- Uwe
- Moderator
Offline 
- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,408
Re: Any typewriters with apostrophe not on a shift key?
The vast majority of the manual machines that I own have the apostrophe over the 8. It was the standard location for North American keyboards, which is why, as Repartee pointed out, its location has never been an issue for me. However, the location of the apostrophe certainly moves around when looking at typewriters with other language or specialty keyboards.
Based on JoeV's comment I had a quick look at my 20+ Olivetti models and the only lowercase apostrophe on a North American keyboard that I have is on a Linea 98, which is a machine that I'd happily type all day with. The quickest and easiest way to find a typewriter with a North American keyboard and a lowercase apostrophe is to look at electric models.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- M. Höhne
- Key Master
Offline
- From: Maine
- Registered: 14-3-2013
- Posts: 624
Re: Any typewriters with apostrophe not on a shift key?
Fleetwing wrote:
I once had an Olivetti Lettera 22 with British style keyboard that had apostrophe lowercase.
What is a "British-style" keyboard? (Other than showing pounds rather than dollars) I am very interested in knowing that some typewriters were made with the apostrophe in lower case, like a computer keyboard. I have never seen one, or seen pictures of one. I checked out SMC Galaxies on the TWDB, as suggested, but didn't see anything there.
I don't have an opinion on what a British keyboard is, but I do have a fact on keyboards with a lower case apostrophe---I have at least 20 in my house here, counting only the ones that I have bothered to take photos of and not counting three-banks (of course) nor wedges, most of which have an apostrophe in the lower case position.
Including:
196x Smith-Corona Coronet
198x Olympia Olympiette
197x Smith-Corona Coronet Super 12 Coronamatic
1970 Smith-Corona Electra 12
196x Smith-Corona Electra SS
1950 IBM Electric
197x Smith-Corona Sterling Automatic 12
1968 Sears Medalist Power 12
197x Royal Century 2000
197x IBM Correcting Selectric III
197x Smith-Corona Coronet Super 12
1961 IBM Model C Executive
197x Smith-Corona Electra C/T
197x Smith-Corona Deville Cartridge I
1969 Facit 1820
197x IBM Correcting Selectric II
197x Smith-Corona Electra 120
None of these are British typewriters. Most of these have an asterisk over the 8 and double quotes over apostrophe (aka Single quote) at the right end of the second row from the front but there are other configurations. I didn't pay attention to how many of these have a "1" character, which is an even stronger relation to computers.
Most of these are in the database at <
- M. Höhne
- Key Master
Offline
- From: Maine
- Registered: 14-3-2013
- Posts: 624
Re: Any typewriters with apostrophe not on a shift key?
I note that none of my Smith-Corona Galaxies have the apostrophe in the lower case position.
- JoeV
- Touch Typist
Offline
- Registered: 11-4-2015
- Posts: 152
Re: Any typewriters with apostrophe not on a shift key?
My L22 had the British pound over the 3; the fractions 1/4, 1/2, 1/8 and 3/8; and the apostrophe next to the L key where you'd normally see the semicolon on an American keyboard.
- Uwe
- Moderator
Offline
- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,408
Re: Any typewriters with apostrophe not on a shift key?
It's worth noting that every model in Michael's impressive list is an electric typewriter (there were electric and manual Olympia Olympiette models, so that could be the exception).
Fleetwing didn't specify whether or not electric models were on his radar, and my bias toward manual models showed in my previous post. It' funny - or not - that I always assume it is manual models that are the subject of these discussions. 
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- M. Höhne
- Key Master
Offline
- From: Maine
- Registered: 14-3-2013
- Posts: 624
Re: Any typewriters with apostrophe not on a shift key?
Yes, all my examples with an apostrophe in lower case position are electric, including the Olympiette, and all my Galaxies, without that arrangement, are manual. The first post in this thread asked for a more modern layout and it's not surprising that they are found on the more modern typewriters. Dunno if that will be OK with Mockingbird. Of course it would be IBM that did this as early (at least) as 1950.
I doubt typewriter keyboard design would feel pressure from computer design in the 1960s and '70s, so I wonder what the impetus was. Maybe they simply saw the future earlier than the general public.
Yeah, I favor manuals too. In this thread electrics were mentioned and nobody objected so I'm glad to see we are an open community. So now we're at the crux of this issue: can anyone point to a manual typewriter with an apostrophe in a lower case position?
- david_A
- New Member
Offline
- Registered: 29-1-2017
- Posts: 12
Re: Any typewriters with apostrophe not on a shift key?
My Canadian manufactured Lettera 22 also has an apostrophe above the 8 key. It's a 1965 model machine.
- Fleetwing
- Typewriter Talk Vet
Offline
- From: Hartford, CT USA
- Registered: 30-6-2015
- Posts: 1,006
Re: Any typewriters with apostrophe not on a shift key?
It's true, I was thinking manuals only. Electrics seem to be a rather unexplored territory here and elsewhere in the typosphere. I am not surprised that the lower case apostrophe would appear more on electrics, since one could think of them as transitional techonology between manuals and computers (electronic typewriters even more so).
So it looks like so far, the only manuals that have been identified with this feature are Lettera 22s. Interesting, and maybe helps explain why they're popular today?
- skywatcher
- Moderator
Offline
- From: The Prairies of Alberta
- Registered: 14-3-2013
- Posts: 712
Re: Any typewriters with apostrophe not on a shift key?
Greetings All
Just took a look at my 3½ bank 1937 Monarch Pioneer S/N C116792, and although it has both apostrophe and quotation mark s on the same key (right of the "P"), the quotation is lower case and the apostrophe is upper case. Google images indicate the Remington 3B has the same configuration of apostrophe and quotation on the same key. "Fascinating Jim".
All the best,
Sky
We humans go through many computers in our lives, but in their lives, typewriters go through many of us.
In that way, they’re like violins, like ancestral swords. So I use mine with honor and treat them with respect.
I try to leave them in better condition than I met them. I am not their first user, nor will I be their last.
Frederic S. Durbin. (Typewriter mania and the modern writer)
- Fleetwing
- Typewriter Talk Vet
Offline
- From: Hartford, CT USA
- Registered: 30-6-2015
- Posts: 1,006
Re: Any typewriters with apostrophe not on a shift key?
That Monarch certainly is an unusual layout! Never seen the quotation marks as lower case, regardless of which character it's paired with. So the lower case apostrophe does indeed seem to be by and large an electric/electronic typewriter feature.
As for the exclamation point, it seems to have appeared as the upper case pair with the numeral 1, and is much more common, especially with 1960s and later typewriters. (Olympia seems to have resisted having 1 as a separate character, even though the ! was common on their keyboards.)
