DOCSLIB.ORG

The Typewriter Turns 125 1873 1998

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Typewriter Turns 125 1873 1998 CONTENTS Editor’s Notes, Letters ....... 2 Ads ..................................... 3 ETCetera Typewriter/125 .................. 4 Comptometer Mod. A ...... 8 No. Mar. Blick Elec. Brochure ....... 10 Color Gallery................... 12 42 1998 Crazy George and His Typewriters ............. 14 A Rare Letter Magazine of the Early Rediscovered ................ 20 Typewriter Collectors Association The Typewriter Turns 125 Letter written from Charles Thurber to Sarah Wheelock, dated Jan. 28, 1846. The original size was 8 inches wide. Thurber wrote to Miss Wheelock using his “Mechanical Chirographer,” one of two writing machines he invented in the 1840’s. 1873 1998 hanced by the fact that these pages I’m enjoying the newsletters very ADVERTISEMENTS ETCetera come directly from the laser printer, much, and I’m sure I join other sub- without going through the process of scribers in saying that I know how Magazine of the Early Typewriter FOR SALE: Set of four black rubber offset printing. For this reason, the much time and effort you put into Collectors Association repro feet (stem bumpers) are now smaller bifold format was chosen. maintaining this newsletter and this available for all models of Oliver. $8.00 Finally, the color in ETCetera is service to the other collectors. A hearty postpaid in US, $10.00 for foreign March 1998 --No. 42 now being printed directly on the inkjet Thank-you for all your efforts! delivery. Bob Aubert, 614 New Jersey printer at 720 dpi, without having to go Jim Freiburger, Cedar Glen, CA Editor, Darryl Rehr Ave., Riverside, NJ 08075. down a generation by being copied on 2591 Military Ave., L.A., CA 90064 FOR SALE: fresh long-fiber cotton the color copier. This offers us sharper When I was filing the latest issue of (310)477-5229, (310)268-8420 fax ribbons for old machines, inked with color and more detail. ETCetera, I was struck by how much traditional black record ink. 1/2" width The principle new problem that new material had been published over E-mail [email protected] $1/yd. (10 yd. minimum). 1-3/8" width may crop up in our new publication the years. Congratulations again for a for Remington, Densmore & other ETC Home Page system is collating. I expect more pages great job. upstrikes $2/yd (5 yd. minimum). Darryl http://home.earthlink.net/~dcrehr/ out of order than before, so if you get an Don Hoke, Ph.D., Dallas, TX Rehr, PO Box 641824, L.A., CA 90064. etc.html issue with pages all awry, just send in a (former typewriter curator, WANTED: More listings for the Di- card, and you’ll get a new one. Milwaukee Public Museum) ISSN 1062-9645 rectory of Publicly Displayed Early Type- ©1998 by The Early Typewriter writers and Business Machine Collec- ETCetera (#38) is fascinating as Collectors Association LETTERS tions. Now on Richard Polt’s website usual, and I enjoyed every single word. Published four times per year in Letters from readers have been accumulat- ( h t t p : / / x a v i e r . x u . e d u / ~ p o l t / Isaac Bashevis Singer’s writings were March, June, Sept. & Dec. ing for several issues now. Here’s a collec- twdisplays.html). Includes 25 sites in my father’s favorite reading. Dorothy $20/yr. North America tion of comments other members would like three countries. Hard-copy edition pos- and I had a course in Yiddish writers at to share with you. sible when listings increase. Please in- $25/yr. overseas an Elderhostel in Baltimore once, and, clude location, address, phone and fax of course, Singer was the main attrac- Just wanted to congratulate you on numbers, contact name, and a brief tion, through his stories. your terrific latest issue of ETCetera description of the size and contents of EDITOR’S NOTES Marco Thorne, San Diego, CA As ETCetera moves into its second [#40] “Fun” is the word that summarizes the display. Listings may be e-mailed to decade I’m happy to introduce several it all. I enjoyed your “Conundrums” [email protected] or by regular mail to I received both the back and latest significant changes, which should im- piece. Altogether, “Standard Auto- Marco Thorne, 4325 West Overlook issues of ETCetera and just wanted to prove the quality of our magazine. matic” to “Typing Tips,” a fine issue. Drive, San Diego, CA 92115-6116. take a quick moment to say great job! First is the addition of Paul Block as Thank you for the time, effort and ATLANTIQUE CITY - 1600-dealer The essays were fun to read and ETCetera’s “official” proofreader. Paul result. show. March 28-29 in Atlantic City, informative.The overall format is visu- is a professional writer, copy editor and Peter Weil, Newark, DE NJ. For info: 1-800-526-2724. ally pleasing as well (and its not just proofreader, who does this sort of thing because of color photos, though these for a living, and has generously volun- Thanks for the fascinating article TIPS: are great too). I’ve seen only a VERY teered to take on the task. on today’s alternative keyboards. And I Practical Typewriter No. 1 ( Simplex) few privately produced mags that ever The next improvement is the acqui- had thought that, outside of court re- in orig. box. Nan Bailey, 2733 Stiegler turn out a comprehensive index. sition of a 1200 dpi (dots per inch) porting, the chording concept had gone Rd., Valley City, OH 44280-9585 My renewal is in the mail. Good computer printer, which makes a dra- out with the Dactygam! WANTED: a nice Crandall. Hermann work! matic difference in the black and white Kerz, Lechenicherstr. 