A short video of the Caligraph 2 working.
The Caligraph 2 was the first typewriter produced with a double keyboard. Lacking a shift key, it featured separate black keys for uppercase characters and white keys for lowercase.
A Scientific American article (March, 1886) about the Caligraph, presented the perceived advantage of the double keyboard by stating “Up to 1881, when the American Writing Machine Company introduced the Caligraph, double case writing machines were incomplete, being so constructed as to compel the operator to shift the carriage by a gratuitous stroke for capital letters and figures. The Caligraph prints each character in both capitals and small letters at a single finger stroke.” Many other double keyboard typewriters would follow.
Double keyboard typewriters began to lose favor in the market only after touch typing, with the home row as a reference point for the fingers, became widely accepted during the 1890s. In 1888, a celebrated typing contest took place between Frank McGurrin, using a Remington 2 (the first typewriter to feature a single shift keyboard in 1878), and Louis Taub on a Caligraph 2. McGurrin won decisively, demonstrating the clear advantage of the home row, which allowed continuous typing without the need to glance at the keyboard to reposition one’s fingers.
The ‘gratuitous stroke’ of a four row keyboard for shifting was, in fact, a secondary issue to speed. Ironically, Remington continued producing a front-strike double keyboard typewriter—alongside their single keyboard models—until around 1913 with the Model 10.
The Caligraph, like its predecessor, the Remington, is a “blind writer” with type bars that strike the underside of the platen. The text remains hidden from view until the page advances a few lines or the hinged carriage is lifted to reveal the underside of the platen.
In the first detailed image below, you will notice that the platen has longitudinal facets. This design ensures full contact with the flat heads of the type bars. Later models featured smooth, round platens after manufacturers learned to grind subtle curves into the type bar heads.
It might be hard to believe the following claim publicized in 1889. “GREATEST SPEED ON RECORD!! T. W. Osborne wrote 179 words in one single minute, and G. A. McBride wrote 129 words in a single minute, Blindfolded, on the Caligraph.”
