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Show a THE "INVENTOR" OF THE TYPEWRITER .T : r" S ! ... :: .. ; .. j I ; I K - K - " i ; V, j L - X j i , - , -elf 'r j s " 's N . ' ' 1 ; V V . I : ' , ,4 " I ;s k. v -- I tt u&& Tin rir - Vii, -yrv-rra -n-----y n - wri--- I'liwy -" - w rrr - ' .. ... 'QBy ELMO SCOTT WATSON 571IK click and clatter of . -o(l "ie keys were silenced as the visitors paused be-; be-; side the desk from which taiil "le no'se came. ' i "What ate you doing?" f(Tm wilting an article on the rrewriter." I know you are ... I can see jt for myself. But what's It rt?" . -it's about the typewriter." ,ec,0h, now I understand! You're .i:lng an article ABOUT the type-er type-er ON the typewriter. But wr "uVell, you see, Febmary 14 hap-",y,9 hap-",y,9 to be the anniversary of the Vh of Christopher Latham Sholes J he . . ,0h yes, he was the chap who ' 'ented the typewriter, wasn't he?" That depends upon what you 0 -an when you say 'Inventor" be- ,,aFes, a great deal does depend iQ the definition of that word ! gj least a dozen men did the plo-' plo-' tring work that eventually re-' re-' fed In the modern high-speed 'ring machine and each of them has -Nff eIa!m t0 the tltle 0f "father o i typewriter" or to the honor of ;-5 its "Inventor." Sholes develop his paging machine, was added to the group of experimenters experi-menters In the little machine shop, and proved quite a handy man, both In carrying out Ideas and suggestions. sugges-tions. But Sholes was the man with the big idea and to him the invention inven-tion of the first practical typewriter is credited." John Alden Descendant. Sholes was a descendant of John and Priscilla Alden, and was born in Columbia county, Pennsylvania, February 14, 1819. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to the editor of the Danville (Fa.) Intelli gencer to learn the printing business, busi-ness, but at the age of eighteen he decided to join his brother, who was then living In Green Bay, Wis. Two years later Sholes went to Madison and took charge of the Wisconsin Inquirer, owned by his brother, Charles, and In 1840 he edited ed-ited the Southport (later Kenosha) Telegraph. Four years later he be came the postmaster there and after moving to Milwaukee was postmas ter In that city. He was also ed Itor of the Sentinel and the News, commissioner of public works and collector of customs. It was dur Ing his career In this office that he became Interested In making a num bering machine and working with the other two men In their little ma chine shOD on a writln? machine- Miss Eileen Donohue as she appeared, In the costume of the seventies, seven-ties, In a skit presented by the New York Y. W. C. A. as a part of the celebration in 1933 to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the invention of the typewriter and the entrance of women Into the modern business world. The typewriter shown In this picture is the original model perfected per-fected by Christopher Latham Sholes from which the first manufactured machine was copied. printing at the end of the line Is indicated." Principle Reversed. This indicates that the principle princi-ple of Burt's machine was the reverse re-verse of that on modern machines. In the "typographer" the type moved at the Imprint of each letter until the end of the line was reached and, Instead of returning the carriage, as is done on a modern mod-ern typewriter, the frame carrying the printing mechanism was shifted back to the starting point while the In 1SG1, Thomas Hall of New York, who is said to have perfected the first "portable" typewriting machine, ma-chine, a model of a larger Instrument Instru-ment on which he was working, was the first to use an Inked ribbon for recording the letters and characters. In the meantime another American, Ameri-can, living in England, was working on an Invention which was to have a direct bearing upon the development develop-ment of the typewriter in Its present pres-ent form and to give him a strong claim to the title of "inventor of l-he fvnpwritpr" ITe wns John A One-Letter Affair. The first machine which he Invented In-vented was a simple one-letter af fair, made with an old telegraph key, a sheet of glass and odds and ends of wood and metal. It printed only a series of W's, but It was the germ of the final machine. For, to quote from the Herkimer county history : "This machine was Important In' the history of the typewriter for only one thing it introduced another an-other crank to the machine shop jauies ueiismore, wno uroppea in one day, looked the machine over, and pronounced It good for nothing save to show that the Idea was feasible. He was just the man that Sholes. the dreamer and Idealist, needed. "Sholes and Densmore kept hammering ham-mering away on the Invention, built model after model until 25 or 30 had Probably the first effort to pro-e pro-e a writing machine was made ; an English engineer named Hen-llill Hen-llill In 1714. A patent Issued to ; by Queen Anne on January 7 Wit year states that he "invented "invent-ed brought to perfection an ar-ial ar-ial machine or method for the ression or transcribing of letters ily or progressively one after her, as in writing, whereby all logs whatsoever may be en-;ll en-;ll !;se(i in paper or parchment so Ded and exact as not to be dis-ome;uIshed dis-ome;uIshed from print; that said t In :Mne or method may be of great 1 a In settlements and public rec-ltlon, rec-ltlon, the Impression being deeper a s! more lasting than other writ-. writ-. waj and not to be erased or coun-our'eited coun-our'eited without manifest discov-i, discov-i, "1" B beept