22, 50937 Köln , Patrick Sheary, Washington, D.C. photos appearing in ETCetera. The Richard Polt, Walla Walla, WA GERMANY sharpness and detail are further en- 2 / ETCetera #38 / March, 1997 ETCetera #38 / March, 1997 / 3 by Darryl Rehr March 1, 1998, the publication date of this issue of ETCetera, is also the 125th anniversary of the birth of the worldwide Typewriter Industry. Although there are many “anniversaries” in typewriter history (just as there are many “inventors” of the typewriter), this one marks a turning point at which ideas became reality and inventions became products. The invention was the “Type Writer,” developed by Christopher Latham Sholes in Milwaukee during the previous five years. The product was the Sholes & Glidden Type Writer manufactured by E. Remington & Sons of Ilion, NY. March 1, 1873, was the date on which the agreement was signed to officially begin production. Since all mainstream typewriters that followed can trace their lineage to the Sholes & Glidden, we can confidently mark this date as the beginning of the Typewriter Industry. The contract was drawn up as the result of presentations made to the Remingtons and their executives by James Densmore and George Washington Newton Yost, the entrepreneurial team behind C. L. Sholes. Remington man Henry Harper Benedict later described the presentation (Yost did most of the TOP: Remington Factory in 1888 (Scientific American article 12/15/88). ABOVE: talking) and his own reaction to it: Remington Factory in 1904 (fromScientific American advertisement, 12/17/04). “As we left the room, Mr. [Philo] Remington said to me, ‘What do you Scientific American ran its first piece on the manufacture of the Remington think of it?’ I replied, ‘That machine is very crude, but there is an idea there Typewriter in its issue of December 15, 1888, just fifteen years after the signing that will revolutionize business.’ Mr. Remington asked, ‘Do you think we of the fateful contract. At that time, the Ilion typewriter works was turning out ought to take it up?’ I said, ‘We must on no account let it get away. It isn’t 1,500 typewriters monthly, although Scientific American said, “This looks like a necessary to tell these people that we are crazy over the invention, but I’m large number, but we venture to say that it will soon be doubled and perhaps afraid I am pretty nearly so.’” trebled.” Fortunately for the history students among us, Scientific American once again As we now know, Benedict was one of the true believers. As the early typewriter visited the Remington Typewriter plant 17 years later, at which time the factory enterprise struggled, he eventually became one of the famous Wyckoff, Seamans was spitting out typewriters “a machine a minute.” Details are sketchy, but with & Benedict triumvirate that would make a success of marketing the machine. illustrations and photos, we can at least get an impression of how the typewriter Benedict and his partners later bought the typewriter business from the industry grew from its adolescence to vigorous early adulthood. Remington family, making it entirely independent of the Arms Company. Generally speaking, the 1888 Remington factory appears to have been set up What was this industry like in its early days? To be sure, we can glean only a to efficiently produce typewriters in quantity but without the large-scale vague picture of the true beginnings from bits and pieces of writings handed down mechanization seen in 1905. The 1888 machines may have been mass-produced, to us here and there. More detailed documentation, however, comes to us from but much of the work was done by hand, with just the “assistance” of power. a period, not so far after the beginning, when the industry was just starting to Take, for instance, the fellow making sheet-metal covers in 1888. He’s shown flourish. on the front page of Scientific American. He has a nice jig for forming the case, but 4 / ETCetera #38 / March, 1997 ETCetera #38 / March, 1997 / 5 it obviously involves pushing the pedal, screwing down the top- forming frame, and rolling the edge-seam crank.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Evolution of the Typewriter by Way of Suggestion
