Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Typewriter ads from 1892

A friend gave me a frail, tattered copy of Cosmopolitan magazine from the winter of 1892. He had saved it for me because of its typewriter ads.

The ads mark a time of intense competition, not just between typewriter brands but between fountain pens and typewriters and "calculating machines."

The advertising copy below for "The Ribbon Adder" seems to be targeting early adopters from the late 19th Century. The ad notes the Ribbon Adder's technological advantage over the "type-writer."

"Removing the mind of all strain, it in this respect as an invention outclasses the type-writer, which simply substitutes one physical process for another."

In other words, the Ribbon Adder can think for you, "removing the mind of all strain."

If only. . . .

Tucked into the dense advertising pages is an ad for an "Edison Mimeograph" manufactured by A.D. Dick. Co.

Just why ads for Parquet floors are nestled in with those for typewriters, pencils, pens and adding machines isn't clear.

Enjoy!