Olivetti M20

This is a Olivetti M20, the second typewriter made by Olivetti, after the M1.
It's on a wood basis, with two handles.

The production of this typewriter started in 1920, after the interruption of production for the war conversion of the plants during the 1st World War, and continued till 1933.

Olivetti sold around 81000 typewriters of this model.

There are two versions, the first version of M20 with the knob in brass, and the second model, with the knob in plastic.

The serial numbers follows the numbering after the Olivetti M1. Till 1926, the first 2 numbers indicate the year. After the 1926 there is only the serial number.

The Olivetti M1 typewriter was a very complicated typewriter made of 6000 pieces, very difficult and long to build. It took 25 days to build one Olivetti M1, and the production was no more than 10 typewriters per day.

So with the M20, Olivetti made some betterments and simplifications. With this model Olivetti increased a lot the production, from a production of only 5000 M1 typewriters, to more than 80000 M20 typewriters.

If you want more information of its history, the different models and how to use it, there is this video.

Here also another video on the Olivetti M20

A gallery with many pictures, made by the photographer Milena