Mignon Pointer 4 (1923)

The Mignon 4 
 
First year of production:  1923
 
Company:  Allgemeinen Elektrizitaets-Gesellschaft (AEG) , Berlin , Germany
 
The Mignon is the mother of all index typewriters. It appeared on the market very late, in 1905, but remained very popular until the final production year in 1934. And even then the concept was copied by the TipTip company that continued to produce a similar machine for some years.
 
The principle of the Mignon is very simple. It combines a typesleeve with a complete character set, and an index card with pointer and two (later three) keys. 

Point the pointer at a letter on the index and strike the key to print a letter on the paper and advance the carriage. With minor practice the operator could reach a typing speed of at least 100 strokes per minute. 

Both the index card and typesleeve could be replaced to change fonts and use character sets for different languages. 
 
The Mignon combined the simplicity of more primitive index machines with the sturdiness of a well-produced office machine. It was in fact a real alternative for much more expensive keyboard machines in the offices of the early 20th Century. And because of the interchangeable typesleeves, the machine was a highly practical tool for jobs that required the use of different fonts. It's only competitor for this work was the much more expensive Hammond typewriter.
 
The first Mignon model to be produced and sold in considerable numbers was the Mignon 2, that was built until 1913. Only one specimen of the Mignon 1 is known to exist in a museum in Leipzig, Germany.
 
The Mignon 4 appeared in 1923 and would remain in production until 1934. It was the most succesfull in the series. The only difference between the Mignon 4 and the number 3 was the addition of a backspace key to the right of the mechanism.
 
Some 200,000 Mignon 4s were produced between 1923 and 1934. The machine was a major success, and not only in Germany. The Mignon 4 was exported to France, the Netherlands, England, the US and other countries. Different models were built for different markets. 
 
In 1934 the last Mignon came off the AEG assembly line in Berlin.