-
First Patent Filed
Englishman Henry Mill filed a vaguely-worded patent for "an artificial machine or method for the impressing or transcribing of letters singly or progressively one after another." -
First Typewriter Built
The first typewriter proven to have worked was built by the Italian Pellegrino Turri in 1808 for his blind friend Countess Carolina Fantoni da Fivizzano; unfortunately, we do not know what the machine looked like, but we do have parts of letters written by the Countess on it. -
The "Writing Ball"
Numerous inventors in Europe and the U.S. worked on typewriters in the 19th century, but successful commercial production began only with the "writing ball" of Danish pastor Rasmus Malling-Hansen. -
Sholes & Glidden Type Writer
Began production in late 1873 and appeared on the American market in 1874 -
QWERTY Keyboard
Christopher L. Sholes, a Milwaukee newspaperman, poet, and part-time inventor, was the main creator of this machine. The Sholes & Glidden typed only in capital letters, and it introduced the QWERTY keyboard, which is very much with us today. The keyboard was probably designed to separate frequently-used pairs of typebars so that the typebars would not clash and get stuck at the printing point. -
Caligraph
The Sholes & Glidden, like many early typewriters, is an understroke or "blind" writer: the typebars are arranged in a circular basket under the platen (the printing surface) and type on the bottom of the platen. This means that the typist (confusingly called a "typewriter" herself in the early days) has to lift up the carriage to see her work. Another example of an understroke typebar machine is the Caligraph of 1880, the second typewriter to appear on the American market. -
Crandall
Types from a single type element rather than typebars included the gorgeous Crandall. -
The Hammond
The Hammond came on the scene with its own keyboard, the two-row, curved "Ideal" keyboard -- although Universal Hammonds were also soon made available. The Hammond prints from a type shuttle -- a C-shaped piece of vulcanized rubber. The shuttle can easily be exchanged when you want to use a different typeface. There is no cylindrical platen as on typebar typewriters; the paper is hit against the shuttle by a hammer. -
Smith Premier
A full-keyboard understroke typewriter which was very popular in its day. -
Blickensderfer
-
Daugherty Visible
The first frontstroke typewriter to go into production: the typebars rest below the platen and hit the front of it. -
The Williams
The effort to create a visible rather than "blind" machine led to many ingenious ways of getting the typebars to the platen. -
The American Index Typewriter
The standard price for a typewriter was $100 -- several times the value of a good personal computer today, when we adjust for inflation. There were many efforts to produce cheaper typewriters. Most of these were index machines: the typist first points at a letter on some sort of index, then performs another motion to print the letter. Obviously, these were not heavy-duty office machines; they were meant for people of limited means who needed to do some occasional typing. -
The Oliver
-
The Underwood
This style of typewriter began to gain ascendancy. The most popular model of early Underwoods, the #5, was produced by the millions -
Burroughs Moon-Hopkins
Virtually all typewriters were "look-alikes": frontstroke, QWERTY, typebar machines printing through a ribbon, using one shift key and four banks of keys. -
"Dial" Typewriter
Was a child's toy through 20th century. -
Electrical Numerator Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC)
The first computer.
