Typewriter Talk / Early Underwood electric

**Posted by mre12ax7** 06-7-2016 22:33:07

The machine that was on CL is a radio mill with all caps typeface and a electric carriage return and paper feed.
It is currently in the collection of The Chestnut Ridge Typewriter Museum.

**Posted by Uwe** 07-7-2016 13:55:47

Had a look at the museum's website but couldn't find the Underwood being discussed. Still want to know how it was determined to be a radio mill versus a telegram model since all the characteristics you listed are true of telegram models.

**Posted by TypewriterKing** 07-7-2016 16:10:50

Not to be asking dumb questions, but is the Underwood electric (or whatever it is) a specialty typewriter that, say, only prints capital letters or something? Again, this is an old post, but I thought I put my comment on the last page, but there are two more besides mine on this second page--but the odd thing is that they are both older than either of my comments. How did this happen?

**Posted by TypewriterKing** 09-7-2016 19:37:43

Uwe wrote:
mre12ax7 wrote:
I have not the slightest clue to what this thing does.
Wow, if I was anywhere near Columbus I'd be buying that Underwood 3 immediately. In fact, it's the most exciting machine I've ever seen in a CL ad. Too bad there aren't better pictures of it, but my guess is that it has a motor-driven platen controlled by the lever on the left side of the keyboard. Why? Well, most likely it was used as a telegram machine that pulled paper off of a large roll and by having a platen that could be advanced without a typist's hands having to leave the keyboard must have sped up things.

I'd love to buy it; hmmm, I wonder if the seller would ship it?

You know, a thing like that reminds me of what I saw on a 1932 Burroughs electric. Well, the only thing electric about that typewriter was the return. My guess was that when you pressed the return, a motor turned on, grabbed the drawstring somewhow, and pulled the carriage to the right of the machine until it hit a stop/trip mechanism that shut the motor off. The motor was probably an intermittent duty motor--like one you'd find in an old adding machine, and probably in this present typewriter. It seems, without having seen a picture, that what this typewriter has is a power vertical injector. I'd never heard of it before, but there's a lot of things in the realm of office equipment that is quite unusual--and fascinating!!