Woodstock "Electrite" Typewriter

This Woodstock Electrite electric typewriter was manufactured by the Woodstock Typewriter Company of Chicago, Illinois around 1925. The Electrite was advertised as a typewriter that made “all typists experts.” The Electrite’s electric motor powered the strike mechanism and space bar, so that each key hit the paper with the same amount of force every time, resulting in uniform letters. In manual typewriters, a soft touch or mistype could result in printed text that was faint or hard to read.

Like many typewriting companies, the Woodstock Typewriter Company went through several different corporate iterations. The Emerson Typewriter Company of Kittery, Maine began business in 1907, before it was purchased by the Sears, Roebuck, & Company of Chicago in 1910. Sears, Roebuck, & Company opened their typewriting company as the Roebuck Typewriter Company in Woodstock, Illinois, but soon sold their concern to the Woodstock Typewriter Company in 1914. The Woodstock Typewriter Company operated until 1950, when it was bought by R.C. Allen Business Machines.

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