for this patent, which Is Jl in the British patent office, e is, however, no other record j:he principles of operation of 's machine. The same Is true nica'i writing machine which is said ns Ijve been invented in France In ifulli. So neither Mill nor this un-tens un-tens ln Frenchman have any very rthelj ciaim to the title of "inven-:ea "inven-:ea 0f the typewriter. rodt , , First Claimant, als ie first real claimant to that was an American William , An 'in Burt, a native of Massachu-geue!' Massachu-geue!' where he was born June 13, vn0 , but a citizen of Michigan in en. H) wlieD he invented his "typog-'wi-r." At any rate the record 'rltJ:is invention In the United paper Itself remained . motionless. Burt obtained type for his machine ma-chine from John Shelton, editor and proprietor of the Detroit Gazette, and Shelton on May 25, 1829, wrote the first letter on the new contraption. con-traption. It was addressed to Martin Mar-tin Van Buren, then secretary of state, and said: "This is a specimen of printing done by me on Mr. Burt's typographer. typog-rapher. You will observe some inaccuracies in-accuracies in the situation of the letters. These are owing to the imperfections of the machine; It having been made ln the woods of Michigan, where no proper tools could be obtained by the inventor, who, in the construction of it, merely wished to test the principles princi-ples of it, therefore, taking little pains In making It. I am satisfied from my knowledge of the printing business as well as from the operation opera-tion of the rough machine, with which 1 am printing, that the typographer typog-rapher will be ranked with the .....of nAnfll ncofiil nnri nlensinff in- l -mi y 1 Pratt, born ln Unionville, S. C, April 14, 1831, and, for several years after his graduation from Cokes-bury Cokes-bury college In 1849, a Journalist and lawyer in the South. In 1SG4 Pratt and his wife went to England, where he devoted his attention atten-tion to perfecting a writing machine which he called the "pterotype" for which he was granted a British patent pat-ent in 1SG6. According to the National Na-tional Cyclopaedia of American Biography, which calls him the "inventor "in-ventor of the typewriter" and which says that his was "the first working typewriter that ever secured a sale," Pratt claimed four operations as requisite to the accomplishment of his purpose. They were: "That it was necessary to bring any one of a number of types at the will of tiie operator, and in arbitrary succession, to common point; to form a colored or other legible character at that common point; to feed the paper across the common point so as to make proper Intervals between the letters and the words; to prepare a device for bringing the paper readily and speedily back to its starting point, with an interval between the lines." In 1807 his machine was exhibited before the Society of Arts and a paper read by the Inventor before that society was printed in Its journal. jour-nal. In that same year also he made and sold several of his machines ma-chines In London, among the purchasers pur-chasers being Sir Charles Wheat-stone Wheat-stone and Dr. Eence Jones, the author au-thor of a "Life of Faraday." Three "Cranks." But more Important still ln the history of the typewriter was the fact that during the winter of 1SGG-67 1SGG-67 ln a little machine shop In the outskirts of the city of Milwaukee, .... i j.nn 1 M, p.,1 'au 's Patent office declares that nccP1 Patent discloses the actual ruction of a typewriting ma-; ma-; for the first time In any coun-It coun-It then describes the working je "typographer" as follows : the uilie type are arraned on the un" Me of a segment carried by a SOmr pivoted to swing vertically name , ' . ,, . Jhorlzontally. au iie desired character is brought pC : ie printing point by moving lever horizontally to a position 1 the same character in the In-ain In-ain and the impression Is made by 1DT' D2 depressing the lever. 1 ,J-veral styles of type may be are ' and they are arranged in two f the i on the lever. These rows of ist" can be shifted on the lever to ! either one to the printing U. S. . ventions of the age." On July 23, 1S29, patent No. 2G9, signed by President Andrew Jackson Jack-son and Secretary Van Buren, was granted to Burt for his "typographer." "typog-rapher." The original model of the machine was lost in the fire of December De-cember 15, 1S3G, which destroyed the patent office and all Its contents. con-tents. Found No Market. Burt's invention was so far ln advance of the times that it found no market, so he turned his attention atten-tion to other things. Among them was the invention of the solar compass, com-pass, an Instrument which remedied reme-died variations of a magnetic needle, due to local causes, and his interest in internal improvements in M.nhiiriin territorv. The latter ln CHRISTOPHER L. SHOLES been made, and finally, In 1S73, they turned out a machine which was deemed sufficiently perfected for actual manufacture, It was Sholes that named his invention the 'typewriter.' 