A History of Type

By Kathy Kovach

What can one say about typewriters? Plenty since they were invented in the 18th century. Over the years the typewriter evolved, eventually morphing into the computer keyboard we know today.

In 1714, English inventor Henry Mill worked at the New River Water Works Company as Engineer-in-Chief. He patented a machine made for "impressing writing on parchment." Alas, no illustrations or models of this first typewriter exist. For whatever reason, Mill never developed it. Following is the wording of the original patent:

One hundred and fifty years later, in 1865, Danish inventor Rev. Rasmus Malling-Hansen came up with a version of a typewriter that doesn't look like the model which has became popular over the centuries. It's known as the Hansen Writing Ball. Although Malling-Hansen made improvements and won first prize in two world exhibitions, his invention nearly disappeared from annals of history.

A mere three years later, American Christopher Latham Sholes went on to produce fifty machines but failed to sell them. He took his idea to gun manufacturer Philo Remington and sold the production rights. A year later, the first typewriter was made available by E. Remington & Sons, and another year saw an upgrade featuring both upper and lower case letters. It was named the Remington 2. Sholes was dubbed "The Father of the Typewriter" despite the efforts of those before him.

After another decade, John Thomas Underwood, a competitor of Remington's, bought the rights from inventor Franz Xavior Wagner for a more practical "front

stroke" machine. The US Navy ordered 250 Underwood typewriters, and their popularity soared. By 1915, Underwood employed 7,500 workers and produced 500 typewriters daily.

Sholes had originally intended the machine to print page numbers on books, but it was lawyer and inventor Carlos Glidden who suggested adding letters. At first, the letters were laid out alphabetically, but consumers complained of keys sticking. If you'll recall, the keys were wire rods that struck the paper when pressed. Common letters like "a" and "e" would often tangle and slow down the process. Glidden suggested moving letters around for more proficiency, and thus, the QWERTY keyboard was born, named so for the first six letters on the top row.

Here are some fun facts:

• Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer was the first novel written on a typewriter.
• The word "qwertyuiop" now appears in the Oxford English dictionary.
• Sholes had expressed the thought that a typewriter could help women enter the workplace, replacing male clerks. Way to go, Christopher!

Another fun fact includes an actor popular today, Tom Hanks. A passionate collector of typewriters, Hanks professes to have owned hundreds in his lifetime. He started collecting at age nineteen and is still vocal about the importance of vintage and modern typewriters. So passionate, in fact, he has published a collection of short stories entitled Uncommon Type: Some Stories, centered around the typewriter and its impact on his life. Disclaimer: I read the first story and it's rated...um...shall we say TVMA? Proceed with caution. However, the following two links should be safe. He shares his love of these machines with enthusiasm and humor.

Tom Hanks, typewriter enthusiast - YouTube

Tom Hanks: Uncommon Type [CC] - YouTube

As I type on my computer, I recall the days of tapping away on my first Royal Typewriter when I was a child. I upgraded through the years, moving on to an IBM Selectric with the font ball that reminds me of the Hansen Writing Ball. Then on to a word processor which showed four lines of type before one committed it to paper. Like magic! 

Then the computer. First DOS, where I had to put in code when I wanted it to shift, tab, or return. And then, FINALLY, Word was invented. I have joked I couldn't become a writer until Bill Gates created Microsoft. That being said, there's something to typing on a vintage machine. Hearing the clacks of the keys and the ding of the return carriage, the ratcheting of the rubber platen and the stinging paper cut when I yanked the paper out. 

In my book, Titanic: Legacy of Betrayal, one of the characters needs to write a memoir, a confession of sorts. She has severe arthritis and doesn't want to dictate her deepest, darkest secrets to another person. Find out how she by-stepped the typewriter and communicated with others a century later.

Titanic: Legacy of Betrayal

A secret. A key. Much was buried on the Titanic, but now it's time for resurrection.

Follow two intertwining stories a century apart. 1912 - Matriarch Olive Stanford protects a secret after boarding the Titanic that must go to her grave. 2012 - Portland real estate agent Ember Keaton-Jones receives the key that will unlock the mystery of her past... and her distrusting heart.

