7. Crandall

Visible script was thought to be the solution for commercial success. On the first typewriters – down-stroke machines – the written text could not be seen until the rollers were lifted. This problem was solved with various typewriters whereby the stroke took place from above or from the front.

The very first American typewriter with visible script was, however, not a typewriter with typebars but one with a type cylinder. The Crandall, which is one of the most beautiful antique typewriters in the world today due to its unusual design, combines all the letters and numbers on one cylinder which turns when a key is pressed and prints the respective character on the roller in front. And yet this disappeared from the market at the beginning of the 20th Century. Why? Perhaps due to irregular typing, the double switching and a layout of letters which deviated from the universal keyboard on the Remington typewriters.