Typewriter
a machine fitted with types which print by a pressure on the ys with the fingers. The principle, Keys briefly stated, is that of a series of rods pivoted to keyed rods, rods, similar to the action of a pianoforte, the ends of the rods carrying the characters of the alphabet and all striking on a common center.
There is a self-inking arrangement, and several minor improvements have been added in recent years, bringing the invention to a high state of perfection. It is on record that one Henry Mill obtained a patent in England, Jan. 7, 1714, for such a machine. The record does not describe it, except that it was a device to write in printed characters one letter at a time, one after another. Strange as it may seem, there does not appear to have been another effort made for more than 100 years, for the next record found is that of the "Typographer," the first typewriter invented in the United States, patented by William A. Burt, of Detroit, Mich., in 1829. After this came the the English patent of 1841 to Alexander Bain and Thomas Wright, entitled, "A Machine to Print Intelligence at Distant Places." It was designed simply for what is now called the printing telegraph. All printing telegraphs are really nothing more nor less than typewriting TYPHOID FEVER machines, and that machine had many of the devices and characteristics of the typewriter. It was not, however, a successful machine, and never came into The next record is that of the use.
United States patent to Charles Thurber, of Worcester, Mass., in 1843. Thurber's machine was slow and tedious. The next is that of the patent to Fairbanks, in 1848. It consists of several series or systems of vertical converging rods, the rods of each system adapted to be pushed up vertically, like piston rods, against a common impinging point. On the upper end of each rod was the desired type.
The machine was designed for printing colors on cloth, but it really belongs to the typewriting art, and is now properly classed therewith. It, however, was impracticable, and was never used. The next is that of the French patent to M.
Pierre Foucault, a blind man in the Paris Institute for the Blind, in 1849. This machine printed embossed letters to be read by the blind. The machine proved a success. Several of them were made and were sent to and used in the blind institutions of Europe. It was exhibited at the World's Fair in London, in 1851, and commanded much attention. The next is the patent of Oliver T. Eddy, of Baltimore, in 1850. No model of this invention can be found. No machine of the kind ever came before the public. In 1852 there was another patent issued; in 1854 another; in 1856 three others, one being to A. Ely Beach, of the "Scientific American," and one to Dr. Samuel W.
Francis, of New York, Oct. 27, 1857.
After that several other patents were issued in 1858, 1859, 1860, and so on up to 1865 or 1866; but none of these inventions proved to be of much practical value.
The writing machine called the typewriter was invented at Milwaukee, Wis., in 1867, by C. Latham Sholes, Samuel W. Soulé and Carlos Glidden. One device after another was conceived and developed till 25 or 30 experimental in struments were made, each succeeding one a little different from and a little better than the one preceding. They were put into the hands of stenographerspractical persons who were presumed to know better than any one else what would be needed and satisfactory. In this way the invention grew till, at the beginning of 1873, the device was thought complete. The use of the typewriter has completely revolutionized the copyist's trade, and the useful little instrument is one of the most valuable labor-saving devices of modern times.