The Caligraph No. 5 and No. 6 typewriters, nicknamed the “New Century” models, can be considered the true swan song of full-keyboard blind-writing typewriters. They were produced from 1898 until 1906, the year in which production was permanently discontinued. The two models, extremely similar in design, differed in the number of available characters and therefore in the number of keys on the keyboard: 76 keys, arranged in six rows of eleven plus one row of ten for the No. 5; and 84 keys, arranged in seven rows of twelve keys for the No. 6.
It is striking to reflect on how a company that was among the pioneers of typewriters, with its first model introduced as early as 1880, failed to innovate its production by investing in research and development on the two main breakthroughs that were revolutionizing the industry at the end of the 19th century: the shift key, which made it possible to halve the size of the keyboard, and visible writing. Today, these two innovations seem remarkably beneficial, yet at the time many companies, including Caligraph itself, did not consider them as such. They argued that the full keyboard was more comfortable to use and that not being able to see what one was typing allowed the operator to focus more on the keys, thereby reducing typing errors. History would soon prove both assumptions to be mistaken. Within a few years, the shift key and visible writing had become the industry standard, fundamentally changing the way typewriters were designed and used. Manufacturers that embraced these innovations gained a decisive competitive advantage, while those that resisted them gradually disappeared from the market.
Is it possible to bring a typewriter reduced to a thousand pieces back to life?
This rare and beautiful Caligraph No. 6 "New Century" made a long journey from the United States to Italy, but unfortunately it suffered severe damage during shipping. The seller—a group of nuns who were raising funds by selling historical items from their convent—certainly did not devote much attention to the packaging, and by the time the machine arrived, the damage had already been done.
A painstaking restoration was therefore required, involving numerous TIG welds, some performed in extremely delicate areas such as the escapement support. The effort was successful, and the typewriter was not only restored to its original beauty but also returned to perfect working order.
After cast-iron welding and repainting, the machine undergoes a comprehensive adjustment process, including fine-tuning of the mechanism, ribbon lift, and upper- and lowercase alignment. Components subject to natural wear, such as the ink ribbon, platen, paper feed rollers, rubber grommets, carriage drawcord, and weakened springs, are replaced with new parts.
