Music typewriters were developed in the 19th century, but it wasn’t until the mid 1900s that they became popular. Musicians usually specialized in using these machines. Several different models were invented, but there were two different concepts that became standard. The Keaton Music Typewriter looked very different from a regular typewriter. It had two keyboards, one which was moveable and one stationary. The other models were much like a regular typewriter. They employed musical symbols instead of letters. Staff paper or blank paper was slipped in the carriage and the keys struck. After the music was printed on a music typewriter, the original was photographed or copied to make the extra copies necessary to distribute and sell.

Although most of the items that follow are music typewriters, other similar devices for printing music have been included here. The devices below are ordered chronologically.

Columbia Music Typewriter

1885

The Columbia Music Typewriter was invented by Charles Spiro and patented on December 1, 1885. It was produced by the Columbia Music Typewriter Company. The size of the machine was 4.5 inches in length, 2 inches wide, and 2.5 inches in height. One source has the machine weighing 1/4 of a pound and another one gives the weight of 1/2 a pound.

This may have depended on whether or not the notating disk was attached to it as it was sold with three disks – one for notes, one for accidentals, and one for time signatures, key signatures and for making the bar lines. It probably came with an additional device to print the words in songs as noted in an advertisement that has survived, but these disks were probably sold separately.

An advertisement for the Columbia Music Typewriter

From the advertisement and the information that’s available, we can deduce on how the machine works. From the advertisement, the portable machine consists of a disk attached to a horizontal arm. The music symbols are located on the rim of the disk. The operator then places the machine on a piece of paper and presses down on the arm to produce the symbols. The music is printed parallel to the arm so it would be necessary to move the machine to stamp another symbol. What is not known is how the music is kept in line when printed or how the symbols were inked on the machine.

The advertisement provides more information. It reads as follows:

The Columbia Music Typewriter

The Only Machine of its Kind. It is a compact, simple, and durable machine, and writes music the exact equal of a printed sheet. Anyone can operate it without previous instruction, and provides much better results far more rapidly than a writer with a pen. It is one of the most important labor and time saving machines ever produced for the use of professional and amateur musicians. Children learning music with its assistance will acquire the art more rapidly and thoroughly than in the ordinary way. When desired, it can be adapted, by an additional device, to print the words of a song. It writes every kind of music, whether for orchestra or piano. It weighs a quarter of a pound. It is warranted to completely fill all the claims. Price of machine with case…$10.00 Type wheel for extra musical characters…$2.50 Write for descriptive pamphlet.

Application for patent was filed on June 12, 1885. The machine was patented on December 1, 1885 with patent number 331,337. A serial number was also present: 158,484.

The typewriter is adapted to be portable. All of the printing characters, selecting devices, inking and feeding mechanisms of the entire machine are mounted on a handle capable of being held or grasped by the operator when using the machine, and printing a selection of desired musical symbols by the same hand that holds or grasps the handle, while at the same time no part of the machine obstructs a clear view of the work accomplished by it.

How it Works

The handle A is grasped by the hand and the type wheel is rotated to bring a desired character to the lowest point in the periphery of the wheel. When the type wheel is rotated, the inking roller comes in contact with the printing characters and inks all the characters that pass through it. By applying downward pressure on the handle, the spring E2 yields, and the spindle at the printing end of the handle moves downward while the rod E, remains stationary. As a result, the printing character is brought into contact with the paper. A removal of the downward pressure permits the spring E2 to elevate the type wheel and to return the inker to its normal position. During the downward and upward movements of the type wheel the entire apparatus is rested upon bracket I.

Words could also be printed by either in verse-form or in line-form beneath the musical characters. A separate wheel could be mounted on the machine for that purpose. The typewriter could be placed on a base so that the base acted as a guide to insure straight-line work of the text. The patent states that the typewriter was not invented to be used with the special base but that it is a useful feature. The base was used with a modified version of the typewriter in that the type wheel is at a 90 degree angle with the handle. The main reason for using the base was to achieve uniform spacing.

