key perform three functions – each typebar could type three different characters. These little three-row machines were portable and could be used by journalists. Such three-row machines were popular with WWI journalists because they were lighter and more compact than four-bank typewriters, while they could type just as fast and use just as many symbols. Such three-row machines, such as

4560-417: The page. Repossession The extent to which repossession is authorized, and how it may be executed, greatly varies in different jurisdictions (see below). When a lender cannot find the collateral, cannot peacefully obtain it through self-help repossession, or the jurisdiction does not allow self-help repossession, the alternative legal remedy to order the borrower to return the goods (prior to judgment)

4640-409: The peace includes even if the breach is caused by the debtor objecting to or resisting the repossession. In MBank El Paso v. Sanchez (1992) , 836 S.W.2d 151 , where a repossession agent towed away a car even after the loanee locked herself in it, the court decided that this was an unlawful breach of the peace and declared the repossession invalid. The debtor was also awarded $ 1,200,000 in damages from

4720-412: The property for less than applicable fair market value . This is because such a failure directly contributes to any remaining deficiency. To avoid this liability, financial institutions will document a source (such as Kelley Blue Book or NADA ) to price the collateral for sale. They will also document the condition of the vehicle to justify the sales price of it. Whether a debtor is actually liable for

4800-493: The property. This is usually in the form of a letter that states that if the amount owed is not paid within ten business days, the entity officially takes ownership and may sell the property. Some consumers believe that they are legally entitled to a "grace period" that prevents creditors from repossessing goods until the payments are a certain number of days overdue. In reality, grace periods are non-compulsory business practices that have been adopted by most consumer lenders through

4880-410: The repossession of purchased and leased automobiles, and which are intended to afford additional consumer protections. Typical requirements include mandating that auto lenders provide consumers with opportunities to either "reinstate" or "redeem" their purchase or lease contracts after their vehicles have been repossessed. A "reinstatement" entails a consumer paying all of his or her past due amounts plus

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4960-480: The ribbon being struck at all. This enabled the keys to hit the paper unobstructed, and was used for cutting stencils for stencil duplicators (aka mimeograph machines). The first typewriter to have the sliding type bars (laid out horizontally like a fan) that enable a typewriter to be "noiseless" was the American made Rapid which appeared briefly on the market in 1890. The Rapid also had the remarkable ability for

5040-404: The text is being entered. The relatively greater striking power of the "down strike" design led Olivers to be preferred for specialty uses such as stencil cutting or " manifolding " (copying using carbon paper ). The "front strike" method, a competing "visible print" design, was patented around the same time (1889–91), but an effective machine that did not interfere with the typist's line of sight

5120-403: The type bar reaches the end of its travel simply by striking the ribbon and paper. The Noiseless, developed by Kidder, has a complex lever mechanism that decelerates the type bar mechanically before pressing it against the ribbon and paper in an attempt to dampen the noise. Although electric typewriters would not achieve widespread popularity until nearly a century later, the basic groundwork for

5200-762: The typebars strike upwards, the typist could not see the characters as they were typed. The index typewriter came into the market in the early 1880s. The index typewriter uses a pointer or stylus to choose a letter from an index. The pointer is mechanically linked so that the letter chosen could then be printed, most often by the activation of a lever. The index typewriter was briefly popular in niche markets. Although they were slower than keyboard type machines, they were mechanically simpler and lighter. They were therefore marketed as being suitable for travellers and, because they could be produced more cheaply than keyboard machines, as budget machines for users who needed to produce small quantities of typed correspondence. For example,

5280-632: The typewriter business was spun off as Electromatic Typewriters, Inc. In 1933, Electromatic was acquired by IBM , which then spent $ 1 million on a redesign of the Electromatic Typewriter, launching the IBM Electric Typewriter Model 01. In 1931, an electric typewriter was introduced by Varityper Corporation. It was called the Varityper , because a narrow cylinder-like wheel could be replaced to change

5360-444: The typing of columns with numbers of different length ($ 1.00, $ 10.00, $ 100.00, etc.) Languages such as French, Spanish, and German required diacritics , special signs attached to or on top of the base letter: for example, a combination of the acute accent ´ plus e produced é ; ~ plus n produced ñ . In metal typesetting , ⟨é⟩ , ⟨ñ⟩ , and others were separate sorts . With mechanical typewriters,

