1908 Hammond No. 12 Manual Typewriter

This Hammond No. 12 hails from around 1908.

I love the history of early typewriters, and how they feed into the knowledge of more contemporary models. The early engineers were often eccentrics, way ahead of their time, seized with a vision.

For instance, a machine only makes sense in the context of earlier machines. Because each machine builds upon the one that came before. The engineers stand on the shoulders of the ones that came before.

So, after studying this Hammond, I understand the Selectric better, and I see the carriage return lever that reminds me of the upright one on the Remington Model 5.

These have an interesting features, where a piece rotates the type shuttle, and a little metal punch hits the paper from the rear, imprinting that letter. You can change out the shuttles for different typefaces, and a few of these Hammonds even hold 2 at once, so you can switch into Italic mode in an instant.

In other words, Mr. Hammond was way ahead of his time. And it's not always clear why some designs fell out of favor, and others took over. Probably partly politics and economics, rather than the darwinian idea that the best design survives.

These used to have a rubber ribbon that stretched across the machine (which someone on ebay is manufacturing) which gave a better print impression and protect the delicate type element as it's battered by this metal pin. I've ordered one of those to test this thing out, but with a little oil and cleaning, it seems to be working.

So already in 1890's, some machines already had 'all' of the modern features and more, including tabs, margins, two or more sets of alternative characters, 2 tone ribbon selector, etc!