Typewriter
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A typewriter is a mechanical, electromechanical, or electronic
device with a set of "keys" that, when pressed, cause characters to
be printed on a document, usually paper.
In the late 19th and the start of the 20th century a person who
operated such a device was sometimes also called a "typewriter," but
it then became more common to call the person a typist.
A typewriter has a keyboard, with keys for each of the characters in
its font. The method by which the typewriter actually marks the
paper now varies as greatly as types of computer printers do, but
until the end of the 20th century was by the impact of a metal (or,
later, metallized plastic) type element against an "inked" ribbon
which caused ink to be deposited on the paper. Carbon paper was
sometimes inserted between multiple pieces of paper, so the impact
also caused duplicate characters to be printed on each layer of
paper. |
Although still popular with a few writers and in less developed
countries, the typewriter has largely been replaced by the word
processor application on a personal computer.
No one person can be said to have invented the typewriter. Like the
light bulb, automobile, telephone and the telegraph, a number of
people contributed insights and inventions which eventually resulted
in commercially successful instruments. In 1714 Henry Mill obtained
a patent in Britain for a machine that from the patent sounds
similar to a typewriter, but nothing further is known. Other early
developers of writing machines include Pellegrino Turri (1808) who
also invented carbon paper. Many of these earliest machines,
including Turri's, were developed to allow the blind to write.
In 1829 William Austin Burt patented a machine called the
"Typographer." Like many of these other early machines, it is
sometimes listed as the "first typewriter;" the Science Museum
(London) describes it merely as "the first writing mechanism whose
invention was documented," but even that claim may be excessive
since Turri's machine is well known. Even in the hands of its
inventor it was slower than handwriting. Burt and his promoter John
D. Sheldon never found a buyer for the patent, and it was never
commercially produced. Because it used a dial to select the
character instead of having an individual key for each character, it
was an "index typewriter" rather than a "keyboard typewriter", if it
is to be considered a typewriter at all. From 1829 to 1870, many
printing or typing machines were patented by inventors in Europe and
America, but none went into commercial production. Charles Thurber
developed multiple patents; his first in 1843 was developed as an
aid to the blind. See Charles Thurber's 1845 Chirographer, as an
example.
In 1855 the Italian Giuseppe Ravizza created a prototype typewriter
called " Cembalo scrivano o macchina da scrivere a tasti". It was an
advanced machine which let the user see the writing as it was typed.
Father Francisco Joćo de Azevedo, a Brazilian priest, made his own
typewriter in 1861 with poor materials, such as wood and knives. D.
Pedro I, the Brazilian emperor, on that very year, presented a gold
medal to Father Azevedo for this invention. Many Brazilian people as
well as Brazilian federal government recognize Fr. Azevedo as the
real inventor of the typewriter. This subject is very controversial
though.
The Austrian Peter Mitterhofer created a typewriter in 1864 but it
was never produced commercially. Mitterhofer continued to improve
his original model and created 5 different enhanced typewriters
until 1868. In 1865 Rev. Malling Hansen of Denmark produced the
Hansen Writing Ball which went into commercial production in 1870
and was the first commercially sold typewriter. It was a success in
Europe and was reported being used in offices in London as late as
1909[3]. Additionally, Hansen used a solenoid escapement to return
the carriage on some of his models, and was responsible for the
first "electric" typewriter.
In 1867 Christopher Sholes, Carlos Glidden, and Samuel W. Soule
invented another typewriter. The Sholes and Glidden typewriter was
the first device that allowed an operator to type substantially
faster than a person could write by hand. The patent (US 79,265) was
sold for $12,000 to Densmore and Yost, who made an agreement with E.
Remington and Sons (then famous as a manufacturer of sewing
machines), to commercialize what was known as the Sholes and Glidden
Type-Writer. Remington started production of their first typewriter
on March 1, 1873 in Ilion, New York. Another early typewriter
manufacturer was Underwood.
The ability to view what is typed as it is typed is taken for
granted today. In all early keyboard typewriters, however, the type
bars struck upwards against the bottom of the platen. Thus, what was
typed was not visible until the typing of subsequent lines caused it
to scroll into view. The difficulty with any other arrangement was
ensuring that the type bars fell back into place reliably when the
key was released. This was eventually achieved with ingenious
mechanical designs, and so-called "visible typewriters" were
introduced in 1895. Surprisingly, the older style continued in
production as late as 1915.
In the original design style, now known as a "mechanical" or
"manual" typewriter, each key was attached to a type bar that had
the corresponding letter molded into its other end. When a key was
struck briskly and firmly, the type bar hit a ribbon (usually made
of inked fabric) stretched in front of a cylindrical platen that
moved back and forth. The paper was rolled around by the
typewriter's platen which was then rotated by a lever (the "carriage
return" lever at the far left) to each new line of text. Some
typewriters used ribbons that were inked in black and red, each a
stripe half the width and the entire length of the ribbon. A lever
allowed switching between colors for typing bookkeeping entries,
where negative amounts had to be in red. |
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