DOCSLIB.ORG

Scenes of Yesteryear-Typing Comes to Town There Was a Time, but It Was a Long Time Ago, That I Could Actually Read My Own Handwr

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Scenes of Yesteryear-Typing Comes to Town There Was a Time, but It Was a Long Time Ago, That I Could Actually Read My Own Handwr Scenes of Yesteryear-Typing comes to town There was a time, but it was a long time ago, that I could actually read my own handwriting! Unfortunately that is not true today, because for some reason or another, my impatience in taking notes by hand results an undecipherable scramble of words! It would take a handwriting expert to determine what I have written. That should not have happened, because as a 7th grade student at Menomonie Central School, Mrs Lina Hellum spent an intolerable number of classes on the Palmer Method of handwriting. It was a method of writing that required “…muscle motion in which the more proximal muscles of the arm were used for movement, rather than allowing the fingers to move in writing.” I recall “hours” of pushing and pulling vertical lines and an equal amount of time inscribing ovals across the lined practice paper. I never understood the reason, but I must admit that my handwriting did improve, and even today I find me still using my arm when writing by hand, all due to my time spent in those classes! Problem now is…my distain for writing by hand has rendered my inability to read what I have written! I guess I am right, I’m just too impatient with the process. My father was a newspaperman, the Menomonie reporter for news of city and Dunn County for the Eau Claire Leader, and he insisted that I take the typing classes at MHS. I admit I was a little uncomfortable attending a class that was largely filled with giggly girls shooting for their future roles as secretaries. I guess there were other guys taking the class but I can’t remember any names, but I do remember Miss Hillier, the teacher who very likely was frustrated with my lack of progress. I “stuck it out” and finished the “beginner’s” class, and was told by Miss Hillier that I probably would not need to continue further training on the typewriter. I wish I knew then what I know now! Today, seventy-years later, I am so grateful for taking that typing class, and I am also pleased that it was a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, editor, Christopher Latham Sholes, who invented the first successful typewriter in 1867. He was aided by an associate, Carlos Glidden, and depended on the practical machinist, Mr. Mathew Schwalbach, who constructed the various elements of the intricate machine designed by Sholes. Mark Twain, better known by his mother as Samuel Clemens, claimed that his book, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, was the first book with a typewritten manuscript sent to a publisher. Historians say that Twain erred, his typewritten submission was indeed the first, but it was for Life on the Mississippi, seven years later in 1883. From that time on the typewriter gained popular acceptance with a number of companies going into the production of typewriters carrying the names of Remington, Oliver, Smith Corona, Underwood, Royal , Olivetti, IBM, etc. Most of the manufacturers of them adopted Sholes’ “QWERTY” keyboard layout, and soon schools dedicated to teaching people how to use a typewriter appeared throughout the country. One of the successful schools in Wisconsin was the Valentine School of Telegraphy, established in 1872 in Janesville by Richard Valentine with his brother, A. M. Valentine. I have limited knowledge of the school but a postcard stamped in the Janesville post office featured a photograph of the Wisconsin School of Telegraphy that may originally been the school established by Valentine. A check with researchers,Kate and Sue, at the Hedberg Public Library in Janesville came up with a statement in their records saying that a School of Telegraphy was the only one of its kind in the nation. That tells me that the photograph is very likely the Wisconsin School of Telegraphy, also known at one time as the Valentine School of Telegraphy. I am content in stating that. Today the “typewriter” is a fossil found on display in many historical society museums, replaced in “real life” by the ubiquitous computer and keyboard of today. But now, after I have stated that “fact”, I can expect to hear from at least one reader that they still have a typewriter on their desk. I’m sure they are having a difficult time to find ribbons for it! I will ask them about that! I need one for my typewriter that has been gathering dust during the past fifteen years! I miss those “typewriter typos”! Cutline…. On October 3, 1905, an unnamed/unknown student of the Wisconsin School of Telegraphy, sent this post card of the teachers and students of the Wisconsin School of Telegraphy. The card ended up in the archives of the Dunn County Historical Society which suggests that one or more students were native of the county. Very likely many of the students shown here were telegraphers, but the great number of typewriters shown here in the foreground indicated that learning to type was a high priority. Unfortunately we cannot be certain that there are any graduates of the students shown here were from Menomonie or its environs. Cutline… It appears that the offices where these young lady typists normally worked were too small for taking a picture, so the photographer suggested they move out into the hall, or an adjacent room that was larger, for this picture. Unfortunately the inscription on the doorway on the left makes it virtually impossible to read the reversed lettering on the door’s window. The top line appears to include the letters “H DOOK S T A D”, which make no sense to me, Maybe a reader can help on that, and the picture on the slim wall behind the young lady on the left appears to be of a local scene, but beyond that, unidentifiable. This is another picture from the archives of the Dunn County Historical Society. .
