On This Day in Typewriter History: Royal’s Magic Margin Men

PART 133

There are many Typospherians who would agree with this sentiment

Irish Magicians Weave

a Right Regal Invention

How Henry Hart illustrated the Magic Margin mechanism

in his patent application in 1938

On this day in 1938 (September 30), two Irish-Americans, Bernard Joseph Dowd and Henry Joseph Hart, applied for a patent for the mask of Royal’s famous KMM (“Magic Margin”) typewriter.

Dowd and Hart worked together on all the components of the Royal KMM, including the “Magic Margin” mechanism itself. Hart applied for the patent for this latter invention on October 1, 1938, the day after he and Dowd had applied for the mask design patent.

Hart’s patent application drawings look like a right Royal Magic Maze.

The input of Dowd and Hart even extended to the KMM's keytops and the ribbon spool mechanism. Dowd designed the distinctive keytops (also applying on October 1, 1938), now sadly so favoured by keychoppers, while Hart designed the devilish ribbon and spool arrangement.

The KMM was introduced to the market in 1938, picking up the “K” prefix from the thread of Royal standard typewriter serial numbers and adding “MM’’ for Magic Margin.

David McCullough is one of many writers

who have shown a preference for the KMM

Tennessee Williams was another

The KMM represented Royal’s first major break in typewriter design from the Ed Hess-Lewis Myers era, which had stretched back to 1905. While Royal continued to market the Quiet DeLuxe portable (its mask was redesigned after the War by Henry Dreyfuss), the mechanics of this smaller machine were still essentially the work of Hess and Myers. The KMM line, however, was a marked change, a pronounced step away from the input of the company's founders - mechanically and in many other ways.

Apart from the "Magic Margin", Dowd and Hart also introduced touch control.

So into the big shoes of Hess and Myers stepped, with aplomb and much success, Bernard Dowd and Henry Hart. Dowd was born on April 17, 1883, in Cavan, Ireland, while Hart was born in West Hartford, Connecticut, in 1898 and started work at Royal as a young draughtsman. By 1949 Hart was vice-president of Royal.

Royal KMM designer Bernard Dowd's war-time registration card

One thing that didn't differ from the Hess-Myers era was Royal's heavy promotion of a new product. It had set the trend under George Ed Smith in the 1920s, and its marketing men did the KMM proud, as can be seen by the adverts below. 

As well, Royal backed the KMM by luring away from Underwood its world speed typing champions, the legendary Albert Tangora and Stella Willins - to promote the Royal machine.

Stella Willins at a Royal KMM

Willins had set a new world women's speed typing record in 1937 with 128 words a minute for a full hour without a single mistake. Another champion to switch camps was Cortez W.Peters, who continued to promote Royal typewriters after the War.

While Willins was given a job as its "schools manager" by Royal, for Tangora, the team change brought different rewards. He is seen here, left, with a stack of boxes of Royal KMMs and his specially-built 1940 President Club Sedan Studebaker (painted, I believe, in "Royal purple"). 

Miss Willins, meanwhile, was smokin' ...

Royal never missed a beat in gaining positive publicity for its typewriters and in 1951 presented Pope Pius XII with a special white KMM with the Papal crest on it. The KMM was given to the Pope at Royal's Canadian plant. It had a white and gold case with scarlet lining.

Among other writers, journalists and artists who preferred the Royal KMM were Murray Kempton, Australia's own Christina Stead, Pearl Buck and Rod Sterling: