1 of 1- Markmotown
- Touch Typist
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- Registered: 16-12-2015
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The Curious History of the 14 Ton Underwood Typewriter
I imagine most folks around here are fascinated by history as much as I am. So I was kind of surprised that a quick search of the forum didn't turn up any mention of the 14-ton Underwood master typewriter from the 1915 Pan Pacific International Expo in San Francisco. Apparently it found a home as an attraction on the Atlantic City boardwalk with boxer Jack Dempsey, before being rebuilt for the 1939-40 World's Fair in New York City. It sounds like it was probably melted down for World War II, but I can't help imagining that it is stashed away in a warehouse like in the end scene of "Raiders of the Lost Ark," just waiting to be found.
- TypewriterKing
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Re: The Curious History of the 14 Ton Underwood Typewriter
I don't know. Our scrap iron and just about everything else at the time was so severe and so fierce was our determination that WE WERE GOING TO WIN THAT WAR AT ALL COSTS, DAMMIT!!!!! Nothing was spared--nothing. We used everything we had and everything that was in us we used--including the 4-Fs and prisoners that made war materiel on the home front. And so much metal that was sitting not destroying Germans or Japanese was just ripe for the picking, melting down, and turning into tanks, guns, bombs and bullets. We were not going to let Hitler or Tojo have a ghost of a chance at even thinking of victory. That was to belong to the free world--including the United States, Europe, Australia, and other nations. We won that awful war, and it nearly took everything we owned and everything we were.
Underwood--Speeds the World's Bidness
- TypewriterKing
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Re: The Curious History of the 14 Ton Underwood Typewriter
I'm going to follow this up with a fervent prayer that we never have to know war like that--ever again. Even with things now being what they are, I pray that war never comes again like that. But, I do think it is highly unlikely that anything is left of that giant typewriter.
Underwood--Speeds the World's Bidness
- Markmotown
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Re: The Curious History of the 14 Ton Underwood Typewriter
It's a different world now. Instead of sacrificing for the greater cause, now when we go to war, everyone has to get a tax rebate check. 
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Thread Starter- TypewriterKing
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Re: The Curious History of the 14 Ton Underwood Typewriter
I wish I could have seen that typewriter. It's existence proves one thing, though. I've compared a typewriter about that size, and a Caterpillar 953 Track Loader, which is a rear-engined "bulldozer" type piece of equipment roughly the same size as that Tall Underwood. It says that the average typewriter, particularly the average older upright typewriter, for its size is about as heavily built as a bulldozer. If you could blow an Underwood Rhythm Shift or a Royal HH to that size, you'd have something that's about as heavily armored as an A1M1 Tank. I always love to think these critters we all poke around on are like tough little tanks that will outlive all of us and onto the next guys who occupy this forum after we go to that Great Typewriter Talk in the sky.
Underwood--Speeds the World's Bidness
- Javi
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Re: The Curious History of the 14 Ton Underwood Typewriter
TypewriterKing wrote:
I always love to think these critters we all poke around on are like tough little tanks that will outlive all of us and onto the next guys who occupy this forum after we go to that Great Typewriter Talk in the sky.
Amen to that! In fact, one of the most awesome things about typewriters is their life, and many times it includes having outlived the former owner. Not many machines with a certain degree of complexity can stand the march of time like typewriters, and I always love to tell people (and myself) that after a good servicing and with a bit of maintenance the typewriter will live for ANOTHER century. At least for me, that´s one of the best things about typewriters 
TaktaktataktaktakcluccluctaktaktaktaktakDINGtaktaktaktakCREEEEEEEEECtaktaktak...
(Olivetti Linea 98)
- Fleetwing
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Re: The Curious History of the 14 Ton Underwood Typewriter
To say nothing of the fact that so many of these come back to life pretty quickly, even after decades of exposure to the elements or other abuse. It speaks volumes of the soundness of their design and quality of materials used.
