1957

Richard Milton

To explore the lost world of the portable typewriter, click any of the 630-plus typewriter images shown on this site.

The Beginning . . .       .  This is the prototype of the first commercially successful portable typewriter, invented in 1904.  It was thought to be lost for 100 years but was recently found again through engineering detective work.  To read the story of its rediscovery.         Click here »»»

. . . And the End    . The era of the mechanical portable typewriter came to an end in 1957 when Smith-Corona launched the world's first electric portable machine.  To read about this revolutionary typewriter and its impact.  Click here »»»

In the decades between these two machines was a brief, glorious and crazy age in which some of the world's biggest corporations tried to persuade us to buy into their way of printing letters on the page. 

http://www.portabletypewriters.co.uk/