Hammond Multiplexthe type-shuttle

James B. Hammond's machine, on the market from the mid-1880s, works unlike almost anything else. Instead of a basket of typebars striking up, the type sits on a curved, interchangeable shuttle that turns to the right character while a hammer strikes the paper against it from behind. Two things follow from that. First, the impression is famously even, because the blow comes from the hammer rather than from how hard your finger lands, so light and heavy typists get the same crisp line. Second, the type element is swappable, which is why Hammond sold shuttles in dozens of faces and languages under the slogan “for every nation, for every tongue.” The Multiplex of the 1910s carried two shuttles at once, often in a light aluminum body. It is a fascinating antique to own and type a little on rather than a daily machine, and the company itself carried on for decades afterward as the variable-spacing Varityper.