Rare Vintage Horizontal Cylinder Typewriter by Toshiba With Japanese, Chinese, and English Characters
The Typewriter Collector demonstrated an incredibly rare and fascinating typewriter made by Toshiba in 1940 and then remodeled in 1956. This vintage typewriter was the first of its kind. It used a horizontal cylinder that featured Japanese, Chinese, and English characters. They were then chosen by manually rolling the cylinder and using a metal index pointer to indicate the desired character.
Types in Japanese, Chinese + English.
Toshiba Typewriter Model BW-2112
Serial no. 7227442
The Virtual Typewriter Museum explains the design further.
Each horizontal strip shows a linear index of the characters that fitted on the type strip behind it. The character is selected by rotating the cylinder and shifting it horizontally so that the necessary character is selected with the index pointer. When the print key is depressed, the type strip is pushed upwards from the cylinder, and the type hammer swings to the center to print the character onto the paper.
In 1940, Toshiba produced a new kind of index typewriter, featuring a large horizontal cylinder featuring 1172 Japanese and Chinese characters. This system remained in production until 1954 [source, full video: https://t.co/U8OYyenOZw] [read more: https://t.co/BVTJn0GIeZ] pic.twitter.com/CGxq3LovOX
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) December 24, 2020
via Massimo