Ned Brooks, Lilburn, GA, USA

You should have gotten a better picture of the Robert E. Howard typewriter, but I’m pretty sure it’s an Underwood 5 – it would be interesting to know the serial numbers on it.

[The Underwood 5] was in production for some 30 years. Of course there were design changes – but not a lot, or very significant to the user. I have three of them, from 1915, 1919, and 1922. There is a mystery about them I have not been able to resolve. My three, and four others that I have data on, over a 1.5 million range of serial numbers, all have a serial number under the left foot in addition to the serial number on the right side. The mysterious thing is that the number under the foot is always 42% greater than the serial number! But that would imply a discrepancy of 42% in the total number made, which is ridiculous.

The typewriter on display at the Howard house is not Howard’s – that one, we were told, is in the hands of a west coast collector. But it was the same make and model.