Underwood Master – 1940
The Underwood Master typewriter shown here is one of Old Bob’s early purchases. It’s in Excellent condition and a great desk typewriter.
“The machine you will eventually buy!” This was Underwood’s slogan for the standard models. And true to that statement the Underwood typewriters are solid, reliable and have many nice features.
Underwood typewriters were very popular for well over 70 years but what truly made it famous was a publicity stunt dreamed up by the Underwood marketing folks. They created a giant size working replica of the Underwood Master created for the 1939 World’s Fair in New York (see pics and more information below).
|
A German-American by the name of Franz Wagner invented the first Underwood typewriter. A young entrepreneur named John T. Underwood was shown the invention, liked it so much that he bought the company.
Underwood set the bar for keyboard functionality with a typebar design and front stroke visible typing.
The typebar design was much faster than type wheels, type shuttles, or type cylinders. The typebar didn’t align the letters on the page as well but were more efficient.
The front stroke mechanism was revolutionary by Underwood as most other typewriters at that time still used understroke or better known as blind typing. You just couldn’t see what you were typing.
Uderwood also improved and perfected the QWERTY keyboard layout that we still use today.
Famous Underwood writers include: Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Jack Kerouac, and Robert E. Howard.
Manuals & Documentation
Still looking for specific manuals and videos, but these are related.
