Another pile of little-known typewriters (T-V)

The Tachotype is a really cute Dutch stenotype. I had one for a while.



The products of Talleres Alonso in Valencia, Spain include the Andina Nova, Alondra, Talbos, and Sabater. More information in ETCetera No. 86.






I featured the Taylorix Zeilomatik on my blog a few years ago, but I think this hulking machine still counts as obscure.



The Telautoprint, known to me only from this illustration, was one of many admirable and failed attempts to develop a teletype.



Same goes for the Telescriptor.



But here is a more successful Teletype Perforator. (I know, these aren't "typewriters," but you're interested, right?)



Here is a Thurber (or a reproduction of one?) along with an artist's idea of how the pioneering Mr. Thurber might have been viewed by conventional scribes.



Another invention is Thurber's Patent Kaligraph. Absolutely not a typewriter, but a device for replicating handwriting. Grab one if you see one.



Here's an Alpina, right? No, it's a TOPS P-2.



Toyo made the Condor, Jaguar, Rexina, and other obscure and fragile portables.


The Toyriter is ... well, just what it says it is.


The Trebla is an index typewriter you can clamp onto a table.




This Tyro is a practice keyboard.



The only Uarda I've ever seen looks delicate:




This Unic is obviously a clone of the Mignon, but is it a name variant of another clone, such as the Heady? I don't know.



This Unica may really be unique; there is no record of it anywhere but in this photo taken in Barcelona. The name is off-center and I wonder whether this was mass-produced or not. Certainly not in large numbers.



The Universal Letter Marker didn't have the nerve to call itself a typewriter.


But the Universal Type-Writer did, even though it was really just a printing kit (as I suspect the Samtico was—see previous post).



The Univex is a minor Spanish index machine.


The Velographe would be a great addition to any collection.



The Virocyl is a cute little index machine from France (I believe).



The Vision 2000: ordinary, yet very uncommon.



Here's a beautiful Victoria from Spain ...



... not to be confused with this Vittoria from Italy.



And finally, a Vornado:

Still more little-known typewriters (S)

If you look closely at this rare Sampo from Sweden, you'll see that it's even rarer: it has a Cyrillic type cylinder.




My only evidence for the existence of the Samtico Typewriter is this illustration from a mass mailing in Italian prepared by Timing, Burgess & Co. of London, manufacturers of the Samtico. It looks like it may have been a printing device rather than a typewriter: that is, you would pick up one of the alphabetically arranged types by a little handle and press it into place on the paper. But I'm just guessing. I ran across this document online in 2003, and have never heard of the Samtico again.



In this month's HBw-Aktuell, Lutz Rolf shows off his Saxonia. It may be a name variant of the astoundingly named Usapax-Visityp, the predecessor to the Glashütte.


This index typewriter is a clever Selbstbau, German for a "homemade" device.



This is a Senator, serial number #236. Looks ordinary, but check out how you can raise the carriage.



This prototype by Fred Sholes is in the Milwaukee Public Museum collection.



As is this creation by Louis Sholes.



This machine is also in my files as a Louis Sholes construction.



The Shortwriter is an appealing stenotype.



I could do a whole post about the Italian SIM machines. They are pretty well known, but they come in a million name variants; here are just a few of the more exotic.

(So if anyone asks you whether there was ever a Woodstock portable, the answer is yes.)

This ad for the formerly unheard-of Slocum typewriter was unearthed by Mike Brown several years ago and published in his book on the Williams typewriter. Even in this blurry photocopy, it looks very appealing.



The Soblik was a pneumatic typewriter. I very much want one!



But I want a Sphinx even more.



If I can't get the typewriter above, I'll settle for this cryptographic Sphinx based on a Helios.



The Star is the last gasp of the Simplex.



The Sténodactyle Lafaurie was a complex and intriguing stenotype, to judge from this poster.



This Sténophile is another French stenotype.



This Stickney was in the Onondaga collection.


Like the Usapax-Visityp, the Stolzenberg-Fortuna is another German machine with an impressive dual moniker.

Even more little-known typewriters (P-R)

A glimpse of a glimpse of a Pagina typewriter is all I have when it comes to this obscure name variant of the Meteor.



Pearls turn up so rarely that only hard-core collectors are aware of them.



The Peha is a magnificent monster.



A Peirce has been on my wish list for a very long time, but only one is known: this one in the Milwaukee Public Museum.



The bizarre Phönix is another object of intense desire on the part of a certain typewriter nut. Its entire keyboard tilts when you type.



Here are the remnants of a Popular, which almost looks homemade.



This Predom 1301 looks like a relabeled Facit, or a clone of one.



The Printotype, a reductio ad absurdum of typewriters, optimistically called itself the No. 1 and applied for patents around the world.



This Proteus is a name variant of some imitation of the folding Corona.



The Prouty Typograph is delicate and delightful.



Very few typewriters begin with Q, but the Quality 003 is one of them ...



... as is the Qyx, a pioneering electronic machine of the late '70s marketed by Exxon, of all corporations.



The Rapid is relatively well known among collectors, but very rarely seen. This letter gives us one reason why.



The Remer was an admirable but unsuccessful attempt by a Barcelona office machine dealer to create its own typewriter in the 1940s. Story in ETCetera No. 87.


We end with an accessory. Incredibly, one of these Revalk Type Writer Pads survived 116 years to be offered on eBay just the other day.