The stunning Bar-Lock 4 is distinguished by its prominent Baroque-style pressed copper shield, positioned in front of the vertical type bars.
The Bar-Lock was invented by Charles Spiro, one of the great typewriter pioneers, who apprenticed in his father’s New York watchmaking shop. Before this, he had designed the Columbia index typewriter—Models 1 and 2 of which are featured in this collection.
On the Bar-Lock, the type bars swing downward to strike the top of the platen, allowing the typist to see the words as they are typed—provided they sat up straight enough to see over the copper shield. (See the period illustration below of a typist and their sightline.)
Just before the type bars hit the platen, they pass through a small semi-circle of metal pins designed to ensure alignment. These pins supposedly also reduce type bar clashes, though they seem to have little, if any, effect in that regard. Nonetheless, this mechanism gives the typewriter its name—referring to these alignment pins as a ‘bar lock’ for the type bars.
This typewriter originally sold for $100.
“The Advantages of Visible Writing – Writing in Sight – in other words simply means knowing what you are doing and being able to do it expeditiously.”
“Using the Columbia Bar-Lock is like using smokeless powder – you can see what you are doing.”
