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 typed as a "carbon pack" at the same time as the original. In informal applications such as personal letters where low priority was placed on the appearance of the document, or conversely in highly formal applications in which it was important that any corrections be obvious, the backspace key could be used to back up over the error and then overstrike it with hyphens, slashes, Xs, or the like. The traditional erasing method involved the use of a special "typewriter eraser" made of hard rubber that contained an abrasive material. Some were thin, flat disks, pink or gray, approximately in