Typewriter made by the Woodstock Typewriter Company, early 1900s, with paper inserted reading ‘The End’. The typewriter was owned by astronomer and broadcaster Sir Patrick Moore and used by him to write books, articles and letters.
Sir Patrick Moore (1923–2012) hosted the BBC’s The Sky at Night for over 50 years, commencing on 26 April 1957. The programme was one of Britain’s longest-running TV shows (and the longest run by the same presenter). In 1969 he was part of the BBC commentary team that described the Moon landings.
He was best known for his popularisation work, and described himself as an amateur astronomer as he never had formal training. However, his astronomical observations were significant in their own right; both NASA and the Soviet space authorities used his lunar atlas to prepare for robotic and crewed missions to the Moon.
Moore was a prolific writer, authoring hundreds of books—both fiction and non-fiction—as well as articles, reports and letters. He disliked computers and preferred to use a classic typewriter. The date of this machine is unknown, but is probably an early example of Woodstock’s typewriters which were exported from the USA from about 1917.
Details
- Category:
- Astronomy
- Object Number:
- 2014-546
- Materials:
- metal (unknown), plastic (unidentified), wood (unidentified) and paper (fibre product)
- Measurements:
-
overall (estimate): 270 mm x 420 mm x 310 mm,
- type:
- typewriter
- copyright:
- The Sir Patrick Moore Heritage Trust
- credit:
- Purchased from The Sir Patrick Moore Heritage Trust