Photo via Wikimedia Commons
One example. Colors, sub-models, and production years vary; the machine you find may differ.
Hermes Baby / Rocket / Featherweight
The Hermes Baby pioneered the ultraflat portable in 1935. To save height, instead of lifting the carriage or the basket for capital letters, the Baby tilts its entire keyboard. The result is a machine you can fit in a small briefcase and travel anywhere with — at a real cost in keystroke depth. Beloved by reporters and travelers; the Featherweight (1937) and the post-war Rocket are essentially the same machine with different badges and finishes.
Worth knowing
- Giuseppe Prezioso's 1935 design shifts by tilting the whole keyboard rather than lifting the carriage, which is how it stays so flat. Wikipedia ↗
- Sold in the US as the Hermes Rocket, and widely cloned — the Empire Aristocrat is arguably the same machine under another name. Will Davis ↗
See & hear it for yourself
Manuals & repair
All sources
External, in their original form. The people who know these machines best — click through to read and watch.
Where to find one
Listings come and go. These show whatever Hermes Baby / Rocket / Featherweight machines are on the marketplace right now.
See Hermes Baby / Rocket / Featherweight listings on eBay marketplace
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Specifications
- Manufacturer
- Paillard / Hermes
- Origin
- Switzerland
- Years
- 1935–1985
- Form
- Ultraportable
- Mass
- 3 kg
- Shift
- carriage