The oldest typewriter in my collection, the Caligraph No. 2 dates from a time of great innovation among would-be typewriter manufacturers. Hopeful companies worked to make uniquely patentable machines with an eye toward exploiting the enormous potential market for replacing laboriously hand-written documents with those produced on mechanical “type writers.”
Although the rare 1874 “Sholes and Glidden Type Writer” is technically considered the first commercially successful typewriter, it actually received an unenthusiastic reception from the public. It could type only capital letters and according to Wikipedia, “. . . recipients of typewritten messages found the mechanical, all uppercase writing to be impersonal and even insulting.”
In 1881 G.W.N. Yost developed the all-capitals Caligraph No. 1, manufactured by the American Writing Machine Company, quickly followed in the same year by the Caligraph No. 2 featuring both upper and lowercase letters.
The 1881 Caligraph No. 2 is thought to be the first typewriter to find a significant market in American and worldwide.
The Caligraph types on the bottom of a rubber platen, requiring the typist to frequently lift the carriage and platen to read what has been typed. The concept of locating two (or more) characters on a single type bar and using a “shift” key had not been developed; thus this machine has separate upper and lowercase keys on a “double” keyboard.
A unique feature of the Caligraph No. 2 is its faceted platen which provides a superior flat typing surface for each character typed. Other machines had round, relatively soft rubber platens and required a heavy type stroke so the “flat-surfaced” type characters could make a full impression on the paper. Later machines approached the “complete impression” problem by making the type characters convex to better match the round platen.
Another fascinating feature is that the levers that actuate the metal type bars are made of wood, not metal. As you will see in the accompanying photos, the mechanism looks much like that of a piano. This makes the Caligraph relatively light weight.
Notable features: All parts are functional. The carriage spring still works. It uses a single-color wide ribbon. The Caligraph No. 2 decal is in good condition. The machine is relatively light weight due to extensive use of wooden parts. _______________ The 1881 Caligraph No. 2 uses a 6-row, non-Qwerty, 72-key, upstrike impact mechanism. Year: 1881 Overall condition: Fair - Good (Flat panel with Caligraph decal has been repainted in recent years) Serial number: 31534 Type language: English Manufactured in the United States by the American Writing Machine Company, New York
