The Hammond Typewriter Company

One of the puzzling aspects of Hammond’s life was that there was no death certificate. After searching through the New York state death archives, I finally put down cold hard cash and paid the state of Florida to look into their records. Turns out they didn’t have anything either. The State of Florida did not start requiring death certificates […]

I was eating a ham-and-cheese sandwich today gazing at some Hammond’s when I noticed something interesting about two of them. The first is from around 1887-1890 with a serial number in the 12,000 range, and the second is from the 18,000 serial era. There are quite a few differences, can you spot them all? If […]

Hammond shuttles are small works of art. Intricately cut and cast in pressurized molten rubber to harden, or vulcanize, into a precise chape with precise lettering, all neatly arranged on its face. An awesome achievement for 1890s technology. I was contacted by someone who thought they might have a unique shuttle, a 91st character perhaps. […]

I recently acquired a Braille Hammond in which I hoped to solve a mystery. Hammond produced a braille shuttle, ostensibly to print raised dots, but were those dots raised on the front of the paper, or the back when typed in the machine? My theory is that it prints those dots on the back of […]

The beginning of the Hammond focused on two primary elements: iron and wood. The Pterotype, a precursor to the Hammond, was said to be made of “spanish mahogany, with parts made from brass, steel, and iron.” These were the materials of the day and we see that in the early Hammond’s. Until around 1916, Hammond’s […]

Did some quick measurements the other day. The Hammond vulcanized rubber shuttles are .2 grams lighter than the metal Varityper shuttles. There’s also a slight height difference, with some modest trimming on the metal spine. Collectively these changes make it difficult to use a Varityper shuttle in a Hammond. But there is hope… In order […]

The Hammond Typewriter Company would have done well to have a blog. I sometimes wonder what it was like to work in that factory, to be the head of marketing, the secretary, or just the kid that shines shoes out front. The best I can get are photos of the factory, sales offices, etc. Like […]