'type-writer.' The model was brought to Ilion, Herkimer couuty, New York, where the Remingtons had a gun factory, and it was with the Remingtons Rem-ingtons that the Inventors made the first contract for the manufacture manufac-ture of the new typewriting ma-chl- e. This was in February, 1S73. ;he Ui e paper g carried on an end-the end-the Ur,and which travels crosswise ' 3,02(ie machine, and this band is - incld f 3.85 c--;w the v ' x. ' ' i1 lt U , "V' thoXjK - fl ian Sig I;I?B A (let too H, hNk. of Joy f'L t . V t r, mlrni M . eluded a project for a canal around the falls in St. Mary's river, the forerunner of the present canal at Sault St. Marie, so Burt's fame as "Father of the Soo Canal" is secure se-cure even If his right to the' title of "Father of the Typewriter" has never been firmly established. During the next few years a number num-ber of writing machines of one sort or another made their appearance. The first of these, and one which showed a nearer approach to the modern typewriter, was Charles Thurber's printer which he patented patent-ed August 20, 18-43. The first machine to use continuous contin-uous roll paper feed, Instead of an endless strip of tape, as originated by Burt, was Invented by John B. Fairbanks, who produced his "phonetic" "pho-netic" writing machine, patented September 17, 1S."0. On May 20, 1850, John H. Cooper Coop-er patented a writing machine which exhibited for the first time the principle of hammer-printing against a wheel or disc, which corresponds very closely to the modern typewriting type-writing machine. In June, lSofl, Alfred E. Beach, editor of the Scientific American, brought out a mechanical writer, whose principle was to record raised letters instead of printing them. It contained the first alignment align-ment of type bars In a circle, delivering de-livering their Impression on a common com-mon center. First Portable. In 1S57. Dr. S. V. Francis of New York added to this form of writing machine the pianoforte keyboard action for the first time. This greatly simplified the method of striking the keys. WIS., tnree uiiuuie-Hou, luuuuliui and hard-working men, looked upon as 'cranks' by their neighbors, were each hard at work on a pet Invention Inven-tion of his own." So says "The Story of the Typewriter" Issued by the Historical society of Herkimer county, New York, In l'J23. It continues con-tinues : "One of these men, Christopher Latham Sholes, a printer and newspaper news-paper man, was engaged ln developing develop-ing a machine for numbering serially serial-ly the pages of blank books. In this work he had Interested one of the others, Samuel W. Soule, while the third of the group, Carlos Glidden. put ln his time trying to Invent a mechanical 'spader' to take the place of a plow. Chance caused these three men to drop the Inventions Inven-tions on which they had been working work-ing and to pool their Interests In a new and far greater undertaking. "According to one story, the idea arose out of a remark made by Glidden Glid-den while the paging machine was nearlng completion : 'Why cannot such a machine be made that will write letters and words and not fig ures only? A subsequent article ln the Scientific American describing the model of the "pterotype,' a machine ma-chine designed for just such a purpose pur-pose but never perfected, came ag an additional suggestion to them "Then a chance visit to the Milwaukee Mil-waukee machine shop of one William Wil-liam G. LaDue, who had for many years been dreaming of the Invention Inven-tion of a 'typewriter,' completed the circuit of suggestion that set Sholes, Glidden and Soule to working wholeheartedly, and to the exclusion exclu-sion of everything else, on the new idea. A practical mechanic, Matthias Mat-thias Schwaibach, who had helped The actual manufacture of the machine ma-chine began in the following September. Sep-tember. "It was a very primitive looking affair that was turned out by the Remingtons but It was the ancestor ances-tor of all the typewriters and Is still labeled, In Its museum repository reposi-tory as the 'model 1 Remington.' It wrote only capital letters. The sewing machine inlluence was apparent ap-parent In Its appointments. The carriage was returned by a curious cu-rious foot treadle, which, however, quickly demonstrated Its useless-ness useless-ness and was soon displaced by the now familiar hand carriage return. Nevertheless, the fundamental principles prin-ciples of construction embodied In this first typewriter still survive, though their application has since been modified or transformed In many ways In the marvelous little machines of today." One other item in the history of Christopher Latham Sholes as the "Father of the Typewriter" deserves de-serves mention. (Incidentally, the National Cyclopedia says that "If Sholes can be called the 'father of the typewriter,' Pratt may Justly be called the 'grandfather.'") At the time Sholes was making the final improvements on his typewriter a hitter political campaign was being be-ing waged and politics was in the minds and on the tongues of everyone. every-one. That's why today, when you sit down at your typewriter to "try Its action" or to "warm up" before be-fore you begin writing, you tap out on It these words: "Now Is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party." Christopher Latham Sholes was the "inventor" of that sentence ! i) Western Newspaper Union. " pLLIAM AUSTIN BURT v-v- for letter spacing by the Im 5wA-Vn lever every time the lever fftl'f r f';ssed t0 P''lnt- v-'- V Une space Is made by shlft- Pl,! frame carrying the printing f o'ism toward the front or the t y the machine, the paper re-fTHV5 re-fTHV5 stationary. 8 (ii l);"'s are located at each side "sUsir 1 Impression point, and all the fif''ept the one In printing po-MTE po-MTE ,re Inked every time the lm-, lm-, tho iitUa I'11 lover Is depressed. ruiii'hUV'al is provided wnleh Indl-'"oby"nraS'yV!l! Indl-'"oby"nraS'yV!l! length of paper In Inches rnyoudtdt'las passed the printing point bo.ponMl'itiiig eacn li ri e?. and as the bbumantt j-r knows the width of the pa- li7 value. w" :or only &s.rng used, the time to stop ileu o' j dur. J ND STO |