PART 167
The claim made by Royal about its HH line when it was introduced
in 1952 was not just grammatically wild but extravagant to say the least. But I
know of one Typospherian who might be inclined to vouch for it. Ryan Adney at
Magic Margin has said, “The affinity I have for the Royal HH borders on lunacy.
Thankfully, I only have the one, but given the option I would take another in
one of the other five colours out there...”
Incoming ETCetera
editor Alan Seaver has also sung the praises of his HH. On his Machines of Loving Grace website, Alan wrote, “As an example of how well Royal built their
typewriters, I found this covered with mildew and with its typebasket, key
levers and inner workings inundated with dirt, leaves, bits of fur and
feathers, dead insects, cobwebs and even a couple of acorns. All I did was blow
out the junk, brush it off and wipe it down and it worked perfectly. Not a
single drop of lubricant was needed.”
Alan Seaver Collection
The HH was introduced to the market at a time when, with
mounting labour costs in the US, the major typewriter manufacturers were
beginning a fight for their survival. As a separate entity, Underwood would not see
the next decade. By the start of the 60s, Royal, Remington and Smith-Corona had
started the process of moving much of their manufacturing off-shore. Yet in
1951-52, these companies remained fully committed to high-qualify design, engineering and materials – even
if that pushed the price of the typewriter even higher than labour already had.
It was a gamble, really: would buyers pay rising prices simply because they remained confident in the quality of the product? The gamble didn’t
come off, and something had to give. US typewriter manufacturing was the loser.
The two machines we will look at today, the Royal HH and the big Underwood electric, with the heavy promotion that accompanied their introductions to
the market, clearly show that Royal and Underwood were acutely conscious of the
challenges ahead.
These new machines, along with the Smith-Coronas of the early
to mid-50s, had to succeed for the sake of the US industry.
It was make
or break time. As Alan Seaver added in his entry on the HH: “Typewriters were
built to last.” And they did last.
That meant two things: quality remained high and production costly; but, because the typewriters
lasted, sales consequently failed to maintain the necessary profit levels.
I can’t say the Royal HH was designed on this day in 1952
(actually, the 60th anniversary passed in late April), but with one mere degree
of separation I can make the link. The HH design patent referenced one issued 16
months earlier, on this day (November 6) in 1951, for the Underwood electric.
Georg Sommeregger Collection
But let’s start with the HH, which was in its entirety the work of Royal’s
typewriter division superintendent of engineering, John Felix Kloski. Kloski’s
role with Royal made him the head of the company’s research department at
Hartford, Connecticut. He was working with the son of English-born former Royal factory manager Charles
Belnap Cook (1876-), who I mentioned in my recent post on Edward James Manning. Cook Sr had succeeded Manning as general manager at Royal in 1911.
Industrial Research Laboratories of the United States (1950 edition)
Maxwell V.Miller
Fortune P.Ryan
President of the company at the time the HH was designed was
Canadian-born Maxwell V. Miller, but Miller died in 1951 and was succeeded by
one of Thomas Fortune Ryan’s sons, Fortune Peter Ryan.
Kloski also naturally referenced the 1945 Henry Dreyfuss re-design of the Royal Quiet De Luxe portable, which had a clear influence on the enlarged mask of the HH.
Henry Dreyfuss
John Felix Kloski was born to Lithuanian parents in Hartford on
February 8, 1902. But unlike many of his Hartford peers, he didn’t start work
in the typewriter factory, instead doing his apprenticeship as a machinist in a
cutlery factory.
But by 1930 Kloski was making his way up the Royal ladder and in
1940 he was the factory’s machinist foreman. He died in Delray Beach, Florida, on
September 1, 1983, aged 81.
Lurelle Guild
The Underwood electric was designed by a much more famous artist
and industrial designer, Lurelle Van Arsdale Guild (born Syracuse, August
19, 1898), But, then, Guild didn’t design a typewriter, but was commissioned by
Underwood to produce a new look for an accounting machine.
Underwood decided against producing a new accounting machine and
instead used Guild’s design for a heavily advertised Underwood electric
typewriter. Underwood continued to make these massive machines even after it was taken over by Olivetti in 1959, and the machine was subsequently marketed as an Underwood-Olivetti.
Guild was educated at Syracuse University and began working on magazine covers but soon made a successful switch to industrial design. His
most noted design is the dramatic Art Deco style of the 1937 Model 30 tank-type
vacuum cleaner for Electrolux.
Guild also designed many aluminium household
items, particularly a Kensington Ware range produced by Alcoa from
1934. Guild is particularly known for his long relationship with Alcoa.
Guild was also a capable interior designer. He designed the
Kensington showroom in the Rockefeller Centre in New York City and the permanent
museum at Alcoa's New York offices.
Guild's usual method was to invent or develop the new product,
patent it, and then assign the patent to the manufacturer, charging a fee and
royalties. Apart from Underwood, Guild’s clients included Remington, the Aluminium
Cooking Utensil Company, Allied Chemical, American Airlines, American
Locomotive, Burgess Battery Company, Philip Carey Manufacturing, Chase Brass
and Copper, Colgate Palmolive, Congoleum, Corning Glass Works, EI DuPont,
General Foods, Gulf Oil, IBM, International Silver, Kensington, Miller Metal,
Monsanto, Pitney-Bowes, Pullman Cars, Revlon, Schick, Servel (Electrolux),
Sylvania, Union Carbide and Westinghouse.
Guild died in Greenwich, Connecticut, on March 4, 1985.
The Underwood electric became part of Underwood's Golden Touch line, which ranged down to Paul Artem Braginetz's Underwood portables.
