The evolution of the typewriter is part of the ongoing history of the human need to communicate. The development of the typewriter was the result of a desire both to speed up this process and to produce an aid for the blind in reading and writing. Gradually a machine emerged that (or this, or whatever) revolutionised the work of the writer. Painstaking tasks that were normally carried out by hand could be carried out in minutes on the machine, leaving time to enjoy the 'finer things in life'. As the first Remington adverts declared; 'To save time is to lengthen life.'
Unlike the telephone or the automobile, the invention of the typewriter has never received worldwide acclaim. This may be because the product is one associated with work rather than social life. Initially typewriters were slow sellers. When first shown to the public at an industrial fair, the machines attracted little interest, unlike the newly invented telephone, which received international attention. One reason given was that many professionals felt typing would appear rude to potential clients, as there would be no personal touch.
The first patent for a 'writing machine' was given to Henry Mill in 1714. Sadly there are no surviving details to prove its existence as a working machine. The first known typewriter was invented in the United States of America by William Burt in 1830. This was called a Typographer and printed one single letter after another. From this point on there was a flood of designs both in the United States and Europe, causing some dispute over who invented what components. These machines were usually one-offs and it was not until 1874 that a typewriter became a commercial success.
This was achieved by the inventors Christopher Sholes and Carlos Glidden, who made an agreement with the Remington company to have their model, the 'Type-writer', manufactured in quantity.
The first machine produced wrote in capitals and was heavily influenced by the workings and appearance of the sewing machine, which was also produced by Remington. Sholes was also famous for introducing the layout of the letters on a keyboard, QWERTY, which is still in use today.
It was this machine which eventually began to inspire the public and started appearing in offices around the USA and Europe. With its growing popularity came a new source of employment, typing (you know that typing is a critical skill that is absolutely need today) .
During the 1880's many different types of typewriters were designed, but the one which developed the style we know today was the Underwood No.1, invented by F. X. Wagner and produced by the Wagner and Underwood Company.
| The development of the portable typewriter created further opportunities for the writer. The production of a lightweight machine allowed typing to occur outside the normal workplace. One of the first portable machines was the Blickensderfer in 1893. The merit of such designs was realised during the First World War when forces recorded information in the trenches using portable typewriters.Another advance in design and mechanics came with the development of the electric typewriter. The advantage of an electric machine was greater speed and legibility. Early attempts date back as far as 1871 when George Arrington and Thomas A. Edison (famous for inventing the light bulb) obtained a patent for an electrically driven typewriter. The public was slow to accept the machine, as many did not trust its reliability. It took until the middle of the 1950s for them to be successful, with some of the most popular being those produced by IBM. Today the standard typewriter has disappeared from the office and the home. Instead the personal computer dominates. Writers are no longer desk-bound but free to work wherever they lay their laptops. This revolution has caused the typewriter to become a collectable rather than an indispensable product. An original Remington No.1 is now of considerable value. Museums also collect these machines as they are examples of great design, scientific achievement and reflect the social development of the workplace. The Science Museum has a collection covering all the major phases of their development. Recently the popularity of typewriters has undergone a resurgence. Many people have become nostalgic for a bygone era of journalists reporting in remote areas of the world or poverty-stricken authors working away at their greatest novel. From its slow beginnings the typewriter has become an icon of these times. | |
| A prize machine from the Science Museum's collection, the Underwood typewriter was the forerunner to the modern typewriter, with its mechanics and appearance being almost identical to those seen today. Its success lay in one major advancement. This was a design that allowed typists to view what they were writing. Previous models had the paper and writing enclosed because the workings of the machine prevented visibility.The Underwood was invented by the American Franz X. Wagner. He began to develop a mechanism which placed the bars that supported the moulded letters around the front of the machine. When a letter was depressed on the keyboard the bar would strike the front sheet, print and then fall back. This is how most modern manual typewriters work today. Wagner showed this model to the manufacturer of inks and typewriter ribbons, John Underwood. He instantly recognised the importance of such a design and supported the scheme. It is arguable whether Wagner was the first to think of the idea of visible typing, but he was the first to perfect it. This advance was not the only one seen on the Underwood. The machine also speeded up the type bar so that typing could be done with a lighter touch. It also had two shift keys giving capital letters and lowercase, and a tabulator key, which prevented rapid travel of the carriage (the top part of the typewriter). The machine keyboard also adopted the QWERTY layout, recognising its popularity and usability. The machine was a success and the company had to move twice to expand, changing its name in the process from the Wagner Typewriter Company to the Underwood Typewriter Company. By 1939 five million Underwood machines had been produced and marketed all around the world. The success of such a machine led to the decline of many of the earlier more unusual typewriter designs. Most manufactures recognised that they could not better the Underwood and instead set about adapting it so that they could manufacture it under their name. |
No comments:
Post a Comment