Nippo P-200 Portable Typewriter Instruction Manual: For the Benefit of Texbodemer

As requested by Nick Bodemer ...

The Nippo Machine Company was founded by Jin Inoue in Yokohama in 1945 and in 1956 started making calculating machines and, using a similar model numbering pattern, a small portable typewriter called the Atlas. Nippo had gained the rights from Royal-McBee Nederlands NV to use the mechanical design which had started out in 1952 as the Halberg and in 1954 became the Royalite. In 1957 Royal introduced new-look portables designed for it by Laird Fortune Covey.

Nippo continued to use the Halberg mechanical design throughout its typewriter-making years. The Atlas was also marketed as the Cherryland, Del Mar, Elgin, Collegiate and Wellon. Later Nippo portables included the P-100 (also the Morse P-100), P-200 (also known as the Argyle P-201) and P-300, as well as the Baby Alpina, Condor, Rexina, Jaguar and Clipper and no doubt a few others.

Nippo stopped making calculators in 1961 to concentrate on typewriters and became a public corporation in 1963. But it found it difficult to compete against the superior quality and reliability of Brother portables, which were introduced in 1962. Brother also quickly established a far wider distribution network. Nippo’s founder died in 1973 and his son, Yuichi Inoue, took over the company and attempted a merger with a thermistor manufacturer in 1989. That company collapsed. Yuichi Inoue now runs Nippomac.