Remington Standard Typewriter No. 7

1913_001
Year of production 1908-1914
Dimensions (width x height) 42 x 38 x 27 cm
Material Metal
Collection Louis Hémon
Acquisition number 1913.001
Exposition(s) Péribonka, à la source des mots (2024)
Number of items 1
Credit nd
Last updated date 22 august 2024

Description

Typewriter on which author Louis Hémon finalized his novel Maria Chapdelaine, a tale of French Canada, in Montreal in 1913.

The Remington Standard No. 7 model was manufactured in Ilion, New York, starting in 1908. That same year, Remington also launched production of the Standard Model 10, their first "visible" or "front-strike" typewriter.

Despite the introduction of this new mechanism, which would become the standard for almost all subsequent typewriters, the Model 7 continued to be produced (though in decreasing quantities) until July 1914.

The Model 7 and its predecessors are known as "blind strike" or "upstrike" typewriters, as the typist could not see what was being written in real-time. To read the recently typed text, one had to tilt the carriage upward. The idea was to continue typing the document largely blind until completion.

This machine represents a fascinating step in the evolution of typing technology, just before the transition to immediate visibility models.