From at least 1919, the material covering the cases of Corona typewriters (nos. 3 and 4) was Fabrikoid, an artificial leather manufactured by DuPont. According to the Hagley Museum, the material is a “pyroxylin-coated cotton fabric,” which was used in bookbinding, upholstery, auto car tops, and lining for boxes (link). Royal also used Fabrikoid, though how many other typewriter manufacturers employed the material is unknown. A survey of digitally-archived advertisements shows only Royal and Corona adopting Fabrikoid.
The fabric was invented in 1900, and manufactured by the Fabrikoid Company in Newburg, New York. DuPont purchased the company in 1910, and filed the first patent for the matrial in 1915.
According to Jeffrey L. Meikle the fabric was cheaper and sturdier than leather. 1 Meikle notes that not long after acquiring Fabrikoid, DuPont shifted its marketing strategy away from presenting Fabrikoid as a leather substitute to that of an entirely new material. DuPont did not want consumers to see the fabric as “fake” leather, but as a quality product in its own right.
“Fabrikoid marked a qualitative advance not only beyond leather,” wrote Meikle, “but also beyond celluloid. The promise of plastic to make inexpensive goods available to everyman and everywoman, lay not so much in imitation of expensive materials, as in substitution for expensive craft traditions of manufacture and fabrication.”
Based on advertisements, the material was used through at least the 1950s.
Du Pont Magazine (Wilmington, Deleware), November 1919 –
Advertisement from Life, May 5, 1927 –
On the making of Fabrikoid, from Fibre and Fabric (Boston), May 4, 1918 –
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- Meikle, Jeffrey L. “Presenting a New Material: From Imitation to Innovation with Fabrikoid.” The Journal of the Decorative Arts Society 1850 – the Present, no. 19, 1995, pp. 8–15. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41805870. Accessed 11 July 2024.[↩]