Lucien Stephen Crandall (May 4, 1844 – February 4, 1919) was an American inventor of typewriters, adding machines and electrical devices.

He served as a private for three years during the American Civil War, surviving twelve major battles without injury.

Densmore and Yost had licensed Christopher Sholes and Carlos Glidden's patents and had established a contract with E. Remington and Sons to manufacture them.

Crandall soon worked out an oscillating typebar which he obtained a patent for; this prints capital and lowercase characters by shifting the platen, and was later used in Remington typewriters.

Densmore learned of this, and wrote a letter to Remington denouncing Crandall as a "liar, scoundrel, a dishonest and immoral man".

Crandall then brought an action against Densmore for defamation of character, claiming $100,000 in damages, saying that the letter had caused his negotiations with Remington to fail.

A key press rotated it to select the corresponding letter, bringing it down to the platen and locking it by temporarily engaging a pin in a hole.