1906-8 Hammond 12
The Hammond 12 was debuted in 1904 at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. James Hammond's machines had been considered technological marvels a few years back, beating out other prominent manufacturers such as Remington. The introduction of the number 12 only served to propel Hammond's reputation as a mechanical genius further and further. The number 12 on it's own was an updated version of the number 2. It came with both an ideal and a universal keyboard, the one I have here being universal. The two major things that this machine improved from the number 2 was the introduction of a ribbon vibrator (which kinda works) to increase type visibility, and the addition of a two color lock. This two color lock allowed the user, for the first time on a Hammond typewriter, to type with a bichrome ribbon. Hammond called this little leaver, the "Polychrome Ribbon Attachment." Early number 12's came with four rubber type heads on the hammer, but the ...