The Hammond Anvil and Shuttle (A&S) model is a beautiful machine that was really for one purpose: to demonstrate the innovation of moving from a split-shuttle design, prone to breaking and difficult to manufacture, to a more durable, single element design.
![](https://hammondtypewriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-9.png)
The anvil and shuttle mechanism patent was awarded in 1893 putting a beginning on our timeline. The anvil and shuttle refers to a metal ring in the center of the machine, replacing the split shuttle and its pin-driven-mechanism, and a single element shuttle that slid around the metal ring.
![](https://hammondtypewriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-2.png)
![](https://hammondtypewriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/IMG_2111_1024x1024-1-e1595372711564.jpg)
The initial design called for a split ring that would pivot out to provide access for loading the shuttle.
![](https://hammondtypewriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-5.png)
![](https://hammondtypewriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/unnamed-edited.jpg)
The company would innovate that further by creating a ring that was really two thin metal rings placed on top of one another with a thin gap between them. In that gap would go the metal spin of the new shuttle, which was then engaged by the type-select arm, rather than a series of pins as in the split-shuttle.
![](https://hammondtypewriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-7.png)
![](https://hammondtypewriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Turret-and-Type-Select-Arm.jpg)
![](https://hammondtypewriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-8.png)
A brilliant idea, but how to introduce it into the market? James Hammond was known to order a new innovations inserted into the production line as they were developed, similar to Apple computers in the early 2000s. No need to wait until a “next model” machine.
The company launched a limited run of the new design and designated it the Anvil and Shuttle, as a model-defining feature.
![](https://hammondtypewriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-4-5.jpg)
Thanks to this advertisement from the Journal of Education, April 26, 1894 we can start to put a date band around the A&S model production years. We know the No. 2 was released no later than August, 1896, according to a letter from the Boston branch. Working backwards that means the Anvil and Shuttle limited run was produced between 1893 or 1894, and 1896.
![](https://hammondtypewriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-4-1.jpg)
But how to identify them?
The key visual feature for identifying a possible A&S model will always be the raised anvil ring, and lack of a shroud around it.
![](https://hammondtypewriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Hammond-1-Anvil-Shuttle-1216-1.jpg)
![](https://hammondtypewriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/AS-Remodeled-1216.jpg)
Serial numbers. The other way to identify a suspected A&S is the serial number, which will fall between 20,000 and 26,000. The A&S model might be confused at times with a 1b, here serial #24130, due to it’s thick ebony keys which feature so prominently on the No. 1’s.
![](https://hammondtypewriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/ghammond-_11343_1537056460.jpg)
Serials numbers and advertisements help us to narrow the timeline to when machines were made and features added. Here we see a beautiful No. 2 with the serial #26497, narrowing the time frame even further.
![](https://hammondtypewriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/g_hammond_20486_1685237087.jpg)