    4? era? EVOLUTION OF THE TYPEWRITER BY C. V. ODEN AUTHOR OF "A TALK ON SALESMANSHIP" AND "TYPEWRITER COMMTiNTS AND COMPARISONS" "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." —Bacon. DEC 14 191-7 COPYRIGHT 1917 BY C. V. ODEN ©CI.A47i>^4 - FOREWORD The contents of this book give the steps in the evolution study, of the typewriter, and are the result of observation, and conviction. The purpose is to answer in as concise form as possible the many inquiries received with reference this book is to the history of the typewriter. However, the reason not to be considered in any sense a history, for that many typewriters have been invented and many mar- keted that are not mentioned. Those omitted have not, in prin- the author's judgment, contributed either mechanical type- ciples or educational assistance that would promote writer development. On the other hand, consideration is given some machines only because they have suggested principles or ideas that have served to assist other manu- the fact that they received more facturers ; and others, from or less recognition from the public. Practically unlimited numbers of patents have been issued on typewriters and accessories, but to enumerate them would require volumes, from which it would be diffi- cult to assort and assimilate information of value. The author gratefully acknowledges having drawn from many sources in the preparation of this work, prin- cipal among which are: Patent Records, Office Appliances, Typewriter Topics, Phonographic World, History of the Typewriter, the Franklin Institute, Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • Etcetera Journal of the Early Typewriter Collectors’ Association No
    ETCetera Journal of the Early Typewriter Collectors’ Association No. 117 • Summer 2017 Editor’s Notes 2 The Waverley Typewriter 3 The A Glimpse of the ICO MP1 6 First Photo of a Typist 9 Waverley The Monpti 14 Chestnut Ridge Meeting 15 Ty p ew r iter The Type-Writer 16 New on the Shelf 18 Around the World 20 In IssueThis Letters 20 ETCetera No. 117 • Summer 2017 • 1 ETCetera Journal of the Early Typewriter Collectors’ Association Editor’s No. 117 • Summer 2017 Notes Editor Richard Polt 4745 Winton Rd. while we’re all still savoring paul aters, and eventually it should be avail- Cincinnati, OH 45232 USA Robert and Peter Weil’s Typewriter, able online worldwide. 513.591.1226 there’s more good news from the pub- Speaking of Tom Hanks, he’s also one [email protected] lishing world: renowned collector Tony of the stars of the film “The Circle.” The Casillo’s book Typewriters: Iconic Machines critical consensus is that the movie doesn’t Secretary-Treasurer from the Golden Age of Mechanical Writ- amount to much, but Hanks does get praise Herman Price ing will be released by Chronicle Books for his performance as a likeable leader of a in November, with a foreword by Tom digital technology company that is deter- Board of Directors Hanks. When Tony says golden, he means mined to wipe out all privacy. The charac- Bert Kerschbaumer golden: the cover machine is a dazzling ter has a typewriter on his desk, but he’d Robert Messenger gold-plated Princess 300. never use it, unlike Hanks himself.
    [Show full text]
  • Title on the Prehistory of QWERTY Author(S) Yasuoka, Koichi
    Title On the Prehistory of QWERTY Author(s) Yasuoka, Koichi; Yasuoka, Motoko Citation ZINBUN (2011), 42: 161-174 Issue Date 2011-03 URL https://doi.org/10.14989/139379 © Copyright March 2011, Institute for Research in Humanities Right Kyoto University. Type Departmental Bulletin Paper Textversion publisher Kyoto University ZINBUN 2009/2010 No.42 On the Prehistory of QWERTY Koichi Yasuoka∗ and Motoko Yasuoka† Abstract QWERTY keyboard is widely used for information processing nowadays in Japan, United States, and other countries. And the most frequently asked question about the keyboard is: “Why are the letters of the keyboard arranged the way they are?” Several papers in the field of information processing answer the question like this: “To slow down the operator.” It’s nonsense. In this paper we reveal the prehistory of QWERTY keyboard along the his- tory of telegraph apparatus: Morse, Hughes-Phelps, and Teletype. The early keyboard of Type-Writer was derived from Hughes-Phelps Printing Telegraph, and it was developed for Morse receivers. The keyboard arrangement very often changed during the development, and accidentally grew into QWERTY among the different requirements. QWERTY was adopted by Teletype in the 1910’s, and Teletype was widely used as a computer terminal later. 1. Introduction On February 1980 issue of Journal of Information Processing, Prof. Hisao Yamada of the University of Tokyo contributed an invited paper titled “A Historical Study of Typewriters and Typing Methods.”[1] The paper was an excellent survey of the history of keyboard arrangements on typewriters and computers, so it has been referred by hundreds of papers and books for these 30 years.