5440-455: The typing position, after each character was typed. The carriage-return lever at the far left was then pressed to the right to return the carriage to its starting position and rotating the platen to advance the paper vertically. A small bell was struck a few characters before the right hand margin was reached to warn the operator to complete the word and then use the carriage-return lever. Typewriters for languages written right-to-left operate in

5520-457: The typist to have entire control of the carriage by manipulation of the keyboard alone. The two keys that achieve this are positioned at the top of the keyboard (seen in the detail image below). They are a "Lift" key that advances the paper, on the platen, to the next line and a "Return" key that causes the carriage to automatically swing back to the right, ready for one to type the new line. So an entire page could be typed without one's hands leaving

5600-597: The war's conclusion, the company subcontracted their factory to create car parts and movie projectors . In addition to its offices in Illinois, the company had branch offices in Baltimore , Buffalo , Cleveland , Kansas City , Minneapolis , New York City , Omaha , St. Louis , San Francisco and Seattle , all of which closed when Oliver shifted to mail order sales in March 1917. A minor recession in 1921–22 caused

5680-439: Was changed from green to black on the introduction of model No. 11. Oliver typewriters made for the British war effort were supplied with a "war finish". The following models were produced in the United States between 1894 and 1928: With the exception of model No. 2, even-numbered models were produced with extra keys (32 versus 28 keys) for sale in countries with accented languages . The following models were produced by

5760-443: Was incremental, developed by numerous inventors working independently or in competition with each other over a series of decades. As with the automobile , the telephone, and telegraph , several people contributed insights and inventions that eventually resulted in ever more commercially successful instruments. Historians have estimated that some form of the typewriter was invented 52 times as thinkers and tinkerers tried to come up with

5840-640: Was not available until 1897 when, roughly three years after the introduction of the Oliver No. 1, the Underwood No. 1 appeared on the market. The Oliver's typebars are bent in a bow (forming an inverted "U" shape) and rest in "towers" on the sides of the typewriter. This design limited the machine to a three-row QWERTY keyboard as the typebars were stacked such that they grew progressively larger as more were added. The size and usability implications of adding additional keys and thus, more typebars, precluded

5920-531: Was patented in 1868 by Americans Christopher Latham Sholes , Frank Haven Hall , Carlos Glidden and Samuel W. Soule in Milwaukee, Wisconsin , although Sholes soon disowned the machine and refused to use or even recommend it. The working prototype was made by clock-maker and machinist Matthias Schwalbach. Hall, Glidden and Soule sold their shares in the patent (US 79,265) to Densmore and Sholes, who made an agreement with E. Remington and Sons (then famous as

6000-500: Was produced by the Blickensderfer Manufacturing Company , of Stamford, Connecticut , in 1902. Like the manual Blickensderfer typewriters, it used a cylindrical typewheel rather than individual typebars. The machine was produced in several variants but apparently not a commercial success, having come to market ahead of its time, before ubiquitous electrification . The next step in the development of

6080-465: Was produced until 1934. Considered one of the very best of the index typewriters, part of the Mignon's popularity was that it featured interchangeable indexes as well as type , fonts and character sets . This is something very few keyboard machines were capable of--and only at considerable added cost. Although they were pushed out of the market in most of the world by keyboard machines, successful Japanese and Chinese typewriters typewriters are of

6160-410: Was produced with only upper-case characters. The Writing Ball was a template for inventor Frank Haven Hall to create a derivative that would produce letter prints cheaper and faster. Malling-Hansen developed his typewriter further through the 1870s and 1880s and made many improvements, but the writing head remained the same. On the first model of the writing ball from 1870, the paper was attached to

6240-402: Was typed. What was typed was not visible until a carriage return caused it to scroll into view. The difficulty with any other arrangement was ensuring the typebars fell back into place reliably when the key was released. This was eventually achieved with various ingenious mechanical designs and so-called "visible typewriters" which used frontstriking, in which the typebars struck forward against

6320-404: Was useful for bookkeeping entries where negative amounts were highlighted in red. The red color was also used on some selected characters in running text, for emphasis. When a typewriter had this facility, it could still be fitted with a solid black ribbon; the lever was then used to switch to fresh ribbon when the first stripe ran out of ink. Some typewriters also had a third position which stopped

6400-513: Was widely used by professional writers, in offices, in business correspondence in private homes, and by students preparing written assignments. Typewriters were a standard fixture in most offices up to the 1980s. After that, they began to be largely supplanted by personal computers running word processing software. Nevertheless, typewriters remain common in some parts of the world. For example, typewriters are still used in many Indian cities and towns, especially in roadside and legal offices, due to

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