For All People and Tongues
In reviewing patent 267367, which lists the inventor as John Jonathan Pratt, and assigns it to the Hammond Typewriter company, I noticed a statement about the reversibility of a carriage mechanism. The patent, which was applied for on February 19th, 1879, and was granted on November 14, 1882, is notable for several reasons but I […]
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Many assume that typewriters have always had a key to go back one space, to add a missed character, or perhaps to strike an error. However it was many years before the backspace became mainstream. Pre-1900, very few typewriters had a backspace key, notably the Burns typewriter, photo courtesy of Tony Casillo, had one that […]
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The Hammond Typewriter Company sold much more than just typewriters. They sold supplies too! This is a very large PDF file and may take several minutes to load.
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For about thirty years the Hammond company used wooden cabinets, boards, and veneers to support their machines. Sadly we don’t know who built these but it was likely another company. The early No. 1’s had a mahogany, walnut, or oak. From left to right: Mahogany, Oak, and Walnut. (Courtesy of Dr. Hammond) Mahogany, Oak and […]
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The life of James Hammond has slowly revealed its secrets, but few details have been more elusive than those surrounding his stay at the Wylie Sanitarium in 1907. In court records, numerous lawyers, alienists, and doctors referred to it as “Mrs. Wylie’s Sanitarium” at 246 West 76th St, but looking at city directories it was […]
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Queen Elisabeth of Romania, who was also a prolific author of poetry under the penname “Carmen Sylva.” Born Pauline Elisabeth Ottilie Luise of Wied on December 29th, 1843 she was the first queen of Romania, and wife of King Carol I. She was said to be very skilled s a musician, and painter, but her […]
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The Manuals page has been updated to include manuals for both the Hammond No. 2 and No. 12 machines. More will be added as time permits. The Shuttles page has been updated to include Hammond Typewriter shuttle guides for 1914, 1915, 1917, and 1920, along with two shuttle reference guides. A Parts and Supplies section […]
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President Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States from 1913 – 1921, owned several Hammond typewriters both as President of the United States, and President of Princeton University. Wilson was intrigued by typewriters and he enjoyed using them, purchasing a Caligraph No. 2 in 1883. After eight years, however, he desired a change in […]
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I received these photos from my contact at the archives. This is the original patent for 267,367 issued to John Pratt on November 14, 1882, folded and bound up in the national archives. No one has probably seen these pages in over 100 years. Over several days the archivist will carefully place each document within […]
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John and Sarah Scheible owned a farm in New Jersey and took in boarders who wanted to say for the summer. Sarah was born in New Jersey while her husband was from Germany, unfortunately that’s all I could find out about them. A regular tenant, it seems, wanted to confirm it was still ok to […]
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