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]
  • 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]
  • Okey. the One Hand Keyboard. Thesis, Written Contribution Mato Vincetić 01474034
    Okey. The One Hand Keyboard. Thesis, written contribution Mato Vincetić 01474034 University: Supervisors: University of Applied Arts Vienna Univ. Prof. Oliver Kartak Institute of Design / Graphic Design Mag. Katharina Uschan Univ. Prof. Oliver Kartak Mag. Sabine Dreher Content Content ............................................................................................................................................ 2 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 3 Abstract........................................................................................................................................... 5 Research ......................................................................................................................................... 6 The History of the Keyboard (And a few Milestones of the Computer) ...................................... 6 Anatomy of the Modern Keyboard ................................................11 Alternative Character Layouts and Efficiency .......................14 Alternative Keyboard Designs and Ergonomics ...................15 How We Type ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������16 Product Design........................................................................................................................19 The Challenge ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������19 Okey
    [Show full text]
  • Typewriters and Tying Literacy in the United States, 1870S-1930S
    International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Vol. 6, No. 4; April 2016 After the First Click: Typewriters and Tying Literacy in the United States, 1870s-1930s Ya-Ju Yeh Associate Professor Aletheia University Department of English Danshui, New Taipei City, 25103 Taiwan, R.O.C. Abstract One of the greatest inventions that launched the modern age of writing technology was definitely the typewriter. Subject to continual tinkering, it was finally invented in the late 1860s; the typewriter underwent a great amount of technical transformation before it became an indispensable tool used by professional writers in private homes or for business correspondence in offices. As the very first pioneer in writing technology, the typewriter challenged human’s cognition and practice with machinery, and furthermore revolutionized business communication from the nineteenth century onward. From cumbersome to portable, from noisy to noiseless, and from manual to electric, the typewriter remained popular for over one hundred years until personal computers largely displaced typewriters by the end of the 1980s. Currently, the typewriter no longer serves as a main clerical device in office work or an efficient instrument for mechanical writing; instead, most of them are relegated to museum artifacts or individual collections for preservation or display. The start of the computer era marked the end of the mechanical typewriter era. Concerning the initial development of the typewriter in the United States and examples of first-generation users, this paper aims to delve into how those prototype typewriters evolved and how the general public undertook to learn the skill of typing. This paper concludes that the typewriter reshaped human consciousness of writing into a new means of mechanical writing, despite its homogenous and impersonal characters, leading the public into a technological age, in which typing literacy thus developed as a primary skill of script in preparation for the advanced word input technology of the present day computer.
    [Show full text]
  • Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing Student Guide
    ® ACADEMIC EDITION STUDENT USER GUIDE © 2015 The Software MacKiev Company. All rights reserved. Portions © 1998-2011 Riverdeep Interactive Learning Limited and its licensors. Software MacKiev, the Software MacKiev logo, InstallMill and the InstallMill logo are trademarks of The Software MacKiev Company. Mavis Beacon, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing and Broderbund are registered trademarks of HMH Consumer Company. Apple, Mac OS, Macintosh, Mac and the Mac logo, Bonjour, the Bonjour logo and the Bonjour symbol, iTunes and iCal are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. QuickTime and the QuickTime logo are registered trademarks of Apple Inc., used under license therefrom. Microsoft and Word are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. IBM is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation, registered in the United States, other countries, or both. BitTorrent is a trademark of BitTorrent, Inc. WordPress is a registered trademark of the WordPress Foundation. BBC is a trademark of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The Weather Channel and weather.com are U.S. federally registered marks of The Weather Channel, Inc. The photo of August Dvorak is used with the permission of the PEMCO Webst Museum of History & Industry, Seattle. The media files (images) used in “A Brief History of Typing” chapter are taken from public domains, because either the copyright holder has released the image to the public domain, or the copyright has expired often because its first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1923. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing Table of Contents Introduction .
    [Show full text]
  • Examen Práctico De Secundaria De Inglés Madrid 23 De Junio 2018
    EXAMEN PRÁCTICO DEL CUERPO DE SECUNDARIA, INGLÉS. MADRID, JUNIO 2018 EXAMEN PRÁCTICO DE SECUNDARIA DE INGLÉS MADRID 23 DE JUNIO 2018 TRANSLATIONS (3 points) Allotted time (1h) El maestro de esgrima, Arturo Pérez Reverte El cristal de las panzudas copas de coñac reflejaba las bujías que ardían en los candelabros de plata. Entre dos bocanadas de humo, ocupado en encender un sólido *veguero de Vuelta Abajo, el ministro estudió con disimulo a su interlocutor. No le cabía la menor duda de que aquel hombre era un canalla; pero lo había visto llegar ante la puerta de Lhardy en una impecable berlina tirada por dos soberbias yeguas inglesas, y los dedos finos y cuidados que retiraban la vitola del habano lucían un valioso solitario montado en oro. Todo eso, más su elegante desenvoltura y los precisos antecedentes que había ordenado reunir sobre él, lo situaban automáticamente en la categoría de canallas distinguidos. Nota a pie de página: *Veguero: Cigarro puro hecho rústicamente de una sola hoja de tabaco enrollada. Murther and Walking Spirits by Robertson Davies The Sniffer’s nickname, which he hates, is a newspaper joke. He writes criticism of modern plays in which it is his delight to detect “influences,” and his way of introducing such influences as put- down for new writers is to say – too often, but I have not been able to break him of the trick – “Do we sniff an influence from Pinter (or Ayckbourn, or Ionesco, or even Chekov) in his latest work of Mr. Whoever-it-is?” Whoever, that’s to say, the Sniffer is certain that nobody who writes a play, especially a first play, in Canada can be original in any important sense; he must be leaning upon, and dipping into, the work of some playwright of established fame, most often an Englishman.
    [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. In 1575 an Italian printmaker, Francesco Rampazzetto, invented the scrittura tattile, a machine to impress letters in papers. In 1714, Henry Mill obtained a patent in Britain for a machine that, from the patent, appears to have been similar to a typewriter.
    [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]