A perspective of the Columbia Music Typewriter

A side elevation of the Columbia Music Typewriter

A detail in front elevation on an enlarged scale of the Columbia Music Typewriter

A modified form of the Columbia Music Typewriter mounted on a suitable base

An illustration of actual notes, lines, stems, bars and other musical symbols printed by the Columbia Music Typewriter

The type-wheel with musical characters of the Columbia Music Typewriter

Dogilbert

1905

Mr. F. Dogilbert invented a machine in Paris in 1905. Two patents were taken out in 1906 and 1907. In 1910, the Dogilbert was patented in the United States. His plans later took him to Brussles in 1908. The process was called electrogravure. It was used to create a copy that could be reproduced by photo-mechanical process. The process of printing music with this method follows:

Process

1. Just as in engraving, the music was planned for any page turns and distances between staves.
2. A white paper was ruled with blue lines in a grid according to the size of the note and musical symbols desired. (Using the methods of photography during the early 1900s, the color blue did not reproduce photographically.)
3. The staves were then printed horizontally in line with the blue lines on the paper.
4. The prepared sheets were given to the copyist who wrote the music in blue pencil or ink. The notes were written on the lines or spaces of the staves.
5. The “blue” score was handed to the operator of the Dogilbert Music Stamping machine. The notes and symbols were stamped onto the paper with black ink. Only the most common musical symbols were stamped by the machine. Other symbols such as bar lines were done by hand. It was necessary for the operator to attach one stamp and print all the symbols with that stamp before changing it. For example, the operator attached a half-note head stamp to the machine and stamped all the half-note heads in the music before replacing the stamp with a quarter-note head stamp.
6. Errors were corrected by scraping the ink off or by brushing blue paint over the error and re-stamping or drawing the new symbols.
7. The text and words were preprinted on other paper and pasted in the proper position on the music.
8. The score was passed to the photo-lithographer who made a blue print and sent it to the publisher or composer for corrections.
9. Corrections could be made on the blue print or on the zinc plates from which the blue print was made.
10. When corrections were made, the sheets could be mass printed on a lithographic machine.

The Dogilbert Music Stamping Machine. Note the light illuminating through the grid above.

Operating the Dogilbert

Operating the Dogilbert Music Stamping Machine was done as follows:

1. The operator holds the paper on the machine’s table. The paper is held in place with both hands and by means of suction from a hole in the table.
2. The paper was stamped by a vertical bar on which a stamp of a musical symbol was attached. The stamp was inked with two rollers.
3. The spot on which the machine stamped the paper was determined by a lighted grid. The shadow of the grid was cast on the paper and the center of the grid was the exact spot where the stamp pressed the paper.
4. The stamp was activated down by the use of electricity which was controlled with a foot switch.

The inventor of the machine commented that he could write a large amount of music per day with a better quality than hand engraving. During this time the machines were regularly used by a printing company in Brussels and Leipzig up until the beginning of World War I.

A blue grid is ruled according to the size of the music desired.

The staves are ruled in black.

The copyist writes the music in blue according to the pre-planned sketch.

The Dogilbert Music Stamping Machine is used to stamp the notes on the paper.

The blue lines do not appear when a photograph is taken of the music.

Nocoblick

1910

The Nocoblick was designed by Ludwig Massen and was in use between 1910 and 1917. The machine was produced by Groyen and Richtmann of Cologne, Germany – the same company that distributed the Blickensderfers in Europe. It allowed musicians to produce scored sheet music, complete with lyrics. It didn’t sell well, and only a few have survived. It had a drawer where the rubber, stamp musical notes were placed.

The musical notes were inserted as needed into a special holder. They were then inked and applied to paper with staff lines. The early Nocoblicks (circa 1910) used preprinted staff paper, but the machines were eventually developed to create staves. Because it was interchangeable between with musical symbols and letters, the typewriter was also used to add the lyrics.

