 Miss Success = Underwood 5
The 'all-time' best selling typewriter, the
Underwood 5,
owes its success to its magic formula.
It was made by Franz X. Wagner, a German
immigrant in America - and a brilliant engineer.
Higher gear
Wagner stands at the beginning of no less than three typewriters: the
Caligraph, the Yost and the
Densmore. The latter's idea for an extra
connecting-piece in the transference from key to hammer matures: the
'accelerating sublever'. This transforms energy into speed just like the gearbox
of a car. The result: a typewriter with a wonderfully light touch and whizzing
hammers.
You can see what you are typing
He at last breaks through the rusty ideas of the major brands, which all
strike the platen at the bottom (understrike). The typist cannot see what she is
typing and only discovers her mistakes, many lines further on.
There are a few compromises with 'topstrikers' such as the
Franklin, Bar-Lock,
Williams and Oliver - but
a very pliable neck is needed to look over the keys.
Wagner chooses the most logical solution:
a 'frontstrike' that strikes the front of the platen.
He lays the type basket flat in front of the platen. This is not his idea,
but comes from Daugherty two years earlier. However, the wobbling type bars are
too long to guarantee an aligned result.
Brilliant compromise
This is Wagner's shopping list for the best typewriter compromise ever:
- type bars
because single type elements, such as on the
Blick or Hammond, are slower;
- front strike
because you can see what has just been typed, this in contrast to an
upstrike;
- qwerty keyboard
because most typists are already good at this
in contrast to the 'scientific' Blick or the
'ideal' Hammond;
- four rows with keys and a single shift
because this is ideal for blind typing (touch typing)
in contrast to the double keyboard (e.g. Smith
Premier or Caligraph)
or three rows with double shift (e.g. Hammond
Universal);
- ribbon
because this is far more practical than ink cushions that have to be inked
(although they do print a sharper letter).
Shining example
With the 5, Underwood conquers half the market
very quickly. The only thing the competitors can now do, is copy the formula for
success. Just ten years later, Underwood is the new standard.
More about Underwood's success>
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