Harry A. Smith is, to historians, the best known single person associated with the field of rebuilt typewriters.  Earlier collectors have seen to that – their books almost always mentioned Smith or showed some of the machines his companies rebuilt and rebranded into his own name, and to collectors of that earlier era these machines became highly desirable. The Smith Visible No. 6 above is just one of a number of examples rebuilt and rebranded by Smith’s companies; originally a Rex Visible No. 4, the machine was sold by Smith Typewriter Sales in 1922 as that company’s No. 6 — a dubious numberi ..read more

In June 1902, a Mr. C. T. Adams received by mail an extraordinary catalog and type sample set mailed to him by Typewriter Headquarters, of New York.  Examination of these materials will push the boundaries of known rebuilt typewriters for historians and collectors, and will be of interest to all typewriter enthusiasts. Typewriter Headquarters was among the very first firms set up to offer rebuilt typewriters on a basis larger than just the occasional machine.  In 1892, “The National Stenographer” reported that Typewriter Headquarters in New York and an affiliated Typewriter Headquarters in Ch ..read more

Although The Wholesale Typewriter Co. is a name normally associated with the big Eastern cities of the U.S., a newly-acquired brochure dating to roughly the early 1920’s shows that the company had big Western aspirations.  Wholesale opened a rebuilding plant and a general office as well as a number of branch stores in Western cities, as seen here. The company’s case for its machines was made well on the following leaves: Wholesale depicted a number of the “big makes” in the folder, such as L. C. Smith, Royal, Remington and Underwood.  All of these machines were shown, interestingly, compared ..read more

The typewriter above, a Smith Visible No. 6, is significant as a discovery in a number of ways – to historians, to collectors and in particular to those interested in the typewriter rebuilding industry and how it operated.  Explaining what we are looking at is necessary to show its significance, so a couple of short histories are required. First, it’s obvious by this machine’s presence on this blog that it has been rebuilt.  The history of the design is as follows:  The machine was originally designed by DeWitt C. Harris for sale by Sears, Roebuck and Company as the Harris Visible.  The first ..read more

The very first typewriter I acquired – almost 20 years ago – that I could be absolutely certain was rebuilt was the machine you see below.  At the time, I knew something was wrong with this thing, and I recall my late father telling me it looked more like the color of office machines you’d see in the post-Second World War years than a 1920’s machine. This machine was built originally in 1922, when typewriters were black with pinstriping and gold decals.  We know that because – like many rebuilt machines – it retains its original serial number.  However, it was rebuilt post-war and given gray ..read more