By 1906, the visible typewriter was an established product and much sought by consumers. The introduction of the Underwood No. 5 in 1900 allowed typists to see their words as they typed, whereas earlier machines struck the underside of the platen, keeping the text completely out of view and forcing typists to lift the carriage to check their work. Instead of retooling, many manufacturers continued producing “blind” typewriters. Fay-Sholes was one such holdout, offering this rather extraordinary advertisement to convince consumers that visible typing was overrated:
Oakland Enquirer (Oakland, California), July 17, 1906 –
© 2026, Mark Adams. All rights reserved.
It’s amazing how precise the AI sharpening has gotten. Yet it still hallucinates, or takes wild guesses: it added “Model” on the paper table, and other details. Although you’re honest in labeling your AI images, I do worry a bit that they will get taken out of context and misunderstood as photos of actual typewriters.
Yes, a bit problematic. I had instructed Gemini to remove the background and sharpen the image, but it took another approach. I’ve replaced that image with a new one.