OLIVETTI M1 Features: standard manual typewriter Keyboard: 42 keys corresponding to 84 signs Line spacing: 4 positions plus zero Tab: absent or with 8 keys in the tab version Bodywork: load-bearing frame with cover sheets Colors: glossy black Production: since 1911 Project: Ing. Camillo Olivetti 1908: Design begins. 1911: it is presented at the Universal Exposition of Turin and is placed on the market at a cost of 500 lire of the time. 1912: at the end of the year the machines produced are just over 500. 1913: the thousandth example is celebrated. The production rate is about 4 machines per day. 1914: 490 units are produced in the first 6 months of the year, then the decline due to the beginning of the Great War in Europe begins (August 1914). 1915-1918: Italy has been directly involved in the war since May 1915, Olivetti produces war material like most Italian factories. In these years the production of M1 is reduced to one or two units per week. 1919: Production resumes at full speed. 1920: The M1 leaves the field to the new M20 model.