The Moya No 1 Typewriter, 1902

 

 The Moya No 1 represents the beginning of the Leicester typewriting industry, which went on to create the Imperial model Typewriters featured last month. The Moya No 1 was invented in 1902 by Hidalgo Moya, a Spanish-American who previously worked for the Hammond Typewriter Organisation of the USA. Moya set up his work to design, produce and market his typewriters from a small factory in Garton Street, Leicester, wanting to make a good typewriter at a decent price, with the Moya No 1 being sold at £5, 5 shillings and 0 D. It sadly turned out to be uneconomic and was not much of a success, hwoever the No 2 was more succesful. One interesting feature of the design was the removeable type sleeve which meant different fonts and sizes could be interchanged with the standard type sleeve.