Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume 59 | Issue 2 Article 15 1968 Class Characteristics of Foreign Typewriters and Typefaces David A. Crown Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc Part of the Criminal Law Commons, Criminology Commons, and the Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons Recommended Citation David A. Crown, Class Characteristics of Foreign Typewriters and Typefaces, 59 J. Crim. L. Criminology & Police Sci. 298 (1968) This Criminology is brought to you for free and open access by Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology by an authorized editor of Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. THE JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL LAW, CRIMINOLOGY AND POLICE SCIENCE Vol. 59, No. 2 Copyright © 1968 by Northwestern University School of Law Printed in U.S.A. CLASS CHARACTERISTICS OF FOREIGN TYPEWRITERS AND TYPEFACES DAVID A. CROWN David A. Crown, M. Crim., is a Questioned Document Analyst, U. S. Postal Inspection Service and is currently assigned to the Washington Identification Laboratory. During the time that this article was in preparation Mr. Crown was Assistant Director of the San Francisco Identification Laboratory. He received his Master's degree in Criminology from the University of California, Berkeley where he has continued his graduatestudies toward his D. Crim. Hehas published severalpapers in this and other technical journals and is a fellow in the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and serves as the Secretary of the Questioned Document Section of that Academy.-Enrron. The ever increasing number of foreign made situation did not always obtain. The Smith-Corona typewriters imported into the United States, as company, to cite one manufacturer, made well as the usage of foreign made typefaces on "matched" typefaces for years which approximated American made typewriters, has caused a basic the designs of competitive typefaces. Over the change in the document examiner's approach to years, several typewriter manufacturers have typewriter classification and differentiation. The supplied "Tower" typewriter models, marketed by earlier schemes for American typewriters based Sears, Roebuck & Company. The typefaces used upon gross form differences no longer suffice. on these machines, all bearing the same "Tower" While the primary problem in typewriting case- brand name, are the current typefaces used by the work has been, and will continue to be, the particular typewriter manufacturer. It is known individualization and identification of specific type- that the major typewriter manufacturers have sold writers, the problem of classification and differen- typewriters equipped with typeface designs of tiation of typewriting on the basis of manufactur- their competitors in order to comply with specific ing origin remains of frequent invesItigatory customer preference. Further, one should note the significance. manufacture of some Underwood and Monarch It is the purpose of this paper to codify and noiseless typewriters by Remington, using parts classify all the available data on foreign type- and typefaces identical to corresponding Reming- writers and foreign typefaces so as to provide a ton models. scheme for differentiation. No coverage is provided In spite of the fact that one could only dis- for American made typewriters equipped with tinguish typeface designs rather than typewriter American made typefaces. This paper supercedes manufacturers, the problems in classification were all prior compilations by the author on foreign relatively easy in the pre-1950 era. The American typewriter differentiation. (3, 4, 5) While every typewriters in the pica and elite size were all effort has been made to provide comprehensive spaced 10 characters to the horizontal inch and 12 coverage of the subject, no claim is made or im- characters to the horizontal inch, or a unit spacing plied of complete coverage of all past and present of 2.54 mm and 2.12 mm per character, respec- foreign typewriters and/or typefaces. tively. Differentiation was usually based upon Until the early 1950's, a knowledge of the gross characteristics, rarely upon subtle differences, common American made typefaces, i. e., Royal, assuming all pertinent characters were represented Remington, Underwood, Woodstock, Smith- in the exemplar. The published schemes of Hilton Corona, and IBM, sufficed for most document serve this purpose admirably. (11, 12) examiners in the United States. With certain ex- Foreign made typewriters began to enter the ceptions, each of the major American companies United States in quantity in the early 1950's. As produced its own distinctive typefaces and made the import of European typewriters increased, the periodic changes in its typeface designs. While it production of American typewriters, particularly was expected that Royal typefaces, for example, portables, declined in volume. American type- would be found only on a Royal typewriter, this writer companies began to manufacture type- 1968] CHARACTERISTICS OF FOREIGN