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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 the characters in its font. The method by which the typewriter actually marks the paper now varies as greatly as types of 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.
No one person can be said to have invented the typewriter. Like the light bulb, automobile, telephoneThe telephone or phone is a telecommunications device that transmits speech by means of electric signals. Generally attributed to the inventor Alexander Graham Bell, the first was built in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1876. However, an Italian inventor Anton and the telegraph, a number of people contributed insights and inventions which eventually resulted in commercially successful instruments. In 1714Events August 1 George, elector of Hanover becomes King George I of Great Britain. September 11 Barcelona surrenders to Spanish and French Borbonic armies in the War of the Spanish Succession. The Duchy of Savoy and Piedmont becomes the Kingdom of Sardini Henry MillHenry Mill patented the first typewriter in 1714. obtained a patent in Britain for a machine that from the patent sounds similar to a typewriter, but nothing further is known. [1]. Other early developers of writing machines include Pellegrino Turri ( 1808Events January 1 Importation of slaves into the United States is banned February 11 Anthracite coal first burned as fuel, experimentally. February Russia issues an ultimatum to Sweden, to join France, Denmark and Russia and attacks Finland. March 26 Charl) who also invented carbon paper. Many of these earliest machines, including Turri's, were developed to allow the blind to write.
In 1829Events January 8 Hanging of body-selling murderer William Burke his associate William Hare, who testified against him, is released January 19 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust premieres March 4 Andrew Jackson succeeds John Quincy Adams as the President o 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)The Science Museum on Exhibition Road, Kensington, London, is part of the National Museum of Science and Industry. The museum is a major London tourist attraction. Origin A museum was founded in 1857 under Bennett Woodcroft from the collection of the Roya 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. See Charles Thurber 's 1845Events January 29 The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe is published for the first time New York Evening Mirror . March 1 President John Tyler signs a bill authorizing the United States to annex the Republic of Texas. March 3 Florida is admitted as the 27th U. Chirographer as an example.
A true typewriter was invented in 1864 by Peter Mitterhofer but was never produced commercially. In 1865 Rev. Malling Hansen of Denmark produced the Hansen Writing Ball (schreibkugel) 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. 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 a couple of entrepreneurs 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 typebars 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 typebars 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 typebar that had the corresponding letter molded into its other end. When a key was struck briskly and firmly, the typebar 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.