The Penza Literature Museum houses an Ideal typewriter, an indispensable attribute of any 20th-century writer. It belonged to the Penza author Pyotr Ivanovich Zamoysky and was used to type the wonderful novella “Shepherd Boy, ” the novel “Bast Shoes, ” and the autobiographical novella “The Inn.”

The typewriter was manufactured by the German firm Seidel & Naumann in the 1930s. The company was founded by Bruno Naumann in Dresden in 1868 and initially produced only sewing machines. In 1869, the famous investor Emil Seidel joined the business, expanding its product range to include Germania bicycles and motorcycles, speedometers, grinding machines, jukeboxes, and even cars. However, it was the production of typewriters that brought the company worldwide fame. It became one of the leading German manufacturers.

Seidel & Naumann produced its first typewriter in 1900. It was designed by the Americans, Edwin Barney and Frank Tanner. This typewriter, with beautiful cast-iron décor on its sides, was given the name “Ideal”. It was the first German typewriter with a typing area fully and immediately visible to the typist. In the case of earlier devices, the typed text emerged only after several lines had been completed. This typewriter weighed 17 kilograms. Later, the company released a series of typewriters, including bilingual models. Portable typewriters under the trademark Ideal received worldwide recognition and were exported to many countries. In 1928, the company started producing the most common type of compact models — four-bank typewriters. After the end of World War II, the company was nationalized and renamed. It continued producing typewriters under the Erika brand until 1992. The trademark was kept for a little over a decade and was later completely abandoned.