Bar-Lock (1900)

The Bar-Lock Typewriter
 
First year of production: 1900
 
Company: The Bar-Lock Typewriter Company Ltd., Nottingham, England
 
The Bar-lock name was derived from the fact that the machine aligned the type by catching the typebars between a semi-circular row of vertical pins in front of the platen.
 
Royal Bar-lock was the name used to market the Columbia Bar-lock in Europe. The machine is identical to the Columbia Bar-Lock 10 that was sold in the United States.
 
The name was maintained after the US company sold out to a British manufacturer that produced a series of regular 4-row frontstrike machines until the 1950s.
 
History:
 
The Bar-Lock was invented by Charles Spiro, one of the great typewriter pioneers, who had apprenticed in his father’s New York watchmakers shop. He had previously invented the Columbia index typewriter.