Is The Underwood 4-Bank Portable Serial Age List a YEAR OFF?!?

Hmmn, I think I may have been bitten by a couple of assumptions, and having been bitten my punishment will be a weekend re-dating every damn Underwood 4-Bank (and probably later models, we’ll see) in the TWDB. /:

We start off many years ago, when I rebuilt the Underwood Age List page. What I had then were a pretty good handful of sources, including at least one Primary factory source for standards. For the 4-Bank portables, though, all I had were Secondary and Tertiary sources – Dealer Association lists and the like – and the knowledge from industry publications and news sources that the first 4-Bank Underwood Portable was offered for sale and distribution in mid-late 1926.

Given that data and that at the time, no known serial prior to 18k had been found, the assumption was made that the serial lists starting at 18k in 1926 were in general agreement and were probably correct, as we knew for sure they had already been made available for sale. The *one* list that had the number 18k at the beginning of 1927 and no production for 1926 was discounted. Every list agreed that the series started at 18k, and all but one said the series started in 1926.

Compounding this, some years later, we did find examples of serials on 4-Bank Portables earlier than 18k, and when the first was found, I made another assumption – this time that these pre-18k machines were *probably* 1926, but allowed they *could* be 1925 production. This was wrong, I now think – and *should* have prompted me to re-consult the Sources. Had I done so, I would have probably come to the conclusion that seems most logical now: that the assumption that the series started at 18k in 1926 was wrong. Instead, the series started at 1, and 1-18k were 1926, and 1927 started at 18k.

It was some bugging by Typewriter Hunter James Grooms that prompted reflection and reconsideration of these assumptions, and now let’s do what I shoulda done when the pre-18k serials popped up – let’s change *that* data point and re-examine the Sources:

Source #2: Joan Sales,”Date your Underwood Typewriter” – Website : http://www.oocities.org/heartland/cottage/5405/serial.htm, reference to Richard Polt
(note: The source for this article was at least partially Ref. #18)

My note on this source says that Sales’ page was partly from the Sheridan Binder (which I think Richard Polt got from Tony Casillo, a very long-time dealer and collector), but on re-examination I note that the reference in Sales’ page about “Goverment Typewriter Catalogue (1.954)” is just referencing the source for Sheridan’s list, which is “Underwood’s 1954 Government Typewriter Catalog“. Sheridan kindly cites his source in the original document. Thus, Sales’ reference is *entirely* from Sheridan’s list, although it would be nice to find that original 1954 Underwood Government Catalog to close the loop.

So let’s look at this original document from Sheridan, purportedly copied directly from an official Underwood catalog, and so *sort of* a Primary Source.

Source #18: Remington Information Binder (The Sheridan Binder), 1950’s to 1970’s, provided by Richard Polt.

So, I can see why I rated this source so highly. It’s (kind of) a Primary Source, and it starts in 1926, as we’d expect from corroborating industry publications and news articles. We know sales start in Sept 1926, and so this list fits expectations, assuming there are no serials lower than 18k.

Source #6: Typewriter Age Guide, publ. by Office Machines and Equipment Federation, London, copies contributed by Mr. Bruce Beard, Australia
(note: this reference same as #28)

Good gravy, this list is so vague that it is useless, except to confirm that the series started in 1926. I have no idea why I included it as a reference.

Source #15: Office Typewriter Age List No. 26, publ. by Smith-Corona, courtesy of Mr. Ron Fuller, Los Angeles, USA
(note: this reference same as #22)

Source #22: Smith-Corona Age List #26, 1960, provided by Bill M.
see: http://offountainpenstypewriters.blogspot.com/2012/02/typewriter-serial-numbers.html
and: http://offountainpenstypewriters.blogspot.com/2012/02/moretypewriter-serial-numbers.html

Starts in 1930, so is not especially useful in determining start date/serial, but may be useful in corroborating a better list.

Source #23: Shipman-Ward Office Machine Dealer’s Line Book, Jan 1, 1954, provided by Bill Wahl.
see: http://munk.org/typecast/2013/01/05/shipman-ward-dealers-line-book-1954%E2%80%93part-2-age-lists/

This is a list I’ve rarely found to be trustworthy, despite its author (Rocky Jones) and the industry publisher. It states that the series starts in 1926 at 18k. This agrees with Sheridan, which is likely why I gave it credence.

Now, let’s dig into some more sources that *weren’t* used in compiling the current Age List:

Source #24: H.F.W. Schramm, Liste der Herstellungsdaten deutscher und ausländischer Schreibmaschinen, 11th edition, Hans Burghagen Verlag, Hamburg 1962 – copy provided by Georg Sommeregger. Additional copy from the collection of Ryk van Dijk, scanned by Marlies Louwes.

This one states that the 4-Bank Portable starts in 1926 at 18,160. That extra 160 is notable, because it suggests that all of the Secondary Sources listed above may have compiled their initial lists from the same Primary source that Sheridan used: the “Underwood’s 1954 Government Typewriter Catalog”, which we don’t have. It also suggests that the missing Primary source may have more detailed serial numbers, which were rounded to the nearest thousand by later list compilers. That’s just speculation, but I sure would like to get a copy of that 1954 Underwood Government Catalog and see what it has to say.

