EOTO: The Typewriter

The Invention

The history of the typewriter begins in 1714, when English inventor Henry Mill filed a patent for a machine that "transcribes" letters into a sequence. The document was extremely vague in both its wording and description of the machine. Mill named the machine a typograph, but never successfully invented the idea that was presented within the patent. 

This is the typewriter that historians envisioned Mill's designed, based upon his patent.

 

The next documented event in the typewriter's history occurred in 1808, when Pellegrino Turri invented the first known working typewriter. The story told is that the Italian inventor came up with the invention for Countess Carolina Fantoni de Fivizzano. He wanted to help his friend to write letters back and forth. Another version says that the Countess was blind, and another recounts that the Countess' brother built the machine. The controversy around the invention of the first working typewriter does not end there, with conflict over whether the inventor was Italian, English, or American. However, my research has shown that the earliest documented evidence of the machine was a letter written by the Countess, pictured below. 

In 1868, the sewing machine company Remington and Sons bought the patent for a working typewriter from American Inventor Christopher Sholes and his associate Carlos Glidden. The company was the first to produce and sell a typewriter on the market for the general public. Just five short years after purchasing the patent, the Remington typewriter hit the market in 1874. The first version of the Remington typewriter typed in all capital letters because it lacked a shift key change, and included the original cylindrical design that allowed for letter and line spacing, as well as an inked ribbon for printing. It had a QWERTY patterned keyboard, which is still in use today.

The Remington

The Remington no. 2 was first produced in 1878. This typewriter was revolutionary with its use of both upper and lower case letters. In this video illustrating use of a Remington no. 2 typewriter, it is clear to see the key shift change on the left side of the machine to switch from upper to lower case letters. This is also a great visual demonstration of the use of a typewriter in general, where the wire attached keys hit the page as the escapement moves the page across the top to form a line. 

The Remington no. 2

American inventor James Smathers revolutionized the typewriter world by creating the first electric typewriter in 1920. Originally, in 1872, Thomas Edison had designed an electric machine that functioned as a typewriter does. However, he went on to create the Universal Stock Ticker, a machine that continuously reported changes in stock prices. Smathers fine tunes Edison's design to produce the first commercial, electric typewriter. This design was powered by an electric motor, allowing the user to hit one key and initiate the key stroke and carriage motion. The electric typewriter made typing faster and more efficient, and became a staple in offices throughout this time period. 

Wartime

During World War I, the typewriter was a crucial communication element. The machine was used for paperwork in all military offices, both contracts, letters, and other correspondence between people during wartime. The typewriter had advanced to be easily portable and lighter than previous models. 

The decline of the typewriter begins during World War II, when the typewriter is used more for scrap metal than important communication between military personage. IBM had submitted patents at this point for the first computer-like devices, and had begun production. The electric typewriter had become very advanced and was still in use, but on its way out as the computer began its climb to popularity. 

The End

The final chapter of the typewriter occurs in 2011, when Godrej and Boyce close its last typewriter-specific factory in India. Previously, many third world countries had been mainly using typewriters due to their lack of electricity and funds. In America, computers for both personal and office use have become mainstream at this point in time, and the typewriter is practically obsolete. However, the typewriter still serves a couple of uses in today's time of personal laptops, office desktop computers, tablets and smartphones. The chart below shows the industries that currently use the typewriter the most.

The typewriter is beneficial to type onto already printed out documents, such as death certificates. Prisons utilize typewriters to allow their prisoners to write letters or other projects while limiting their access to the internet. Some smaller divisions in the government, as well as banks, use typewriters to fill in documents that cannot be accessed through an online computer. Many have typewriters in their homes that have been passed down through generations and serve as a parlor trick for grandkids, or an author's methodism. The typewriter can now be described as vintage. You are still able to purchase a typewriter on websites like Ebay. These typewriters run anywhere from $200 to $1,000+, in comparison to the same typewriters that cost about $67 in 1950. There are still very few companies that make and produce typewriters for commercial purchases. The two companies with the most "power" over the very tiny modern typewriter industry are Nakajima and Royal. 

The Impact

Though the typewriter has fallen behind in the last couple decades of the communication technology race, it has made a continual impression on the world of online connectivity. The main factor of the typewriter that we see today is the QWERTY keyboard. The original typewriter's keyboard was modeled this way, and it has stuck in today's technology. Take a look at your own keyboard; I can almost guarantee that it is organized in the same way that the 1868 Remington I keyboard was. 

There is something to be said about the efficiency of immediately having the typed product by using a typewriter, instead of having to write a document on a computer and then go through the process of printing it out. Though the typewriter is a slower typing tool that lacks the fancy gadgets of a computer keyboard, it was the first invention to type anything and everything. From the typewriter, computers, printers and tablets were born. Each of these machines were inspired from Henry Mill's vague idea of an invention that "transcribes" letters into a sequence.