To buy: Amazon

Kathleen E. Kovach is a Christian romance author published traditionally through Barbour Publishing, Inc. as well as indie. Kathleen and her husband, Jim, raised two sons while living the nomadic lifestyle for over twenty years in the Air Force. Now planted in northeast Colorado, she's a grandmother, though much too young for that. Kathleen is a longstanding member of American Christian Fiction Writers. An award-winning author, she presents spiritual truths with a giggle, proving herself as one of God's peculiar people.

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Women Behind the Keys

My mother was an excellent typist and worked “keeping books” for my father’s several small businesses. It wasn’t long before I mimicked her, sitting at the typewriter-stand-on-wheels, pecking away at the keys.

During my junior year in high school, I took a night class for typing at the local college and, thereby, set the course of my life.

I’ve been typing – or keyboarding – ever since.

The keys that make my living.

I dare say that typing skills have served me in every job I’ve had, from secretary to schoolteacher, journalist to novelist. It’s difficult to imagine making it through life without the ability to type.

However, this specialized skill changed the course of more lives than mine, particularly that of women in the public workforce during the 1880s. As typists, women could do more than they had as telegraphers, clerks, and copyists in the previous decades.

Both men and women worked as typists, but they were not referred to as such. Research indicates that there were discrepancies in the spelling of typewriter or type-writer. Sources differ in their opinions as to which denoted the machine and which denoted the operator.

Newspaper articles of the day touted the type-writer as a great invention. By 1885, it was credited with expediting business and coming close to replacing the pen. The Remington Standard Type-Writer was heralded as the premier machine.

Remington had previously been associated with firearms (and sewing machines), and the company had several under its belt, including pistols, rifles, and shotguns.

William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody himself reportedly carried a Remington New Model Army .44 from 1863 to 1906.

We haven’t heard that he carried a typewriter.

Remington was founded in 1816 by Eliphalet Remington in Ilion, New York, and later became E. Remington and Sons in 1839. It was not the first company to produce a writing machine, but by 1873 became known for manufacturing the first successful commercial typewriter.

Another writing-machine company, Sholes and Glidden, sold their patent to financial backers Densmore and Yost who negotiated with E. Remington and Sons for production. Remington introduced Sholes’s QWERTY board in their model, and the Remington No. 2 of 1878 became a wildly successful typewriter with both upper- and lower-case letters accessed by a shift key.

Today it’s hard to imagine anything else.

Sholes & Glidden Type-Writer, invented by Christopher Latham Sholes, Carlos Glidden, and Samuel W. Soule in 1868, and manufactured by Remington & Sons, Ilion, New York, USA, between 1874 and 1878. This was the first typewriter to be manufactured commercially (about 5000 were made), the first to use the Universal or QWERTY keyboard which Sholes invented, and the first to be called a 'typewriter'; Sholes coined the term. The colorful flowery decorations may have been intended to appeal to women, who were entering the typist profession. Wikimedia Commons.

The QWERTY keyboard design was so named for the lineup of letters on the top letter row of keys, with other letters placed elsewhere based on frequency of use. With a few changes in other letter/character positions, it remains in use today with Latin-script alphabets. Wisconsin newspaper editor and printer Christopher Latham Scholes came up with the layout after earlier designs resulted in the jamming of keys.

Scholes's QWERTY, 1878. Wiki-Commons

The Remington typewriter was used in law offices, counting rooms, and mercantiles in European and American cities, employing young women with wages ranging from $12 to $15 per week. 

Even my old Oliver from 1914 has the QWERTY layout.

The abandoned heroine of my novel, An Unexpected Redemption, is one such young woman who finds employment as a type-writer in a Denver law firm and later in her hometown of Olin Springs, Colorado. Her not-so-portable Remington No. 2 model typewriter influences the course of her life, as does her other Remington, which you can read about here.

Funny, how a few little letters—and the ability to manipulate them—can change a person's life for the better.

~

Davalynn Spencer

Wife and mother of professional rodeo bullfighters, Davalynn Spencer can’t stop #lovingthecowboy. She writes Western romance with rugged heroes, teaches writing workshops, and plays a different keyboard on her church worship team – when she’s not wrangling Blue the Cowdog and mouse detectors Annie and Oakley. Connect with her at www.davalynnspencer.com.