Vari-Typer Typewriter
name: label: maker
content: Ralph C. Coxhead Corporation
notes: label: Description
content: This Vari-Typer electric typewriter was made by the Ralph C. Coxhead Corporation in New York, New York around the late 1937. The Vari-Typer was based on the body of a Hammond No. 2 typewriter, which had an unusual typing mechanism. Instead of the character striking the paper from the front of the machine, the printing is done by a hammer in the back of the machine striking a type-carrying shuttle in the front of the machine, with the paper and ink ribbon in between to receive the impression. The Vari-Typer was so named because it had the ability to print in a variety of typesets in various sizes, including math formulae, special symbols, and foreign characters with an easy replacement of the type shuttle. The Vari-Typer would make direct impressions of the character on the paper that could then be reproduced by a variety of processes including litho-plates, mimeo stencils or photo-offset printing. This Vari-Typer is an electric typewriter that would automatically rewind the carriage at the end of each line.
label: Description
content: The type-shuttle and hammer typing mechanism present in the Vari-Typer evolved from the Hammond typewriter invented by James Bartlett Hammond in 1884. James Hammond founded the Hammond Typewriter Company to produce typewriters with his patented mechanism, which enjoyed success in the late 19th and early 20th century, winning the gold medal at the New Orleans Centennial Exposition. Much could be said about Hammond’s affairs towards the end of his life, but the story of the Vari-Typer merely depends on Hammond’s patents passing to the Frederick Hepburn Company, and then ending up in the hands of the Ralph Coxhead Corporation around 1929, the company that eventually produced this Vari-Typer.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanisms
label: See more items in
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.314891
label: catalog number
content: 314891
label: accession number
content: 212172
objectType: label: Object Name
content: typewriter
label: Other Terms
content: typewriter; Electric
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 3/4 in x 18 1/2 in x 34 1/2 in; 22.225 cm x 46.99 cm x 87.63 cm