The Old Catablog

From the Montgomery Ward Catalogue of 1895:

Odell Typewriter.

24578 This typewriter prints directly from metal type, no ribbon being used, and gives a much cleaner impression than can possibly be ob­tained from an ink ribbon. The Odell machine has perfect alignment and is a very good type­writer for manifold; the double case machine writes 78 characters, representing capitals, small letters, all of the punctuation marks, to­gether with percentage marks and fractional figures. Weight, 7 1/2 pounds.

Price, Double Case Machine….. $13.00

The Odell Typewriter lists at $20.00; our price of $13.00 gives you a discount of more than 1/3 off. We make this special offer to increase the sale and give our customers the benefit of the low price obtained by our purchasing in large quantities.

The Odell was one of many index typewriters, differing from the now-standard keyboard typewriter by requiring its user to select each character one at a time. The Virtual Typewriter Museum has many examples of this sort of machine.

From the Montgomery Ward Catalogue of 1895:

Edison Mimeograph.

24579 The Edison Mimeograph Type writer. A practical working machine, that does perfect mimeograph work. It has steel type, keeps good align­ment, prints from a ribbon, is a heavy manifolder, and is strong and durable, at same time being light and portable.

Writes 78 characters, caps and small letters….. $22.00

It should be noted that this device, is not, in fact, a mimeograph machine, but rather an index typewriter used to make stencils for a mimeograph. Contrary to its name, this device was in fact manufactured by the A.B. Dick Co., who licensed Edison’s copying technology patents and marketed the device using his name.

For more information, visit the Wikipedia entry on the mimeograph. Some nice pictures of this typewriter and history are available at the Early Office Museum.