In 1917, George Blickensderfer died. As a result, the type wheel machine was discontinued which meant that the Nocoblick could not be marketed on the other side of the Atlantic. Today, the Nocoblick is a rare find.

Nocoblick Music Typewriter – image from an auction

Nocoblick Music Typewriter – image from an auction

Nocoblick Music Typewriter – image from an auction

Nocoblick Music Typewriter – image from an auction

How the Nocoblick Works

The machine contained musical symbols on a type wheel. There was a pointer on the left of the typewriter resolved the platen. The position of the platen was determined with a scale which assisted in placing the notes correctly on the staff paper. The typewriter was eventually built on a table and was equipped with three then four pedals. Two pedals controlled the shifts, one stopped the carriage, and one operated the space bar.

A device was also installed to stamp musical symbols that were not included in the type wheel which normally had 84 characters. The typewriter was also capable of drawing staves on blank paper. By changing the type wheel and by moving a lever under the scale to the right, the Nocoblick could also be used as a normal typewriter.

The music was typed onto lithographic transfer paper which could then be used to make a number of copies. The appearance is said to have been in good style and looked very similar in appearance to engraved music.

A close look at the Nocoblick Music Typewriter

The Nocoblick mounted on a table with three pedals

The Nocoblick shown here is built around a Model 9, which places it near the end of the decade.

Walton Music Typewriter

1923

The Reverend J. Walton invented a music typewriter which came to be known as the Walton Music Typewriter. It was manufactured by The Music Typewriter Co. around or before 1923. The company was located in Hatton Wall in London. The machine was capable of drawing the staves, print musical symbols, and text. It required no expertise. There are two patents of the typewriter – US 1,443,107 and US 1,443,108.

The operator could see the character and the line on which the music was to be printed. A lever was depressed and the drum came in contact with the paper. The musical symbols were attached to a revolving drum. It had the capacity of producing band and orchestral parts at a speed that was similar to an ordinary typewriter. It could also be used for making lithographic transfers, for making a copy for photo-engraving, or for preparing wax stencils.

Walton Music Typewriter

Melotyp/Nototyp

1931

The Melotyp music typewriter was invented by Gustave Rundstatler in Berlin Germany. There is speculation, however, that Carl Winterling was the actual inventor in Frankfurt, Germany, but the the patent filed in the United States bears the name of Gust Rundstatler with an application date of September 24, 1936. Rundstatler apparantley had applied for a German patent in 1933 and was also patented in Britain.

The earliest attributed date to the Melotyp is September 9, 1931 from the Algemeen Handelsblad, an Amsterdam-based daily newspaper. The entry is as follows (translated to English):

From the Algemeen Handelsblad, September 9, 1931
MUSICAL NOTES BY TYPEWRITER – The inventor and engineer Gust Rundstatler from Frankfurt-on-the-Main, after long years of labor managed to write musical notes on paper using a music typewriter. The inventor (standing) with his technical assistant.

The Melotyp, however, was the predecessor of the Nototyp which also designed by Gustave Rundstatler. The name Carl Winterling worked for the German typewriter manufacturer, Triumph Adler, and it is possible that Rundstatler sold his design in order for the Melotyp to be built by Otto Rechnitz and Alfred Bernstein in Berlin.

In 1937, the Melotyp won the grand prize in the International Exhibition in Paris. It has been speculated that only ten of these machines were made and five were exported to the United States in 1938. Four of these machines are now in museums or other musical institutions, and only one is in private hands. Nothing more is known of the other five machines. In 1939, Germany invaded Poland which was the beginning of World War II. As a result, production of many products stopped including the Melotyp, and there is no evidence that any more were made before the war. Production never resumed after the war.

Nototyp

The patent filed in the United States bears the name Nototyp. As mentioned above, the Melotyp was developed from the Nototyp. Below are images of the Nototyp.

This image of Rundstatler’s machine is from a July 1937 Hungarian publication.

Using the Nototyp

The 1937 image is from the German National Archives and shows a woman typing on a Nototyp.

