The Hammond Typewriter

Mar 11

The Hammond Typewriter Co. New York, NY

Invented by James B. Hammond, this is one of the most unique typewriters ever made. Hammond spent the better part of a decade developing his typewriter. In fact, he started designing the machine before the Sholes & Glidden hit the market. If Remington hadn’t agreed to produce the S&G, the Hammond could’ve been the first typewriter on the market!

James Hammond was frustrated by the difficulty of transcribing longhand messages. He sought out to create a machine which could quickly and consistently produce type. He went above and beyond, and made a machine which had an interchangeable type-shuttle. This meant you could swap the typeface, at a moments notice. Cursive, italic, boldface, and plenty of other languages were all available. This was a huge improvement on the likes of the Remington, which had fixed type-bars which were not interchangeable.

The typewriter is obviously visually unique, but there were countless unique, mechanical innovations in the Hammond as well. It was the first typewriter to employ the use of an Anvil and Shuttle as the printing mechanism. With this setup, the type-shuttle is on a fixed post, with two swinging sections on the left and right side. When the desired key is pressed, the type-shuttle swings around, while a printing hammer called the Anvil, swings forward to meet the shuttle. This pushes the paper from the rear, into the ink ribbon, and type-shuttle, thus creating print.

Another notable feature of the Hammond is the curved Ideal keyboard. When the Hammond was first drawn up, it was before the QWERTY keyboard had become the industry standard. The ebony keys are laid out in a semi-circle, with an upper, and lower row. Capitals, and figures are at the center on the top row, with the space key right in front of it.