Valley News – Out & About: Windsor exhibit shows evolution of typewriters and sewing machines

WINDSOR – The American Precision Museum is known for preserving the important role Windsor, along with the rest of the Connecticut River Valley, played in the early days of the machine tool industry.

But machine tools – which were used to make rifles for the Union Army during the Civil War and to develop interchangeable parts – are far from the only items in the organization’s collection for purpose. non-profit. It is also home to dozens of typewriters and sewing machines that have rarely been on display.

That changes on Thursday when “Letters and Points: Temporary Exhibition” opens at the museum. It will only be visible for a week, until September 1.

The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 196 Main Street in downtown Windsor. Admission is $ 10 for adults, $ 8 for people 65 and over, $ 5 for students, and free for children under six. Family passes are available for $ 20. The museum asks visitors to wear masks regardless of their vaccination status.

“We wanted to have another special event before the season officially closed and we realized we had so many of these beautiful items that we had to pull them out from under the rags and let people see them,” said Alice Cable, Director associated. director of the museum.

There are approximately 100 typewriters and 20 sewing machines in the collection. Although not all of them are on display due to space constraints, many have never been on display in the museum before.

“These machines were either donated or collected by museum founder Ed Battison,” Cable wrote in a follow-up email. “He was particularly interested in the complexity of the machines and the precision required to manufacture the parts. The machines that had made firearms in the 1850s were now used to make parts for sewing machines and typewriters.

After the Civil War, attention shifted more to the mass production of items that could be used by the general public. The sewing machine came first, followed by the typewriter. The first sewing machine in the museum’s collection dates from 1856.

“Some are hand-powered, and we have an early electric model from 1916 that actually has an oil can on top,” Cable said.

The exhibit shows how machines evolved, including how long it took for the “QWERTY” keyboard layout commonly used today to take hold. Although it was invented in the 1870s, it was far from becoming the norm.

“Some of the keyboards you’ll see will have alphabetical order or a few completely different layouts,” Cable said. There is a typewriter where the letters “DHIATENSOR” are found along the bottom row, with the idea that these letters make up 85% of the words in the English language.

Another typewriter has a row of lowercase letters, a row of uppercase letters, and a third row of numbers.

“We have some that are just beautiful examples and some that are very strange,” Cable said. “It really took a long time for people to standardize. “

There will also be a few typewriters on hand for visitors to try out. While sewing machines and typewriters themselves are of interest to contemporary viewers, it’s important to remember what their introduction meant to people at the time.

“Another (thing) to consider is the time saved for people who no longer needed to sew or write letters by hand,” Cable said. “They are so cool.”

Liz Sauchelli can be reached at [email protected] or 603-727-3221.