The exhibition of the Vladimir Arseniev Museum of Far East History features a manual portable typewriter Gladstone, which was used by partisans of the Primorsky Krai fighting for the establishment of Soviet power in the Far East.

The first mass-produced typewriters appeared in the 1870s. The impression of the letter on the paper was produced by striking the inked ribbon with a lever. Edelmann typewriters which had no keyboards were very popular in Europe, and they began to be produced in Berlin at a sewing machine factory in 1897. Edelmann also produced export versions of their typewriters under the brand names of Gladstone and Columbia for Europe and America. The company did not produce typewriters in the Russian Empire, but in the late 19th century, the Russian keyboard layout was created in America, after which various manufacturers, including Edelmann, began to modify their typewriters for the Cyrillic alphabet.

One of the Edelmann models was equipped with Braille, while others were modified for use by disabled soldiers. After the defeat in the First World War, Germany faced an economic crisis, resulting in the cessation of production of such unusual typewriters without keyboards, which became part of that period’s history. For several decades, the most convenient typewriter design was being developed, and many typewriter systems were created. Various typewriters were produced with front, lower, and upper platen striking; there were typewriters with keyboards placed in a curved line. Eventually, lever typewriters proved to be more reliable.

The first typewriters were produced with keys arranged in alphabetical order. C. Scholes conducted experiments to determine the frequency of combinations of letters in the English alphabet and created a new layout, which is still used on computer keyboards today. It is called QWERTY by the beginning of the top line.

The most convenient for production and operation lever front-striking typewriter was developed in 1903 by Underwood (USA). It became the prototype for hundreds of models produced throughout the 20th century. In the 1920s, electric typewriters appeared. Russia imported typewriters until the 1920s. It was not until 1928 that the first domestic mass production of Yanalif typewriters was established in Kazan.