For most of us the name Xerox is synonymous with photocopiers and printers, but did you know they were also big players in the electronic typewriter business?
“In 1972 a team at Diablo Systems led by engineer David S Lee developed the first commercially successful daisy wheel printer. Xerox acquired Diablo that same year and later adapted Diablo’s daisy wheel technology into a typewriter that sold for less than $50. An automated factory was built near Dallas that took less than 30 minutes to assemble a Xerox typewriter. The Xerox typewriter was well received but never achieved the projected sales numbers due to the advent of the PC and word processing software.” (Wikipedia)
In order to pick up new customers, Xerox was willing to accept trade-ins of other companies’ machines, especially those of its more dominant rival:
But still couldn’t compete with IBM or an influx of Japanese models. It’s not surprising then that, by the late 1980s, Xerox resorted to giving typewriters away with its copiers …
and faxes (both ads above and below dated in August and October 1988 in the USA):
The typewriters Xerox gave away were not necessarily manufactured by Xerox themselves:
The Rank Xerox RX 6002 is in fact a Triumph Adler CompacTA 400 DS electronic typewriter, albeit with a different outer shell. The “Xerox” printwheels that come with this typewriter were also made in West Germany (or Switzerland), and the “Xerox” ribbons that came with the typewriter were made in the U.K.
A rubber gasket inside the left-hand platen knob is marked “Made in Italy”. The typewriter itself has a U.K. plug.
An online search on “Xerox 575 printwheel” (the 575 is an earlier Triumph-Adler model without an LCD screen) brings up printwheels compatible with Adler /Royal. Throw “IBM” and “Juki” brand names into the mix and things start to get confusing.
Fortunately, I’m not alone in being confused. Here’s part of a reply to a post on the Yahoo Golfball Typewriter Shop forum :
“Worldwide the models made by Triumph-Adler can get confusing – same machine, multiple models. Quite apart from it’s own corporate lines Triumph (mainly Germany), Adler (worldwide), Royal (US) & Imperial (UK), you then had all these sub-models such as Alpha, Gabriele, Satellite etc. Gabriele was an Adler portable brand for many years and very well respected.
I was immediately impressed with the model we had which was the TA Gabriele 9009, equal to your Satellite. The TA SE310 came not too long after and further models not long behind.
Then it also appeared as the IBM 6715 Action Writer, and also Xerox has one or two models. The Rank Xerox RX 6002 had an LCD so this is most likely similar to the SE310, whereas IBM never had an LCD model sourced from TA. I do not know if Xerox had a non-LCD model, the 6002 is the only one I have a picture of.”
Xerox did have a non-LCD model (in fact they had several). The aforementioned Xerox 575 for example (that single, chunky platen knob is a strong indication of its German origins):
And a non-display model to go along with the Rank Xerox RX 6002, the Rank Xerox RX Xerox 6001 …
Xerox 6001 (Russian)
The Xerox 575, RX 6001 and RX 6002 electronic typewriters were all manufactured by Triumph-Adler – as was the IBM 6715 “Actionwriter” (albeit with an IBM-made outer shell and keyboard) …
IBM 6715 Actionwriter (circa 1985)
There are undoubtedly many more brand name variants. Open up the lid of an ’80s wedge and what you’ll find is a great big can of worms.
10 responses to “The Typewriter Copiers (Xerox)”
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Hello, just wanted to mention, I loved this article. It was helpful.
Keep on posting!
It was confusing that the IBM Wheelwriter and IBM Actionwriter daisywheels were not interchangeable (nor the ribbons), since the Wheelwriter and Actionwriter were produced and sold at the same time. I really never understood why IBM sold this rebranded machine.
Hi everybody, I think I have one of those Xerox machines somewhere in my collection. I never connected the dots between Adler, IBM and Xerox but it all seems so clear now. By the way, those printwheels were also known as “Daisywheels”. Cheers to all
Thanks Michael! Don’t know how I missed that SN: 51538843 Yes let’s hope we can rustle up a few user manuals. 🙂
Maybe squashed bugs!
I find it facinateing that despite taking advantage of electronics, these machines didn’t seem to have been engineered to accomdate a proportional type-face, which electronic machines were quite able to take in their stride without any problems.
Interesting machines though. I had heard that Xerox had made typers, but I hadn’t seen one till now.
A mighty wedge indeed. I reckon that is a good and curious find. I know nothing about Xerox as a typewriter brand, but do know they were quite the environmentalists as far as recycling and reusing parts on their copiers. Enjoy all that wedgy goodness
That is one solid wedge.
And I guess by the 80’s it could’ve been a “can of (type)slugs” as these were crushed by (print)wheels of wedges… 😉 By the way – given the size and working speed difference plus the “application legacy” – were the elements on printwheels called typeworms? 🙂
S., these do seem to be worthy machines, if you must have a daisywheel, and maybe with some publicity we can scare up some manuals. Trying to run these without the codes is frustrating. Here is a page at the Typewriter Database about my Xerox 6015: http://typewriterdatabase.com/198x-xerox-6015.1824.typewriter
The serial number is on a large aluminum plate screwed (! not very secure) inside the print compartment at the right front. There is no mention of country of origin.
== Michel Höhne