The Duplex 2 is a beautiful and rare double-keyboard typewriter that appeared briefly after the original Duplex and just before the Jewett 1. It features a handsome double keyboard, a distinctive asymmetrical space bar, and rich typography on the front of the frame (see close-up below).
It was the logical successor to the Duplex typewriter, which introduced the seemingly clever idea of having two complete keyboards, one for each hand. This design required both hands to press a key simultaneously, resulting in two characters being typed at once. The intention was to double typing speed, but as you can imagine, coordinating both hands in this way proved extremely difficult, making the machine impractical.
Following the failure of the original Duplex, the Duplex 2 was introduced with a more conventional double-keyboard layout, typing a single character at a time. It retained the original carriage design and the distinctive off-centered space bar of its predecessor.
