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Simpson Double Commander

R. D. Simpson Co., Columbus, OH, c. 1941, 14". I feel bad about this write-up because a model this neat deserves more than I have to say about it. It's a very cool machine with an unconventional design, but beyond that obvious fact I don't know much about it. It's made entirely of aluminum, and at "circa 1941" was made a little later than I'd thought it was. I don't know why I always thought of this as a 1930's machine, but I did. Until now.

Most multicompartment machines are kinda boxy, with parallel sides and parallel front and back faces. This has decidedly unparallel sides and front and back, and was really an "out of the box" design for its time. With its shape and aluminum construction, this machine looks simultaneously clean and sterile, high tech, and futuristic. All of these features should have led to commercial success, but I don't know if it did. This model is not rare but it's not easy to find, and I'd have thought it would be more common today had it been commercially successful.

I wanted one of these for years but couldn't find an example that was very nice and reasonably priced. I saw one on ebay back around 1999 and passed because at $900 I thought I could find one as nice for less, and then many years passed without me seeing another one even close to "as nice," regardless of price. This is the kind of lesson one receives while climbing the learning curve. It took me a dozen years to rectify my mistake, but I finally got another chance.

The example above is 100% original and in excellent condition.