Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Invented in the 1890s, dial typewriters were originally intended as an inexpensive (albeit inconvenient to use) alternative to proper keyboard typewriters, but later repurposed into popular children's toys that were sold well into the 1950s.

0:00 Introduction
0:52 Early Typewriters
1:52 Herrington Typewriter
3:07 Origins of Simplex
4:00 Simplex Special No.1
6:00 Transition to Toys
6:30 Simplex Special Demonstrated A
7:26 Louis Marx & Co.
9:07 Marx Dial Typewriter
10:40 Outro

SOURCES

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