TYPEWRITERS writers in European factories and to market these sold these typefaces to other typewriter manu- typewriters in the United States under their own facturers, i. e., Consul. brand names. Certain American typewriter com- c. Some foreign typewriter manufacturers have panies started buying European typefaces for use manufactured their own typefaces and have sold on American made typewriters, also marketed typefaces to other typewriter manufacturers, i.e., under their own brand name. A consequential Olivetti. number of European typewriter manufacturers d. Some foreign typewriter manufacturers have initiated models with a unit spacing of 2.54 mm and produced their own typefaces at one time in their 2.12 mm, a departure from their usual unit spacing. corporate existence and have brought typefaces The consideration of European typewriters as a from typeface manufacturers at other times, i. e., problem separate and distinct from American Adler. typewriters ended, for all practical purposes, in e. Some foreign typewriter manufacturers have 1955 when the R. C. Allen Company imported bought typefaces from several different typeface Ransmayer and Rodrian typefaces from Germany manufacturers, sometimes at different times and for use on the Allen typewriters. sometimes concurrently, i. e., European Reming- In the post-World War I era, typewriter pro- ton. duction outside the United States was centered in f. Foreign typeface manufacturers sell their Western Europe, Central Europe, and Italy. In products to many different typewriter manufac- the last few years, the Japenese have entered into turers, i. e., Setag. large scale typewriter production and concurrent g. Foreign typeface manufacturers introduce export to the United States. (1) In the last year, a changes occasionally in their typeface designs, new development has taken place. German type- i. e., Ransmayer and Rodrian (RaRo). writer manufacturers have sold or transferred their h. Foreign typeface manufacturers do not manufacturing facilities to areas with lower labor ordinarily strive toward individuality in typeface costs, i. e., Portugal and Yugoslavia. (10) It is to be designs, but prefer to make their typeface designs expected that further developments in typewriter quite similiar to other typefaces on the market, manufacture will follow this trend toward produc- i. e., Tangens and RaRo. tion in areas with lower production costs. i. Foreign typewriter manufacturers use a Appendix 1 lists all the known foreign typewriter spectrum of letter spacings based upon the metric manufacturers, the country where manufactured, scale. For elite sized type, the following unit spac- and the dates when produced, plus a cross-index of ings or pitches are used; alternate brands names. It is to be noted that in 2.00 mm, 2.10 mi, 2.12 mm, 2.17 mm, 2.20 mm, addition to each typewriter manufacturer using 2.23 mm, 2.25 mm, 2.30 mm, 2.35 mm, 2.50 multiple brand names, in some cases, several mm, 2.54 mm, and 2.60 mm different typewriter manufacturers have used the For pica sized type, the following unit spacings are same brand name, i. e., "AMC". Typewriters used: bearing an "AMC" nameplate could have been 2.50 mm, 2.53 mm, 2.54 mm, 2.55 mm, 2.60 mim, made by Alpina, Japy, or Orga. Furthermore, the and a variety of spacings 2.60 mm plus. j. Foreign typewriter manufacturers products of the overseas factories of American tend to show some consistency in the unit spacings used on typewriter manufacturers must be considered their typewriters. Typewriter manufacturers may separate and apart from American produced type- produce typewriters with several different unit writers. spacings, but not all the possible spacings. The classification and differentiation of foreign k. The same typeface design of a typeface typewriters and foreign typefaces involves several manufacturer may be found on several different new factors, not normally encountered in American brand name typewriters with varied unit spacings. made typewriters. Tables 1 and 2 correlates the known usage of a. Some foreign typewriter manufacturers buy typefaces produced by the various major typeface their typefaces from typeface manufacturers, i. e., manufacturers with usage by the specific type- Torpedo. writer manufacturers with the indicated unit spac- b. Some foreign typewriter manufacturers have ings. The pattern of pitch usage and typeface manufactured their own typefaces and have not usage can be used for extrapolative and predictive DAVID A. CROWN [Vol. 59 4) -~ 0. ~toE El .2 "~ to~0 4) ~ =4 (4w~q 0 (4 0 0 0 ,o>- z 0000 C C.) Icn d ti z (4 0 (4 (4 (4 .a U4 1-4 CCC cd H ~ (4(0 to ci 4) 4) doCj 5 o CHARACTERISTICS OF FOREIGN TYPEWRITERS 10 ",".5 . ' 0 WE .000 00 S4 0 U00 0- Qu.aEi 0 0.4 004 P4 u 0O4 8~,20. 04,4 0 g lP4c 4, 4, C, (12 4, 4, 40 4, rn H4, TABLE 2-PICA SIZE TYPEFACE AND UNIT SPACING USAGE BY TYPEWRITER MANUFACTURERS Typeface_______________________________________ Unit Spacing Manufacturer 2.5 nn 2.54 mm 2.55 mm 2.6 nun Adler, West German Adler Adler Barlock, English Barlock Bar-let Brother, Japanese Brother Caracteres S.