An Article from The Literary Digest

Further proof suggests that Rundstatler was the actual inventor of the Melotyp. On May 21, 1932, the US magazine The Literary Digest (Fig. 5a & Fig. 5b) published an article from La Nature of Paris about Rundstatler’s invention. The same article was also published in Sign of the Times, an Australian publication, on August 8, 1932 (Fig 6).

A Musical Typewriter

Not one that plays tunes, but one with which a musical score can be written, just as one prints words with an ordinary typewriter.

Attempts at something of the kind have been made, we learn from an article in La Nature (Paris), but none has been successful until the invention of the machine described below. We read:

Hitherto, little progress has been made in printing music, and even in writing it. While the process employed in printing and reproducing written languages have been continually improved, the reproduction of music, either by typography or by hand, has remained as it has been for years.

Attempts to construct a machine to write music have met with insurmountable difficulties, especially in effecting the necessary combination of the notes and the musical signs, on the one hand, and the lines of the staff on the other.

It has been thought to solve the problem by using sheets of “music paper” or by writing the lines of the staff, at the outset, by a special machine, but this process was difficult and necessitated too great watchfulness. Machines based on this principle were therefore quickly abandoned.

A music-writing machine invented by Gustave Rundstatter, an engineer of Frankfort-on-the-Main, works on an entirely different principle. Outwardly, it exactly resembles an ordinary typewriter, except that the common keyboard is replaced by one of special design, and that the carriage, instead of advancing every time a key is touched, stays quiet until the assemblage of notes and signs is complete. The difficulty of adjusting the signs with reference to the staff is avoided by an organic connection of each note with the corresponding part of the staff. The latter is formed automatically by the junction of notes and signs on the blank paper, at each impression.

The notes are written as easily, as quickly, and as exactly as one would play them on the keyboard of a piano. The copyist is never fatigued, and the typewritten score is quite as neat and clear as a printed sheet.

Typewritten Music – The notes are written easily, as quickly, and as exactly as one would play them on the keyboard of a piano. The copyist is never fatigued, and the typewritten score is quite as neat and clear as a printed sheet.

Melotyp: How It Works

The information below comes from a set of papers about the Melotyp that I have acquired.

The Melotyp has 44 keys and can print 88 notes or music symbols by using the shift key. Blank paper was used to type the symbols as the typewriter was capable of printing the staff. Notes and chords were formed by printing the note and then the stem and flags or beams. The typewriter has transporting keys (yellow keys) which transport the carriage, and non-transporting keys (white keys). Each key has two symbols. Three keys are green (keys 8 and 9 of the 2nd key-line and key 3 of the 3rd key-line which are not shown in Fig. 13). These keys are also non-transporting keys and serve, besides their normal task, to print notes on ledger lines.

Some keys have red and black symbols. When typing, only the black signs are printed. The red symbols serve only for better reading of the symbols on the keys. For example, by showing the red staff lines, the copyist could see which note would be printed.

The typewriter had a “scale” or a pointer that denoted where the symbol was to be printed. The carriage could be adjusted up and down to move the paper to the necessary position for printing. This was done by two black keys (roller turn keys) to the left and right of the keyboard. By pressing the left roller turn key, the carriage moved up; and by pressing the right roller key, the carriage moved down. Clefs, sharps, flats, stems, and beams, for example, were set to the middle staff line.

Contents of the original pamphlet that accompanied the Melotyp. (Pamphlet in the private collection of the author.)

The Melotyp Music Typewriter, c.1937

Melotyp pamphlet (cover)

Melotyp pamphlet (inside)

Melotyp pamphlet (leaflet in pamphlet)

Melotyp pamphlet (inside)

Melotyp pamphlet (back)

Sheet music printed with the Melotyp

Sheet music printed with the Melotyp

Sheet music printed with the Melotyp

A drawing of the Melotyp keyboard

Melotyp image sent to Music Printing History

Melotyp image sent to Music Printing History

Melotyp

Via