Laptop Circa 1940

Sheri’s father saw this old typewriter at a repair shop in St. Louis, and decided to give it to me for Christmas. He thought this Underwood Portable’s sleek black appearance would be a nice addition to our studio. How right he was. Happy to admire this on our shelf, I have yet to type the American Novel on it. Soon though. I wondered just how technologically advanced this was back in the day. Details are sketchy, as I was not able to locate its serial number. Yet, I feel that this was no slouch… It features four banks of keys! A bell goes off as you approach the end of the line! These features alone were probably juicy enough to keep Underwood fanboys daydreaming for days. I must admit that my own knowledge of portable typing devices is limited to ones produced after 1996, leaving a considerable gap. Does anyone out there know anything about Underwoods? Was it an exotically loaded Apple Macbook Pro of its day, or a stripped-down Dell?