    [Show full text]
  • QWERTY Keyboard (Edited from Wikipedia)
    QWERTY Keyboard (Edited from Wikipedia) SUMMARY QWERTY is a keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets. The name comes from the order of the first six keys on the top left letter row of the keyboard (Q W E R T Y). The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden typewriter and sold to Remington in 1873. It became popular with the success of the Remington No. 2 of 1878, and remains in widespread use. HISTORY The QWERTY layout was devised and created in the early 1870s by Christopher Latham Sholes, a newspaper editor and printer who lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In October 1867, Sholes filed a patent application for his early writing machine he developed with the assistance of his friends Carlos Glidden and Samuel W. Soulé. The first model constructed by Sholes used a piano-like keyboard with two rows of characters arranged alphabetically The construction of the "Type Writer" had two flaws that made the product susceptible to jams. Firstly, characters were mounted on metal arms or typebars, which would clash and jam if neighboring arms were pressed at the same time or in rapid succession. Secondly, its printing point was located beneath the paper carriage, invisible to the operator, a so-called "up-stroke" design. Consequently, jams were especially serious, because the typist could only discover the mishap by raising the carriage to inspect what had been typed. The solution was to place commonly used letter-pairs (like "th" or "st") so that their typebars were not neighboring, avoiding jams. Sholes struggled for the next five years to perfect his invention, making many trial-and- error rearrangements of the original machine's alphabetical key arrangement.
    [Show full text]
  • Title on the Prehistory of QWERTY Author(S) Yasuoka, Koichi; Yasuoka
    Title On the Prehistory of QWERTY Author(s) Yasuoka, Koichi; Yasuoka, Motoko Citation ZINBUN (2011), 42: 161-174 Issue Date 2011-03 URL http://hdl.handle.net/2433/139379 © Copyright March 2011, Institute for Research in Humanities Right Kyoto University. Type Departmental Bulletin Paper Textversion publisher Kyoto University ZINBUN 2009/2010 No.42 On the Prehistory of QWERTY Koichi Yasuoka∗ and Motoko Yasuoka† Abstract QWERTY keyboard is widely used for information processing nowadays in Japan, United States, and other countries. And the most frequently asked question about the keyboard is: “Why are the letters of the keyboard arranged the way they are?” Several papers in the field of information processing answer the question like this: “To slow down the operator.” It’s nonsense. In this paper we reveal the prehistory of QWERTY keyboard along the his- tory of telegraph apparatus: Morse, Hughes-Phelps, and Teletype. The early keyboard of Type-Writer was derived from Hughes-Phelps Printing Telegraph, and it was developed for Morse receivers. The keyboard arrangement very often changed during the development, and accidentally grew into QWERTY among the different requirements. QWERTY was adopted by Teletype in the 1910’s, and Teletype was widely used as a computer terminal later. 1. Introduction On February 1980 issue of Journal of Information Processing, Prof. Hisao Yamada of the University of Tokyo contributed an invited paper titled “A Historical Study of Typewriters and Typing Methods.”[1] The paper was an excellent survey of the history of keyboard arrangements on typewriters and computers, so it has been referred by hundreds of papers and books for these 30 years.
