Some of the very earliest typewriters sported piano keys, as did some later machines such as the Essick telegraph-typewriter which was introduced in the mid-1880s. Readers of this blog likely have limited interest in such machines, at least from a collecting standpoint, but this would be an interesting specimen to own.
The machine above was the sending apparatus. The receiving apparatus would have looked something like this later iteration of Essick’s telegraphic system:
The Phonographic World (New York), April 1886 – click to view larger image –
Art in Advertising (New York), April 1894 –
Cromwell’s Kansas Mirror (Kansas City), November 1, 1894 –
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Brilliant invention.