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May 1, 1400
Handwriting
By the 1400s, people had already gotten tired of writing's difficulty and looked for new ways to reduce this labor. -
Jan 1, 1440
Printing Press
The first invention that revolutionized the world of writing -
William Petty's writing machine.
Petty's invention was really just a machine that wrote with two pens at once. -
Henry Mill's Typewriter
Mill's machine was much more similar to the 20th century typewriter. -
William Austin Burt's Typographer
The first American writing machine -
John Pratt, the "Pterotype"
Would eventually become the inspiration for the first commercially successful typewriter -
Charles Latham Sholes' Typewriter
The first prototype of this typewriter was shaped almost exactly like a piano. -
Qwerty Keyboard
Instead of the usual A-Z keyboard layout of its time, the typewriter in the format everyone is well-versed in today, the QWERTY keyboard layout in order to prevent excessive jams. -
James B. Hammond, the Hammond model
Hammond "created" a typewriter that utilized the revolutionary idea of interchangeable type, or the "shift" button on today's keyboards. -
James Fields Smathers's electric typewriter
Northeast was interested in finding new markets for their electric motors and developed Smathers's design so that it could be marketed to typewriter manufacturers. -
Remington Electric typewriters
Remington Electric typewriters were introduced -
IBM typewriter
The company IBM started -
IBM
Due to falling sales IBM sold there typewriting division -
The Typewriter
A collectible item.