Although typewriters have become an obsolete invention, it has contributed greatly to the evolution of communication. The typewriter became the machine that enabled people to mass produce writings and allow for neatness, compactness, legibility, and easier and faster communication. The beauty of the history of the typewriter is its contributors. The typewriter was not made by one person in one time span. Instead, the typewriter is the result of incremental developments made possible by many different inventors who worked independently of one another, oftentimes in competition with one another. This happened over the span of several decades. According to the New World Encyclopedia, “historians have estimated that some form of typewriter was invented 52 times as tinkers tried to come up with a workable design.” Nevertheless, as with many other inventions, the contributions to development and production of the typewriter has resulted in a commercially successful instrument.
Sholes and Glidden typewriter
Prior to the first typewriter, there were many inventions that resemble or had the same purpose as a typewriter- impress letters on paper. However, according to IBM, the first known patent for the typewriter was granted on January 7, 1714 by Queen Anne of England to an English engineer named Henry Mill. By September of 1867, the first practical typewriter in the United States was constructed by Christopher Latham Sholes. Sholes’ model was mounted to a sewing machine stand with a carriage controlled by a foot pedal, and only wrote in capitals. This was the machine that created the QWERTY keyboard still used today. However, the machine was rather large and inconvenient. Nevertheless, Sholes continued to make improvements to the machine, ultimately making its speed faster than that of a pen. The first commercial model manufactured by Sholed was released to the public by 1873 under the name Remington and proved to be a success.
Major improvements have been made since 1873. For example, in 1914, James Fields Smathers of Kansas City, Missouri created the first power operated machine of practical value. He continued to work on improvements after his return from World War I. By 1920, Smathers produced the first advance model, which was later turned over to the Northeast Electric Company by 1923 for further development. Under the Northeast Electric Company, a self-contained motor was added to the powerbase of Smathers’ typewriter, thus creating the Electromatic Drive, which was a power unit used for all kinds of typewriters. The Electric Company ended up building and selling 2500 of the power units to typewriter companies.
In 1928, General Motors purchased Northeast Electric Company. However, the Electromatics did not follow this transfer of ownership. Instead, Electromatic Typewriters Inc. was created. By March 4, 1930, the first Electromatic model of the typewriter was completed. To help with the steady growth of the typewriter, Electromatic Typewriters Inc. became a division of International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) in 1933. After joining IBM, the typewriter faces many more decades of improvements to bring further efficiency, whether that would be concerning speed, portability, quality, and more.
Before phones and computers took over, the typewriter was the writing machine. It enabled the reduction of time and expenses needed to write up documents. It also encouraged the spread of writings as many authors turned to the typewriter for publications, created a communication system for the business world and created jobs for women in the office as typists. It did take some time for the typewriter to catch on, and it went through many trials and errors to become the most efficient model of itself, it changed lives for the better. Many left dreaded factory jobs to find comfort in an office. It opened up more jobs for women. It helped with the spread of knowledge through writing. It helped the everyday person communicate to their family and friends faster and easier. Most importantly, the typewriter being one of the biggest technological achievements of the 19th century shaped technological advancements in communication for decades to come.
Sources:
Encyclopedia Britannica. “Typewriter.” Accessed April 3, 2022. https://www.britannica.com/technology/typewriter.
IBM Archives. “The History of IBM Electric Typewriters.” Accessed April 3, 2022. https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/modelb/modelb_history.html#:~:text=The%20first%20practical%20typewriter%20was,on%20a%20sewing%20machine%20stand.
New World Encyclopedia. “Typewriter.” Accessed April 3, 2022. https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Typewriter#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20historians%20have%20estimated,but%20nothing%20further%20is%20known.
Polt, Richard. “A Brief History of Typewriters.” Accessed April 3, 2022. https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/tw-history.html.
No comments:
Post a Comment