The Automatic typewriter is an exquisitely built machine, made predominantly of brass, with the quality and look of a fine scientific instrument. It is a masterpiece of 19th century American typewriter manufacturing.
The Automatic typewriter gets its name from having proportional spacing. This is achieved with the variable movement of the carriage, giving each character a different amount of space on the paper depending on its width. However, despite the mechanical wonder of proportional spacing, the Automatic does not have a shift key and types only in capitals.