Source #31: The Business Machines and Equipment Digest, publ. 1927 by Equipment-Research Corporation, copy contributed by Mark Adams.
see: http://type-writer.org/?p=2850

This is the most contemporary Secondary Source that mentions the Underwood 4-Bank Portable, which had been out for at least a year by the time BMED compiled their list. It only has one entry: #42k was made in May, 1927. That’s not much of a data point, but it disagrees with the current list compiled from the sources above, which would date #42k in 1926. This puts us on notice that there might just be a problem with the above-mentioned lists. It doesn’t tell us the start number or date for the 4-Bank, but it suggests that the above lists are year-shifted forward by one year despite many of them insisting that they are January 1 numbers.

Source #7: National Office Machine Dealers Assoc. “Blue Book” (NOMDA), 1964, provided by Bill Wahl

Ok, these NOMDA lists are frankly some of the best around for dating American mid-century machines, and I’ve relied on this 1964 edition quite a lot in compiling other lists. Why did I discount it when compiling the Underwood 4-Bank Portable Age List? Probably because it started in 1927 at 18k and disagreed with every other list by one year. However, now knowing that there *are* serials below 18k which *could* be that missing 1926 production, this list starts to look really good, once we slot in the missing #1-18k at 1926. Additionally, that #42k made in May, 1927 referenced in the 1928 BMED now makes sense. Another thing about the NOMDA age list for Underwood Portables that makes me think NOMDA had close contact with Underwood’s real list is that it was updated regularly from year to year, with the 1964 edition covering the entire range up to 1960.

That’s also curious. We know that Olivetti took over Underwood in 1959, and the current list ends production in 1959 as well, but NOMDA says there was production in 1960 as well. I think a good next step is to look at ads and industry news publications to lock down the dates that specific sub-models were introduced to compare against the dates/serials in the current list and see if they look off by one year. Also, were the last of the series still sold in 1960 and 1961? If those two things are true, then the NOMDA list really starts to look golden, and I’d have to date-shift the current list to match it. I think I’ll ask Typewriter Hunter James Grooms to investigate, as he has vast Ad resources at his disposal. It’ll serve him right for bugging me enough about the discrepancy that the Sources had to be re-consulted.

Also, if you’re curious about the conversation where this idea took form, here it is, from typewriter gallery discussion on TWDB:
https://typewriterdatabase.com/1927-underwood-portable-4-bank.25373.typewriter
From James’ gallery description in case he changes it later to something generic for the machine):

When was the four bank introduced? Here is Ted’s main page side bar:
“At least one example of Portable 4-Bank known with serial number in 17k range, which suggests that production actually started at serial #1, as was done with other Underwood series at the time. Marketing for 4-Bank appears to start in mid-1926, so it seems reasonable that manufacturing could have begun earlier in 1926. In this case, the missing serials 1-17999 were probably made in 1926. If it were known that production started in 1925, those serials *could* be 1925, but right now I feel confident that 1-17999 (if they exist, and at least one does) are 1926. Underwood age list sources always round Underwood numbers to the nearest “thousands” anyway, so there’s probably a double-fistful of leeway in every reported number. Grain of Salt & all that.”

The first mention, in a trade journal, is a demo test in Apr 1926. And it is noted it is not available. For good measure, it is repeated again in July (image). Were they available for sale before this? The newspaper ads support Sept 1926 when the dealers run ads for an item they have in stock. This coincides with a massive Underwood Sesquicentennial push in Oct covered by the trade journals extensively.

As late as Dec 1925, dealers were still running ads for three bank machines.

On sources, the Underwood strategy is to lean on the main feature upgrade. So this makes ad search fairly straightforward. There are no “four” or “4” bank ads before late 1926. Also, the price point helps sort this out (last image).

For what it is worth, Beeching has it as 1926. However, his SN info makes no sense. So it is likely the SN info has been confusing/conflicting from the first time anyone had an interest in it.

The gallery has been populated by misreading Ted’s note in my opinion. And the next thing you know, we have “rare 1924 Four banks” in the wild.

On source evaluation. There are over 5,000 returns for “Underwood portable” across various platforms for 1925-1926!!!. It is a slam dunk that the Underwood Four bank started rolling out for demo in May/June/July of 1926. Joan’s info has been proven to be unreliable on several occasions, and without access to the other footnotes, that one doesn’t come close to trade and dealer primary sources.

The period context is that Corona rolled out its four bank in mid 1924. Note the SNs match the ad rollout. So Underwood has fallen behind in the marketplace. Rest assured, the reps were getting an earful from the dealers. If 18,000 machines were sitting around in 1925, the dealers would have demanded them to counter the lost sales to Corona. Instead, the Underwood dealers are two years behind before they get a four bank machine.

Underwood is also in a race with Royal’s Portable (P) coming out in Q4 1926.

If you have some primary source data for a Four Bank in 1925, let’s see it. See the images below for just a few of the sources mentioned here.

And then the comments discussion, which you can follow if you’re logged in as a Typewriter Hunter:

Also, this is for James, who mentions Beeching – I was amused to find an ad placed by Beeching in the OMEF in the early 70’s, which shows how he fished around the industry for information for his research and collection.