The evolution of the typewriter - http://www.chevroncars.com/learn/history/the-evolution-of-the-typewriter

The Evolution of the Typewriter

Kids today may go through life without ever seeing it. Yet without the typewriter, there would be no computer as we know it. The typewriter is the primate ancestor to the personal computer that we have made part of our lives. Did you ever wonder why computer keyboards have the strange layout that they have, with the QWERTY keys across the top left? The answer lies buried in decisions made more than a hundred years ago, when the typewriter first appeared on the plains of industry.

The typewriter is to the printing press much like the personal computer is to the mainframe computer. The European version of the printing press, known as the Gutenberg press, was first developed in the 15th century. It enabled books to be printed rapidly, and helped promote the spread of literacy (and religion) throughout the world. A personal printing press, or “type writer,” used by a single person to print a legible document dates to the early 18th century.

Some of the forces spurring the development of a typewriter had to do with giving the blind the ability to write. An Italian is said to have built the first working typewriter for a blind Countess in 1808. Soon thereafter, a patent was issued for a machine where each letter was selected with a dial. It was neater, but even more cumbersome than writing. Many early typewriters resembled pin-cushions, with a forest of keys on a metal “typing ball” used to punch letters on a piece of paper hidden from the typist.

The need for speed and automation were driving forces in the further development of typewriters. So was the enthusiasm of early adopters. One of these was Mark Twain, who wrote to his brother in 1875:

“The machine has several virtues. I believe it will print faster than I can write. One may lean back in his chair & work it. It piles an awful stack of words on one page. It don’t muss [mess] things or scatter ink blots around. Of course it saves paper.”

Twain may have been trying out a Sholes and Gidden Typewriter, the brand name which gave us the generic term for the product. The Sholes also introduced the QWERTY keyboard. The placement of letters in this odd way was intended to prevent frequently struck keys from colliding; thus the E was next to the W and so on. As people became ever faster typists, this was an important consideration. The QWERTY keyboard also became popular because it was the first keyboard. Typewriter manufacturers that followed wanted to copy success.

The Sholes was actually bought and manufactured by E. Remington & Sons, a major industrial manufacturer already known for its guns and another industrial product that was changing the world - the sewing machine. Both products required the same machining and manufacturing skills that mass production of typewriters would require. Early Remington typewriters borrowed concepts from the sewing machine, like carriage returns by foot pedal!

The late 19th century saw continued product improvements. These included the carriage return, the self-rewinding ink ribbon, the shift key to distinguish between capital and small letters, and the ability to see what you were typing.

The electric typewriter was conceived early in the typewriter development process. The first models appeared around the turn of the century, but they were not successful. It was not until the 1930s, when electricity was more common and IBM took over an early manufacturer, that the electric typewriter began to capture real market share. By the 1960s these machines had become ubiquitous in the corporate office. In a way, they marked a return to the original pin cushion style typewriter. A rotating ball with the keys on it was used to place the ink on paper. These balls were easy to replace. however, the electric typewriter like the manual typewriter was far from silent. The sound of keys hitting ribbon, paper and backing were one of the most memorable by-products of the age of the typewriter, the soundtrack to life in the office.

This age came to an end - or one could say further evolved - with the coming of the personal computer. The electric became electronic, the physical became digital. A set of typewriter keys are pressed, but what is now recorded are bits and bytes that are saved on discs of all sorts, transmitted over great distances - and much easier than ever to correct. More recently, even the keyboard has become digital on mobile phones, as in the image above. Little did its inventors know where their keyboard would one day be found.

What has not changed, however, is the situation we face when trying to write something. A nice lamp, a comfortable chair in front of a table or desk are as desirable now as yesterday. Whether typewriter or laptop, the human challenge is the same - putting thoughts into words for someone else to read. Without literacy, there would be no type, real or digital.