Typewriter: How this almost extinct machine came into being
The invention of the typewriter can said to be one of the most important and defining moments of the 19th century. Typewriters are machines with keys that produce alphabetical characters, numerals, and typographical symbols on paper inserted around a roller one at a time. Christopher Latham Sholes is credited with having invented the first typewriter in 1867 which was patented a year later. It was only in 1874 that typewriters became commercially available and became popular in offices in the next decade.
A brief history of typewriters
It can be said that the typewriter has had a long journey, even though it became commonly used after the mid-1880s only. An Italian printing press operator called Francesco Rampazetto invented the first-ever machine to impress letters on paper in the year 1575. Later, Henry Mill, an English inventor, designed and patented the first typewriter in 1714. Agostino Fantoni, another Italian, built a unique typewriter for his blind sister in the year 1802. Further, the year 1808 saw another Italian Pellegrino Turri, inventing carbon paper and using it in his own typewriter design.
William Austin Burt, an American inventor, patented his constructed typing machine in 1829 and titled it Typographer. The typographer was a rectangular wooden box with spinning levers that were used to impress letters on paper. Giuseppe Ravizza invented a miniature typing machine in 1855 that allowed the typist to watch the writing process. In 1865, an American called John Pratt built another typing machine, which he named Pterotype. Many people in Europe and America created writing machines in the nineteenth century, but none of them were able to commercialise them.
How did a typewriter work?
The typist tapped a key repeatedly to activate a lever that moved a type hammer toward the paper on a standard mechanical typewriter. Each type hammer was equipped with a type-bar that contained a specific character, such as a letter or a number. Between the type and the page, a spool of ribbon or inked cloth was raised. The character was printed on the paper when the type hit the inked ribbon. The paper was held in place by a carriage, or roller mechanism, which progressively moved so that subsequent letters were printed to the right of the previous ones.
What were the different kinds of typewriters?
Since the late 1800s, many different types of typewriters had been invented and sold. Mechanical, electric, and electronic are the three major types of typewriters that were widely introduced during this time. A majority of the typewriters such as keyboard typewriter and single element typewriter were mechanical typewriters. Index typewriter, teletype typewriter and electric typewriters were some other kinds of typewriters.
Keyboard typewriters: The keys of a keyboard typewriter were organised in a board pattern. The hemispherical array of keys on Malling-Writing Hansen's Ball and semicircular groupings of keys on other early typewriters contrasted with the keyboards. Most typewriter keyboards used the QWERTY layout, which is still used on computers and mobile devices today.
Single element typewriters: Single-element typewriters were capable of printing material in a variety of languages and fonts. The type was conveyed by type wheels, type sleeves, or type shuttles. These type-elements were rotated or manipulated vertically or horizontally to locate the appropriate letter.