    [Show full text]
  • Sholes & Glidden 'Type Writer'
    SholesASME Landmark Sholes & Glidden ‘Type Writer’ A Historic MechanicalINITIAL DRAFT –Engineering April 19, 2011 Landmark October 6, 2OII Milwaukee Wisconsin Page 1 Christopher Latham Sholes Born February 14, 1819 Died February 17, 1890 Resting place Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Known as "The Father of the Typewriter" Born in Mooresburg, Pennsylvania in 1819, Christopher Latham Sholes worked as an apprentice to a printer in nearby Danville as a youth. He moved to Green Bay, Wisconsin when he was eighteen where he initially worked for his brothers who were publishers of the Wisconsin Democrat. Within a year he was promoted to edit the Madison Enquirer. In 1840, Sholes established the Southport (eventually renamed, „Kenosha‟) Telegraph, which he published for many years. He eventually became associated with various Milwaukee newspapers, such as the News, and the Sentinel. In addition to working as a publisher, Sholes played a key role in early Wisconsin politics. He helped to organize the „Free Soil‟ and Republican parties in Wisconsin and served several terms in the state senate and assembly. Perhaps his most memorable legislative accomplishment was leading the successful campaign to outlaw the death penalty in Wisconsin in 1853. During the Civil War, Sholes also served for a time as Milwaukee postmaster, and was later port collector and commissioner of public works. A practical and active inventor, Sholes developed several devices in the course of his newspaper career, including a newspaper addressing machine (ca 1840-1850s), and a paging or numbering device (1864), before becoming involved in the development of the typewriter which interested him for the remainder of his life.
    [Show full text]
  • Etcetera Journal of the Early Typewriter Collectors’ Association No
    ETCetera Journal of the Early Typewriter Collectors’ Association No. 110 • Fall 2015 In This Issue Editor’s Notes 2 Clark Electric 3 The National News 9 Typewriters Make News 10 Clark Evidence for 1st Portable 16 McLaughlin to Murray 18 From Our Members 22 Electric New on the Shelf 24 ETCetera No. 110 • Fall 2015 • 1 ETCetera Journal of the Early Typewriter Collectors’ Association Editor’s Notes No. 110 • Fall 2015 Editor sometimes treasures are right un- Crandall “stretched” Pratt’s typewheel Richard Polt der our noses. We just need to look in “into a sleeve which he himself was able 4745 Winton Rd. the right place. to patent on his own, thereby by-passing Cincinnati, OH 45232 USA Case in point: the 1960 R. C. Allen Pratt’s control” (p. 110). 513.591.1226 VisOmatic Electrite that I just added to Pratt’s historic device recently gave [email protected] my collection. It had been languishing Toronto collector Martin Howard a at a nearby antique mall for quite some “Wow moment” when he spotted it in a Secretary-Treasurer time, and I’d strolled through the build- display at the British Science Museum Herman Price ing repeatedly without spotting it. But in London. Neither he nor I had realized fellow Cincinnati typewriter lover Leigh that there was still an extant Pterotype, Board of Directors Whitaker looked in the right spot— although some ETCetera readers surely Bert Kerschbaumer tucked away far below my eye level—and knew of it. Robert Messenger shared some photos of the machine on Why is the Pterotype in England? Richard Polt Facebook.
    [Show full text]
  • Typewriter (Edited from Wikipedia)
    Typewriter (Edited from Wikipedia) SUMMARY A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for writing characters similar to those produced by printer's movable type. A typewriter operates by means of keys that strike a ribbon to transmit ink or carbon impressions onto paper. Typically, a single character is printed on each key press. The machine prints characters by making ink impressions of type elements similar to the sorts used in movable type letterpress printing. At the end of the nineteenth century, the term typewriter was also applied to a person who used a typing machine. The first commercial typewriters were introduced in 1874, but did not become common in offices until after the mid-1880s. The typewriter quickly became an indispensable tool for practically all writing other than personal handwritten correspondence. It was widely used by professional writers, in offices, and for business correspondence in private homes. HISTORY Although many modern typewriters have one of several similar designs, their invention was incremental, developed by numerous inventors working independently or in competition with each other over a series of decades. As with the automobile, telephone, and telegraph, a number of people contributed insights and inventions that eventually resulted in ever more commercially successful instruments. Historians have estimated that some form of typewriter was invented 52 times as thinkers tried to come up with a workable design. By the mid-19th century, the increasing pace of business communication had created a need for mechanization of the writing process. Stenographers and telegraphers could take down information at rates up to 130 words per minute, whereas a writer with a pen was limited to a maximum of 30 words per minute (the 1853 speed record).
    [Show full text]