Typewriter the first major typewriter with these features. However, older "nonvisible" models continued in production to as late as 1915. A significant innovation was the shift key, introduced with the Remington No. 2 in 1878. This key physically "shifted" either the basket of typebars, in which case the typewriter is described as "basket shift", or the paper-holding carriage, in which case the typewriter is described as "carriage shift". Either mechanism caused a different portion of the typebar to come in contact with the ribbon/platen. The result is that each typebar could type two different characters, cutting the number of keys and
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