In comparison, a horse-drawn carriage cost around $60 and a finely engraved rifle was $35. This typewriter is a 1937 LC Smith model 11 that I picked up at a flea market. It sold for $100, in line with many keyboard typewriters of the day. This unique design of transferring motion from the key to type bar gives a very smooth and responsive touch for the typist. At the back end a small lever, connected to the rod, pulls down on the type bar above. Pressing each key rotates a specific horizontal rod, running the entire length of the machine. In 1893, Smith joined the Union Typewriter Company, a Syracuse trust consisting of American Writing Machine Company (Caligraph), Densmore, Remington, and Yost, all rival firms. Remington and other typewriter companies (Royal, L.C. The Corona LC Smith is an unapologetically art deco styled piece of kit. The simplest answer to the question is this: a typewriter is only worth what.
At the time, engineering processes and revolutions of industrial proportions were occurring, typewriters and mechanical alternatives to writing were at the pinnacle of development. Smith’s gun factory located on South Clinton Street in Syracuse, New York. Corona LC Smith (black) The 1930’s was a pinnacle period for typewriters. It immediately caught my eye because I went to the L.C. In 1889, the first Smith-Premier typewriter was manufactured in Lyman C. While other typewriters linked their keys to type bars with levers that rocked up and down, the Smith Premier uses a system of turning rods to transfer the motion from the key to the type bar. A little back story: I saw this typewriter at a flea market yesterday. You can see close up views of this spectacular design in the detail images below. Model 1 is distinguished from later models by its exquisite nickel-plated embossed pattern on the frame. Personally Ive paid 70 for an LC Smith Bros No 8 (which is very similar).
That seems to be the going price for prewar Smith Corona standards around here too. That being said, I think youre right on with the 50-100 range. A double keyboard is required as each key has only one function, white keys for lowercase and black keys for uppercase and figures. They werent really ditched in favor of left hand until the 50s. The Smith Premier was the most advertised and successful double keyboard typewriter of its time.