Oliver No. 1 Illustration
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, most typewriters featured typing mechanisms that forced the typing line to remain hidden. Machines with visible writing were either relatively unsuccessful or only allowed a few lines of text to be seen at a time. Reverend Thomas Oliver's eponymous invention became the world's first commercially successful visible typewriter.
The Oliver typewriter featured a revolutionary typing mechanism consisting of two towers of arching typebars which strike down onto the platen. The printing point always remained visible during typing with this setup. In addition, previously typed lines of text were always in sight, allowing the Oliver typewriter to become known as The Standard Visible Writer.
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