Ford Typewriter Ford Typewriter The Ford typewriter was an early prototype typewriter introduced in 1895 by Eugene A. Ford, who later became chief development engineer at IBM (no relation to Henry Ford who founded the Ford Motor Company). It was a commercial failure and only a few were manufactured. Unlike many competing typewriters of this time, it was a forward-striking machine, meaning the hammer struck forward against the paper which was held against the platen roller, instead of up from underneath. This allowed the typist to see the text as it was typed, which was not possible in most other typewriters of
Typewriter in the Sky by Harlan Ellison, "Typewriter in the Sky" is compared to "Purple Rose of Cairo", "I bet if L. Ron Hubbard had written "Purple Rose of Cairo" they'd have given it a Hugo ... I mean, it is sort of a hip, updated version of "Typewriter in the Sky"." Gary Westfahl quoted Hubbard's work in a book of noteworthy science fiction quotations, "Science Fiction Quotations: From the Inner Mind to the Outer Limits" (2005). Writing for "Locus Online", Gary Westfahl compared the screenplay of the 2006 film "Stranger than Fiction" to Hubbard's story, and commented, "In taking its premise into this