Victor Index Typewriter
notes: label: Description
content: This Victor index typewriter was manufactured by the Tilton Manufacturing Company of Boston, Massachusetts around 1889. The typewriter notably lacks a keyboard, and is called an “index” typewriter because you used your index finger to select the letters rather than striking a key. Bringing the selector over the character on the letter plate rotates the daisy wheel to the corresponding character. Pressing the inner left-hand key swung the hammer to strike the character, imprinting the type on the paper. The far left hand key served as the space bar. The daisy wheel used in this machines was such a brilliant design that it went on to be used in typewriters and printers in the 1970s and 1980s. The black metal body of the typewriter notes that the typewriter contains two patents, patented on August 13, 1889 and August 20, 1889. These corresponded to patent number 409128 and patent number 409289, patented by Charles E. Tilton and Arthur I. Jacobs, respectively. Jacobs assigned his patent to the Tilton Manufacturing Company while it was still located in Portland, Maine.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanisms
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content: Typewriters
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content: Computers & Business Machines
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: ME.310347.01
label: catalog number
content: 310347.01
label: accession number
content: 117094
objectType: label: Object Name
content: typewriter
label: Other Terms
content: typewriter; Manual
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 in x 13 in x 9 in; 10.16 cm x 33.02 cm x 22.86 cm